Users also have access, at all times, to online help. The availability of these functions is controlled by the developer who can choose to limit user access to the functions he chooses.

What settings can users change?

At present, users can change almost aspects of any chart including:

the size of the chart
the type of chart and its orientation
the colors of the background, plot area, and plots
the size, typeface and styling of all text
the text used in the chart title, axes labels, and plot legends

The availability of these settings is controlled by the developer who can limit the aspects of the chart which the user can control.

Organisations

What does an organisation need to take advantage of Jacuba Charts?

Ideally organisations will already have a website or intranet, and have data which their staff need to analyze through charts. Jacuba Charts works with the data stored in web pages so hosting the data on a private or public website is necessary to take advantage of Jacuba Charts. If an organisation has no pre-existing facilities for online information management we can assist in establishing them.

Web Developers

How does it work for a developer?

Developers are provided with a small number of Javascript URLs which they can use to embed Javascript in their webpages. Developers insert the data they want to plot into the web page which will contain the chart. Settings for the presentation of the chart are stored in a hidden HTML form on the same page. By including a single Javascript include into the page, the data and settings are sent to a central server which automatically generates the chart for insertion into the page.

What are the advantages to a developer?

Because the charts are provided as a separately hosted service there are a number of advantages. From the developer's perspective, the developer can:

use any server platform they choose
generate charts knowing only HTML (and the chart properties)
easily create new charts on-the-fly using Javascript

The advantages for server administration are that the web server:

does not require any software installation - no server configuration
does not generate the charts - no additional processor load
does not serve the charts - no additional bandwidth requirements

What development platforms are supported?

Jacuba Charts is provided as a service with all of the chart generation is performed on a central server (or server cluster) away from the developer's servers. All chart configuration is performed through HTML forms and all data is supplied through HTML tables. This combination of factors means that Jacuba Charts can be used with any web development platform because everything is based on webpages. This means that charts can be generated for sites hosted by servers to which chart generation software cannot be installed.

CMS Providers

How does Jacuba Charts integrate with our CMS?

Because all of the Jacuba Charts functionality is made available via web pages and our servers, no changes to CMS software are necessary beyond inserting the information necessary to render the charts into the relevant web pages. This information simply consists of a table of data (to be charted), a form (controlling the appearance of the chart), and a Javascript link (including our code). All of this extra content may be made invisible to the user.

Chart System Providers

What are the advantages for us?

Because we are providing you with the ability to offer charting as a hosted service:

there is no restriction on the platforms customers use,
your software can be sold under a subscription model,
you can provide instant service upgrades to all your customers,
licence charges can reflect the size of an installation,
an interactive chart interface is available to users on all supported browsers.

Can we apply our brand to the service?

Yes. It is expected that should you choose to provide a service to your customers based on Jacuba Charts, the user interface and user help would be styled and labeled according to your company's needs. The service can be hosted under any domain name.

Can developers import charts designed with our tools?

We are able to produce tools which will automatically convert the chart definitions used in your software into the HTML forms used by Jacuba Charts. The specific capabilities of such a tool will depend on your charting product.

How are licenses imposed?

Each Javascript URL supplied to a developer will include a licence key. Each chart which is generated using this key is logged. Costs can be levied against developer licences according to the number of charts generated. The specific nature of the licencing agreement and pricing model can be determined by you.

How scalable is the provision of charts?

The Jacuba Charts software provides a fast self hosting web server which can be load balanced over any number of machines. It uses a robust two level cache which reduces both the amount of data which needs to be sent to the server and the number of charts which need to be generated. Its throughput will depend primarily on the speed of your chart generation.

Can I get a copy of the whitepaper?

Jacuba Charts has a downloadable whitepaper in PDF format. To download the whitepaper click here.