The Structure of Charts

The structure of a chart, and therefore the list of services and interfaces supported by it, depends on the chart type. For example, the methods and properties of the Z-axis, are available in 3D charts, but not in 2D charts, and in pie charts, there are no interfaces for working with axes.

Title, Subtitle and Legend

Title, subtitle and legend are basic elements provided for every chart. The Chart object provides the following properties for administrating these elements:

HasMainTitle (Boolean): activates the title
Title (Object): object with detailed information about the chart title (supports the com.sun.star.chart.ChartTitle service)
HasSubTitle(Boolean): activates the subtitle
Subtitle (Object): object with detailed information about the chart subtitle (supports the com.sun.star.chart.ChartTitle service)
HasLegend (Boolean): activates the legend
Legend (Object): object with detailed information about the legend (supports the com.sun.star.chart.ChartLegend service)

Both services com.sun.star.chart.ChartTitle and com.sun.star.chart.ChartLegend do support the service com.sun.star.drawing.Shape. This allows to determine the position and size of the elements using the Position and Size properties. As the size of the legend and the titles is calculated automatically based on the current content and the character height for example, the size property provides read access only.

Fill and line properties (com.sun.star.drawing.FillProperties and com.sun.star.drawing.LineProperties services) as well as the character properties (com.sun.star.style.CharacterProperties service) are provided for further formatting of the elements.

com.sun.star.chart.ChartTitle contains not only the listed formatting properties, but also two other properties:

String (String): text which to be displayed as the title or subtitle
TextRotation (Long): angle of rotation of text in 100ths of a degree

The legend (com.sun.star.chart.ChartLegend) contains the following additional property:

Alignment (Enum): position at which the legend appears (value of type com.sun.star.chart.ChartLegendPosition)

The following example creates a chart with a title "Main Title String", a subtitle "Subtitle String" and a legend. The legend has a gray background color, is placed at the bottom of the chart, and has a character size of 7 points.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Charts As Object
Dim Chart as Object
Dim Rect As New com.sun.star.awt.Rectangle
Dim RangeAddress(0) As New com.sun.star.table.CellRangeAddress

Rect.X = 8000
Rect.Y = 1000
Rect.Width = 10000
Rect.Height = 7000
RangeAddress(0).Sheet = 0
RangeAddress(0).StartColumn = 0 
RangeAddress(0).StartRow = 0
RangeAddress(0).EndColumn = 2
RangeAddress(0).EndRow = 12

Doc = ThisComponent

Charts = Doc.Sheets(0).Charts
Charts.addNewByName("MyChart", Rect, RangeAddress(), True, True)
Chart = Charts.getByName("MyChart").EmbeddedObject
Chart.HasMainTitle = True
Chart.Title.String = "Main Title String"
Chart.HasSubTitle = True
Chart.Subtitle.String = "Subtitle String"
Chart.HasLegend = True 
Chart.Legend.Alignment = com.sun.star.chart.ChartLegendPosition.BOTTOM
Chart.Legend.FillStyle = com.sun.star.drawing.FillStyle.SOLID
Chart.Legend.FillColor = RGB(210, 210, 210)
Chart.Legend.CharHeight = 7

Background

Every chart has a background area. The Chart object provides the property Area to format the background:

Area (Object): background area of the chart (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartArea service)

The background of a chart covers its complete area, including the area under the title, subtitle and legend. The associated com.sun.star.chart.ChartArea service supports line and fill properties.

Diagram

The Chart object provides the property Diagram which forms the coordinate system with axes and grids, where the data finally is displayed:

Diagram (Object)

object forming the coordinate system where the data is plotted. It supports com.sun.star.chart.Diagram service and:

Different services are supported depending on the chart type (see Chart Types).

Wall and Floor

The chart wall is the background of the coordinate system where the data is plotted. Two chart walls usually exist for 3D charts: one behind the plotted data and one as the left-hand or right-hand demarcation. This depends on the rotation of the chart. 3D charts usually also have a floor.

The Diagram object provides the properties Wall and Floor:

Wall (Object): background wall of the coordinate system (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartArea service)
Floor (Object): floor panel of coordinate system (only for 3D charts, supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartArea service)

The specified objects support the com.sun.star.chart.ChartArea service, which provides the usual fill and line properties (com.sun.star.drawing.FillProperties and com.sun.star.drawing.LineProperties services, refer to Drawings and Presentations).

