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Jim Bambrough

Jim Bambrough

www.amkor.com

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Reporting Techniques
  3. Binding Data to Charts
  4. Interactive Charting Example
Created:
6 February 2006
User Level:
Beginner
Products:
Coldfusion

Using the ColdFusion Report Builder – Part 2: Creating Charts in Reports

With Macromedia ColdFusion MX 7 from Adobe and ColdFusion Report Builder, you can use charts to summarize information in a meaningful way. In this article, I extend an example from my previous article, Using the ColdFusion Report Builder—Part 1: Creating Reports and Subreports, to illustrate how to create a chart in a ColdFusion report. For this article, it is helpful if you are already comfortable using the ColdFusion Report Builder. If you need an introduction to ColdFusion reporting, the following the steps in the first article will help you.

This article covers several general charting and reporting concepts that will be used in the sample report. I also discuss how to specifically apply these techniques to the sample report using the Chart component within the report builder. You will see some intermediate SQL (Structured Query Language) code, so if you are not already comfortable with SQL, I highly recommend you visit the w3schools tutorial for SQL. (As a side note, I can tell you that I love the w3schools tutorials! It's a great resource if you trying to pick up a new technology. They have saved my bacon on several occasions when I was under the gun to get up to speed on a new technology—thanks guys!) Once you feel comfortable with the basics of reporting and SQL, this article will help you get up to speed on developing charts in a ColdFusion report.

Requirements

ColdFusion MX 7.0.1

Note: If you have already installed ColdFusion MX 7, please install the ColdFusion 7.0.1 updater. Also, install the ColdFusion sample applications that come with ColdFusion. If you have not installed the sample applications, run the ColdFusion installer again and select sample applications during the install process.

ColdFusion Report Builder

Tutorials and sample files:

Prerequisite Knowledge

Recommended skills include a basic knowledge of ColdFusion, some reporting experience, and a basic knowledge of SQL. If you are new to ColdFusion reporting, read Building Reports with ColdFusion MX 7 and then Using the ColdFusion Report Builder—Part 1: Creating Reports and Subreports.

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About the author

Jim Bambrough taught high school mathematics and computer programming in the Phoenix area for three years. Jim currently works as a web application developer for Amkor Technology in Chandler, Arizona. He has worked in IT since 2000 and has been developing web-based reports at the corporate level since 2003.