Before beginning construction on a tag, you will need to decide what kind of data you are going to use...

• Static Data - Data that is hard coded into the tag
• Dynamic Data - Data that is obtained from a live database at the time of execution.

If you want to know more about this, see the Data Source Tutorial

The Makeup Of A Tag...

Let us first go back to the basics of a tag.

A CFXGraphicsServer tag has the following format:

<CFX_GraphicsServer ... >

where '...' represents the attributes of the tag. An attribute is like a property for the tag. Each attribute looks like this:

ATTRIBUTE_NAME="..."

where '...' is the value of the attribute.

So a complete tag looks something like this:

<CFX_GraphicsServer MYATTRIBUTE="Hello" MYOTHERATTRIBUTE="3.4" etc...>

Note that...

• There are no spaces around an '=' sign
• All values, without exception, are encased in " "

A Real Tag...

A real CFXGraphicsServer tag is made up of lots of attributes, what attributes you specify determine how your graph will look. There are however a few rules about what you must specify, and what combinations of attributes you can use...

• If you specify a QUERY, then the graph is Dynamic, otherwise it is Static
• A Dynamic graph may not contain any attributes beginning ST_
• A Static graph may not contain any attributes beginning DB_
• A Dynamic graph must have a DB_DATASETS attribute
• A Static graph must have a ST_DATASET{0..} attribute

That's all of the rules - what else you do is up to you.

What is ST_DATASET{0..} - well, ST_ (or ST class) attributes are for Static graphs. If you are going to specify two-dimensional data in a static graph then you need one attribute for each set (or series) of data. {0..} means "replace me with 0, 1, 2 etc.." so that you can build up as many sets as you like.

Let's now have a look and Static and Dynamic graphs individually, to see how to make them work.

I shall assume that you know a little about data sources and queries, if not, please read the data sources and query tutorials.

Dynamic Graphs:

In order to create a dynamic graph, you must specify a QUERY attribute.

The next stage is to define what fields to want to use for your data, this is done using the DB_DATASETS attribute.

You may then apply any of the other DB class attributes, or any of the Common Attributes

Static Graphs

In order to create a static graph, do not specify a query.

There is only one attribute that you must include, ST_DATASET{0..}. This attribute specifies the data to be graphed.

You may then specify any other ST class attributes, or any of the Common Attributes