The following example shows how graphics (named Sky) already contained in OpenOffice.org can be used as a background for a chart. The wall is set to be blue.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Charts As Object
Dim Chart as Object
Dim Rect As New com.sun.star.awt.Rectangle
Dim RangeAddress(0) As New com.sun.star.table.CellRangeAddress

Rect.X = 8000
Rect.Y = 1000
Rect.Width = 10000
Rect.Height = 7000
RangeAddress(0).Sheet = 0
RangeAddress(0).StartColumn = 0 
RangeAddress(0).StartRow = 0
RangeAddress(0).EndColumn = 2
RangeAddress(0).EndRow = 12

Doc = ThisComponent

Charts = Doc.Sheets(0).Charts
Charts.addNewByName("MyChart", Rect, RangeAddress(), True, True)
Chart = Charts.getByName("MyChart").EmbeddedObject
Chart.Area.FillStyle = com.sun.star.drawing.FillStyle.BITMAP
Chart.Area.FillBitmapName = "Sky"
Chart.Area.FillBitmapMode = com.sun.star.drawing.BitmapMode.REPEAT

Chart.Diagram.Wall.FillStyle = com.sun.star.drawing.FillStyle.SOLID
Chart.Diagram.Wall.FillColor = RGB(00,132,209)

Axes

OpenOffice.org recognizes five different axes that can be used in a chart. In the simplest scenario, these are the X and Y-axes. When working with 3D charts, a Z-axis is also sometimes provided. For charts in which the values of the various rows of data deviate significantly from one another, OpenOffice.org provides a second X and Y-axis for second scaling operations.

The Diagram object provides the following properties to access the axes:

HasXAxis (Boolean): activates the X-axis
XAxis (Object): object with detailed information about the X-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartAxis service)
HasXAxisDescription (Boolean): activates the labels for the interval marks for the X-axis

HasYAxis (Boolean): activates the Y-axis
YAxis (Object): object with detailed information about the Y-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartAxis service)
HasYAxisDescription (Boolean): activates the labels for the interval marks for the Y-axis

HasZAxis (Boolean): activates the Z-axis
ZAxis (Object): object with detailed information about the Z-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartAxis service)
HasZAxisDescription (Boolean): activates the labels for the interval marks for the Z-axis

HasSecondaryXAxis (Boolean): activates the secondary X-axis
SecondaryXAxis (Object): object with detailed information about the secondary X-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartAxis service)
HasSecondaryXAxisDescription (Boolean): activates the labels for the interval marks for the secondary X-axis

HasSecondaryYAxis (Boolean): activates the secondary Y-axis
SecondaryYAxis (Object): object with detailed information about the secondary Y-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartAxis service)
HasSecondaryYAxisDescription (Boolean): activates the labels for the interval marks for the secondary Y-axis

Properties of Axes

The axis objects of a OpenOffice.org chart support the com.sun.star.chart.ChartAxis service. In addition to the properties for characters (com.sun.star.style.CharacterProperties service, refer to Text Documents) and lines (com.sun.star.drawing.LineStyle service, refer to Drawings and Presentations), it provides the following properties:

Scaling properties:

Max (Double): maximum value for axis
Min (Double): minimum value for axis
Origin (Double): point of intersect for crossing axes
StepMain (Double): distance between the major interval marks
StepHelp (Double): distance between the minor interval marks (deprecated since OpenOffice.org 3.0; Use property StepHelpCount instead)
StepHelpCount (Long): Contains the number of minor intervals within a major interval. E.g. a StepHelpCount of 5 divides the major interval into 5 pieces and thus produces 4 minor tick marks. (available since OpenOffice.org 3.0)
AutoMax (Boolean): the maximum value for the axis is calculated automatically when set to true
AutoMin (Boolean): the minimum value for the axis is calculated automatically when set to true
AutoOrigin (Boolean): the origin is determined automatically when set to true
AutoStepMain (Boolean): StepMain is determined automatically when set to true
AutoStepHelp (Boolean): StepHelpCount is determined automatically when set to true
Logarithmic (Boolean): scales the axes in logarithmic manner (rather than linear)
ReverseDirection (Boolean): determines if the axis orientation is mathematical or reversed. (available since OpenOffice.org 2.4)

