WinRT XAML Controls 2013.1 build 122 have been released and are now available for download.

This maintenance release adds the Charts grouped axis features described in a previous post, that are currently available in the WPF and Silverlight versions.

This screenshot shows how some fruit data has been grouped by color and its results rendered to a bar chart.

See the announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

In the latest WPF and Silverlight controls maintenance releases, we've added some important functionality to our Charts product. In the initial release, we could chart quantifiable values (such as numerics and DateTime) on a Cartesian axis. Now we've added the ability to chart strings and other complex types using our new XYGroupedAxis.

Grouped Axis Example

Take this complex type as an example:

class Transaction {
    public double Price { get; set; }
    public string SalesPersonName { get; set; }
}

Given we have a collection of Transaction objects on our data context...

public ObservableCollection<Transaction> Transactions;

...then we can bind our BarSeries.ItemsSource to the collection of Transactions. The primary axis is our numeric value (Price), and the secondary axis is our string (SalesPersonName). Those are specified using YPath and XPath, respectively.

<XYChart>
    <XYChart.Series>
        <BarSeries ItemsSource={Binding Transactions} 
                    XPath="SalesPersonName" YPath="Price"/>
    </XYChart.Series>
</XYChart>

If our transaction data looks like this:

Now our chart will look like so:

Notice how on the x-axis, the strings are grouped by equality. So all transactions for Marcus, Mary, and Steve are grouped into single bars. Also notice how on the primary axis, the numeric values are summed together for each group. So for Mary, who had transactions of 300 + 50 + 100, the grouped value becomes 450.

Further Customization

There are several customization options -- you can change how items are grouped by setting XYGroupedAxis.GroupingFunc. XYGroupedAxis.LabelFunc controls how groups are labeled, and XYGroupedAxis.SortingFunc controls how groups are sorted. Using these, we can take the data above and group by the first letter of the name:

Here, notice that grouping is done by comparing the first letter of the name, rather than equality of the entire string. LabelFunc has been specified to show the first letter. Note how the values for Mary and Marcus get summed together on the Y axis.

Summary

XYGroupedAxis allows you to provide custom logic to chart complex types easily. Download the free trials of our WPF or Silverlight controls and check it out!

This same functionality will also be coming to the WinRT XAML version of Charts in its next release.

Silverlight Studio 2013.1 build 151 has been released and is now available for download.  Several great new enhancements are part of this build.

This build has the following major new features:

• Charts: Added the ability to provide strings and complex types as chart data using the new XYGroupedAxis.
• Charts: Added support for multilevel XPath and YPath.
• SyntaxEditor: Added new auto-correct features, with a pre-defined AutoCaseCorrector language service for performing character case correction.  Easily add auto-case correct features to custom languages.
• SyntaxEditor: Updated the sample VB, VBScript, and PowerShell languages to perform auto-case correction.
• SyntaxEditor: Added new code block selection features, which let languages that implement an ICodeBlockFinder service expand/contract the selection to logical code blocks via Ctrl+Num+ and Ctrl+Num-.
• SyntaxEditor: Added a new free Markdown syntax language definition.
• SyntaxEditor: Made performance improvements in numerous areas.
• SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on: Added an IAutoCorrector language service implementation for VB that case corrects keywords.
• SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on: Added ICodeBlockFinder language service implementations for C# and VB.
• SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on: Updated the resolver to handle the implicit value parameter in property setters.
• SyntaxEditor .NET Languages Add-on: Improved the C# text formatter.
• SyntaxEditor Web Languages Add-on: Added ICodeBlockFinder language service implementations for XML.

See the announcement post for the detailed list of enhancements and updates.

The recent 2013.1 versions of our WPF, Silverlight, and WinRT XAML controls added full-size charts products.

One feature of our new Charts products are axes. Axes allow you to visualize the value range of your chart by labeling values.

Minimum and Maximum Values

Changing axis values such as Minimum and Maximum will determine what data displays on your chart and where. Here is the same data displayed in two charts. In the first, Minimum and Maximum are determined automatically.

In the second one, they are set manually to arbitrary values.

Axis Positioning

We have several capabilities to help you achieve the right look and feel for your application. The first is axis positioning, where you can place axes on either end of the chart.

Tick Intervals

Next is the ability to set the tick intervals. Here, we see two of the same chart. In the first, tick intervals are set to one month.

Grid

You can show major and minor ticks, and our grid feature allows you to extend those ticks behind the chart surface.

Styling Ticks

You can also style ticks to match your application.

Axis Labels

Axes can show labels on each major tick, and also a title. The angle of the labels is adjustable for when you need to put long labels on a small chart.

Summary

These are just a sample of some of the options available. There are a ton more. Download the trial and check it out!

Today we released the 2013.1 version of our WinRT XAML controls, which contains the complete implementation of our new full-size Charts product.

Charts for WinRT XAML gives you the ability to embed great-looking area, line, scatter, and bar charts in your Windows 8/RT apps.  Use our new Charts controls to build touch-friendly dashboards and reports.  The controls share the same codebase with our WPF and Silverlight Charts products, allowing for easy porting of code between platforms.

Advanced features include easy binding to any data source, multiple series, data aggregation, bar chart data slotting, legends, data point labels, baseline, axes, grid lines/stripes, ranges, and numerous palettes.

Moving Forward

We're very happy to have the 2013.1 version released and moving forward will be adding more features to the Charts product.  We also are working on porting SyntaxEditor to the WinRT XAML platform and will post news on that in the future here.

Enjoy the new controls!