Style Sheet Configurators

In many cases you may want to create a style sheet that is similar to the predefined one, but with different stroke or filling. For example when you don’t like the color of the label or want to apply a gradient to the chart walls. This is where style sheet configurators can come handy. In a nut shell they allow you to quickly create a style sheet based on a chart palette.

Chart Palette

Predefined style sheets as well as style sheet configurators use an object called NChartPalette that associates colors to chart elements. When creating a chart palette you can choose from one of the 9 predefined palettes or create your own. The following code snippet loads the predefined “Nevron” palette:

C#	Copy Code
NChartPalette palette = new NChartPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nevron); palette.LabelForeColor = Color.DarkGray;

Visual Basic	Copy Code
Dim palette As NChartPalette = New NChartPalette() palette.LabelForeColor = Color.DarkGray

Now you have a palette that differs slightly from the standard “Nevron” palette. To make some use of it you should create a style sheet based on the color entries in the palette. The following code does that:

C#	Copy Code
// create palette NChartPalette palette = new NChartPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nevron); palette.LabelForeColor = Color.DarkGray; // build a style sheet based on the palette NFillStyleSheetConfigurator fillConfigurator = new NFillStyleSheetConfigurator(); fillConfigurator.Palette = palette; fillConfigurator.WallFillTemplate = new NGradientFillStyleTemplate(GradientStyle.Horizontal, GradientVariant.Variant1); NStyleSheet sheet = new NStyleSheet(); fillConfigurator.ConfigureSheet(sheet); // apply style sheet to document sheet.Apply(nChartControl1.Document);

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// create palette
NChartPalette palette = new NChartPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nevron);
palette.LabelForeColor = Color.DarkGray;
// build a style sheet based on the palette
NFillStyleSheetConfigurator fillConfigurator = new NFillStyleSheetConfigurator();
fillConfigurator.Palette = palette;
fillConfigurator.WallFillTemplate = new NGradientFillStyleTemplate(GradientStyle.Horizontal, GradientVariant.Variant1);
NStyleSheet sheet = new NStyleSheet();
fillConfigurator.ConfigureSheet(sheet);
// apply style sheet to document
sheet.Apply(nChartControl1.Document);

Visual Basic	Copy Code
' create palette Dim palette As NChartPalette = New NChartPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nevron) palette.LabelForeColor = Color.DarkGray ' build a style sheet based on the palette Dim fillConfigurator As NFillStyleSheetConfigurator = New NFillStyleSheetConfigurator() fillConfigurator.Palette = palette fillConfigurator.WallFillTemplate = New NGradientFillStyleTemplate(GradientStyle.Horizontal, GradientVariant.Variant1) Dim sheet As NStyleSheet = New NStyleSheet() fillConfigurator.ConfigureSheet(sheet) ' apply style sheet to document sheet.Apply(NChartControl1.Document)

Visual Basic

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' create palette
Dim palette As NChartPalette = New NChartPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nevron)
palette.LabelForeColor = Color.DarkGray
' build a style sheet based on the palette
Dim fillConfigurator As NFillStyleSheetConfigurator = New NFillStyleSheetConfigurator()
fillConfigurator.Palette = palette
fillConfigurator.WallFillTemplate = New NGradientFillStyleTemplate(GradientStyle.Horizontal, GradientVariant.Variant1)
Dim sheet As NStyleSheet = New NStyleSheet()
fillConfigurator.ConfigureSheet(sheet)
' apply style sheet to document
sheet.Apply(NChartControl1.Document)

Now let’s take a closer look at the above code. First we create a palette based on a set of predefined colors – in this case the standard “Nevron” palette, with altered label fore color. Afterwards the code creates a fill style configurator. The configurator uses a palette and a set of fill style templates to create style sheet rules. The above code changes the fill template for walls to gradient, horizontal fill. Finally the fill configurator is used to configure the style sheet and the style sheet is applied on the chart document. The following table lists the colors you can control from the chart palette:

Color Entry	Description
ControlBackgroundForeColor	Controls the foreground color of the control background.
ControlBackgroundBackColor	Controls the background color of the control background.
GaugeBackgroundBackColor	Controls the foreground color of gauges background.
GaugeBackgroundForeColor	Controls the background color of gauges background.
LabelForeColor	Controls the foreground color of labels.
LabelBackColor	Controls the background color of labels.
WallForeColor	Controls the foreground color of chart walls.
WallBackColor	Controls the background color of chart walls.
IndicatorForeColor	Controls the foreground color of gauge indicators.
IndicatorBackColor	Controls the background color of gauge indicators.
RulerStrokeColor	Controls the color of the stroke style applied to axis rulers.
TickStrokeColor	Control the color of the stroke style applied to ticks.
GridStrokeColor	Controls the color of the stroke style applied to axis grid lines.
SeriesColors	Controls the color of series data items, or series within a chart.