Label properties:

DisplayLabels (Boolean): activates the text label at the interval marks
TextRotation (Long): angle of rotation of text label in 100ths of a degree
ArrangeOrder (enum): the label may be staggered, thus they are positioned alternately over two lines (values according to com.sun.star.chart.ChartAxisArrangeOrderType)
TextBreak (Boolean): permits line breaks within the axes labels
TextCanOverlap (Boolean): permits an overlap of the axes labels
NumberFormat (Long): number format to be used with the axes labels
LinkNumberFormatToSource (Boolean): determines whether to use the number format given by the container document, or from the property NumberFormat. (since OpenOffice.org 2.3)

Interval mark properties:

Marks (Const): determines the position of the major interval marks (values in accordance with com.sun.star.chart.ChartAxisMarks)
HelpMarks (Const): determines the position of the minor interval marks (values in accordance with com.sun.star.chart.ChartAxisMarks)

Only for bar charts:

Overlap (Long): percentage which specifies the extent to which the bars of different sets of data may overlap (at 100%, the bars are shown as completely overlapping, at -100%, there is a distance of the width of one bar between them)
GapWidth (long): percentage which specifies the distance there may be between the different groups of bars of a chart (at 100%, there is a distance corresponding to the width of one bar)

Grids

For the primary axes grids and sub grids can be displayed, matching to the major and minor intervals. The Diagram object provides the following properties to access the grids:

HasXAxisGrid (Boolean): activates major grid for X-axis
XMainGrid (Object): object with detailed information about the major grid for X-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartGrid service)
HasXAxisHelpGrid (Boolean): activates minor grid for X-axis
XHelpGrid (Object): object with detailed information about the minor grid for X-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartGrid service)

the same for y and z:

HasYAxisGrid (Boolean): activates major grid for Y-axis
YMainGrid (Object): object with detailed information about the major grid for Y-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartGrid service)
HasYAxisHelpGrid (Boolean): activates minor grid for Y-axis
YHelpGrid (Object): object with detailed information about the minor grid for Y-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartGrid service)

HasZAxisGrid (Boolean): activates major grid for Z-axis
ZMainGrid (Object): object with detailed information about the major grid for Z-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartGrid service)
HasZAxisHelpGrid (Boolean): activates minor grid for Z-axis
ZHelpGrid (Object): object with detailed information about the minor grid for Z-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartGrid service)

The grid object is based on the com.sun.star.chart.ChartGrid service, which in turn supports the line properties of the com.sun.star.drawing.LineStyle support service (refer to Drawings and Presentations).

Axes Title

For all axes an additional title can be displayed. The Diagram object provides the following properties to access the axes title:

HasXAxisTitle (Boolean): activates title of X-axis
XAxisTitle (Object): object with detailed information about title of the X-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartTitle service)

same y and z:

HasYAxisTitle (Boolean): activates title of Y-axis
YAxisTitle (Object): object with detailed information about title of the Y-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartTitle service)

HasZAxisTitle (Boolean): activates title of Z-axis
ZAxisTitle (Object): object with detailed information about title of the Z-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartTitle service)

and for the secondary axes (available since OpenOffice.org 3.0):

HasSecondaryXAxisTitle (Boolean): activates title of the secondary X-axis.
SecondXAxisTitle (Object): object with detailed information about title of the secondary X-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartTitle service)

HasSecondaryYAxisTitle (Boolean): activates title of the secondary Y-axis.
SecondYAxisTitle (Object): object with detailed information about title of the secondary Y-axis (supports com.sun.star.chart.ChartTitle service)

The objects for formatting the axes title are based on the com.sun.star.chart.ChartTitle service, which is also used for chart titles.

