using dynamic usemap in a4j:mediaOutput for jfreechart implimentation

Question

i am generating pie chart using jfreechart and integrated the same to rich faces using a4j:mediaOutput , can any one advice , if i can have the tool tip enabled for the same. has anyone implemented drilldown charts with these two tech together?

Answer 1

I haven't used these two technologies together, but from what I know of JFreeChart and Richfaces independently I think you have two options.

Use the JFreeChart built in servlet (see here) to let JFreeChart take care of generating the images, tooltips, and hyperlink drilldowns. This worked great for JSPs, but I'm not sure how well it will work if you want ajax support for drilldowns. I would look into overriding the PieChart URL and Tooltip generators so they generate richfaces goodness. This would largely use the a4j:mediaOutput to get the images.

The second option is to use JFreeChart's painting utilities as if you were working in Swing, but in a bean as shown in the RichFaces' docs.

Whichever you choose, I would suggest start by just trying to get the image working and then upgrade to drilldowns and tooltips. I would expect both upgrades to be doable though, and I have done so in JSPs. Hopefully someone will help you out with using these technologies specifically.