Style Sheet Configurators

Currently there are two types of style sheet configurators – fill style configurators and stroke style configurators. The code in the previous section used the fill style configurator to create a sample style sheet based on the “Nevron” color palette. However in many cases you may also want to alter the stroke style applied on chart elements as well. The following code snippet shows how to stack the output of a fill and stroke style configurators and then apply the result style sheet to the chart document:

C#	Copy Code
// create a fill style sheet configurator NFillStyleSheetConfigurator fillStyleSheet = new NFillStyleSheetConfigurator(); fillStyleSheet.Palette.SetPredefinedPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nature); fillStyleSheet.MultiColorSeries = true; // create a stroke style sheet configuratorNStrokeStyleSheetConfigurator strokeStyleSheet = new NStrokeStyleSheetConfigurator(); strokeStyleSheet.Palette.SetPredefinedPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nature); strokeStyleSheet.ApplyToDataLabels = true; strokeStyleSheet.MultiColorSeries = true; // create a style sheet NStyleSheet sheet = new NStyleSheet(); // configure the style sheet fillStyleSheet.ConfigureSheet(sheet); strokeStyleSheet.ConfigureSheet(sheet); // apply to document sheet.Apply(nChartControl1.Document);

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// create a fill style sheet configurator
NFillStyleSheetConfigurator fillStyleSheet = new NFillStyleSheetConfigurator();
fillStyleSheet.Palette.SetPredefinedPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nature);
fillStyleSheet.MultiColorSeries = true;
// create a stroke style sheet configuratorNStrokeStyleSheetConfigurator strokeStyleSheet = new NStrokeStyleSheetConfigurator();
strokeStyleSheet.Palette.SetPredefinedPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nature);
strokeStyleSheet.ApplyToDataLabels = true;
strokeStyleSheet.MultiColorSeries = true;
// create a style sheet
NStyleSheet sheet = new NStyleSheet();
// configure the style sheet
fillStyleSheet.ConfigureSheet(sheet);
strokeStyleSheet.ConfigureSheet(sheet);
// apply to document
sheet.Apply(nChartControl1.Document);

Visual Basic	Copy Code
' create a fill style sheet configurator Dim fillStyleSheet As NFillStyleSheetConfigurator = New NFillStyleSheetConfigurator() fillStyleSheet.Palette.SetPredefinedPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nature) fillStyleSheet.MultiColorSeries = True ' create a stroke style sheet configurator Dim strokeStyleSheet As NStrokeStyleSheetConfigurator = New NStrokeStyleSheetConfigurator() strokeStyleSheet.Palette.SetPredefinedPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nature) strokeStyleSheet.ApplyToDataLabels = True strokeStyleSheet.MultiColorSeries = True ' create a style sheet Dim sheet As NStyleSheet = New NStyleSheet() ' configure the style sheet fillStyleSheet.ConfigureSheet(sheet) strokeStyleSheet.ConfigureSheet(sheet) ' apply to document sheet.Apply(NChartControl1.Document)

Visual Basic

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' create a fill style sheet configurator
Dim fillStyleSheet As NFillStyleSheetConfigurator = New NFillStyleSheetConfigurator()
fillStyleSheet.Palette.SetPredefinedPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nature)
fillStyleSheet.MultiColorSeries = True
' create a stroke style sheet configurator
Dim strokeStyleSheet As NStrokeStyleSheetConfigurator = New NStrokeStyleSheetConfigurator()
strokeStyleSheet.Palette.SetPredefinedPalette(ChartPredefinedPalette.Nature)
strokeStyleSheet.ApplyToDataLabels = True
strokeStyleSheet.MultiColorSeries = True
' create a style sheet
Dim sheet As NStyleSheet = New NStyleSheet()
' configure the style sheet
fillStyleSheet.ConfigureSheet(sheet)
strokeStyleSheet.ConfigureSheet(sheet)
' apply to document
sheet.Apply(NChartControl1.Document)

Related Examples

Windows Forms: Styles\Style Sheets\Predefined Style Sheets

Windows Forms: Styles\Style Sheets\Style Sheet Configurators

Web Forms: Styles\Style Sheets\Predefined Style Sheets

Web Forms: Styles\Style Sheets\Style Sheet Configurators