Example

The following example creates a line chart. The color for the rear wall of the chart is set to white. Both the X and Y-axes have a gray grid for visual orientation. The minimum value of the Y-axis is fixed to 0 and the maximum value is fixed to 100 so that the resolution of the chart is retained even if the values are changed. The X-axis points in reverse direction from right to left. And a title for the X-axis was added.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Charts As Object
Dim Chart as Object
Dim Rect As New com.sun.star.awt.Rectangle
Dim RangeAddress(0) As New com.sun.star.table.CellRangeAddress

Doc = ThisComponent
Charts = Doc.Sheets(0).Charts

Rect.X = 8000
Rect.Y = 1000
Rect.Width = 10000
Rect.Height = 7000
RangeAddress(0).Sheet = 0
RangeAddress(0).StartColumn = 0 
RangeAddress(0).StartRow = 0
RangeAddress(0).EndColumn = 2
RangeAddress(0).EndRow = 12

Charts.addNewByName("MyChart", Rect, RangeAddress(), True, True)
Chart = Charts.getByName("MyChart").embeddedObject
Chart.Diagram = Chart.createInstance("com.sun.star.chart.LineDiagram")
Chart.Diagram.Wall.FillColor = RGB(255, 255, 255)
Chart.Diagram.HasXAxisGrid = True
Chart.Diagram.XMainGrid.LineColor = RGB(192, 192, 192)
Chart.Diagram.HasYAxisGrid = True
Chart.Diagram.YMainGrid.LineColor = RGB(192, 192, 192)
Chart.Diagram.YAxis.Min = 0 
Chart.Diagram.YAxis.Max = 100

Chart.Diagram.XAxis.ReverseDirection = true 'needs OpenOffice.org 2.4 or newer
Chart.Diagram.HasXAxisTitle = true
Chart.Diagram.XAxisTitle.String = "Reversed X Axis Example"

3D Charts

Most charts in OpenOffice.org can also be displayed with 3D graphics. The following properties are provided for 3D charts at the Diagram object:

Dim3D (Boolean): activates 3D display
Deep (Boolean): the series will be arranged behind each other in z-direction
RightAngledAxes (Boolean): activates a 3D display mode where X- and Y-axes form a right angle within the projection. (available since OpenOffice.org 2.3)
D3DScenePerspective (Enum): defines whether the 3D objects are to be drawn in perspective or parallel projection.(values according to com.sun.star.drawing.ProjectionMode)
Perspective (Long): Perspective of 3D charts ( [0,100] ) (available since OpenOffice.org 2.4.1)
RotationHorizontal (Long): Horizontal rotation of 3D charts in degrees ( [-180,180] ) (available since OpenOffice.org 2.4.1)
RotationVertical (Long): Vertical rotation of 3D charts in degrees ( [-180,180] ) (available since OpenOffice.org 2.4.1)

The following example creates a 3D area chart.

Dim Doc As Object
Dim Charts As Object
Dim Chart as Object
Dim Rect As New com.sun.star.awt.Rectangle
Dim RangeAddress(0) As New com.sun.star.table.CellRangeAddress

Doc = ThisComponent
Charts = Doc.Sheets(0).Charts

Rect.X = 8000
Rect.Y = 1000
Rect.Width = 10000
Rect.Height = 7000
RangeAddress(0).Sheet = 0
RangeAddress(0).StartColumn = 0 
RangeAddress(0).StartRow = 0
RangeAddress(0).EndColumn = 2
RangeAddress(0).EndRow = 12

Charts.addNewByName("MyChart", Rect, RangeAddress(), True, True)
Chart = Charts.getByName("MyChart").embeddedObject
Chart.Diagram = Chart.createInstance("com.sun.star.chart.AreaDiagram")
Chart.Diagram.Dim3D = true
Chart.Diagram.Deep = true
Chart.Diagram.RightAngledAxes = true 'needs OpenOffice.org 2.3 or newer
Chart.Diagram.D3DScenePerspective = com.sun.star.drawing.ProjectionMode.PERSPECTIVE
Chart.Diagram.Perspective = 100 'needs OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 or newer
Chart.Diagram.RotationHorizontal = 60 'needs OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 or newer
Chart.Diagram.RotationVertical = 30 'needs OpenOffice.org 2.4.1 or newer

Stacked Charts

Stacked charts are charts that are arranged with several individual values on top of one another to produce a total value. This view shows not only the individual values, but also an overview of all the values.

In OpenOffice.org, various types of charts can be displayed in a stacked form. All of these charts support the com.sun.star.chart.StackableDiagram service, which in turn provides the following properties:

Stacked (Boolean): activates the stacked viewing mode
Percent (Boolean): rather than absolute values, displays their percentage distribution

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