Creating and Editing Charts

The features for creating and editing Charts are enabled only while you have at least one data set that is displayed, for example in the Analysis Grid viewer. When this is the case, you can display the Chart configuration controls for creating a new Chart by clicking the New Chart item in the New Viewer drop-down list on the global Message Analyzer toolbar. The Chart configuration controls then display, which enable you to create a new Chart.

If your data is displaying in an existing Chart that you want to edit, then you can click the Edit Chart command in Charts submenu of the global Message Analyzer Session menu to enable the existing Chart for editing. Whether you are creating a new Chart or editing an existing one, you will make use of the same controls. Therefore, you can follow the general approach to creating a Chart when you are editing one, as described in the section that follows.

Creating a New Chart

When you display the Chart configuration controls, a blank Chart displays with a default title along with data entry tabs (Chart Layout, Component Layout, and Data tabs) to the right of the Chart configuration surface. You can then specify input configuration data on each of these tabs, as described in the subsections that follow.

Chart Layout Tab
On this tab, you can specify a Name for the Chart as it will appear in the New Viewer drop-down list that is accessible from the global Message Analyzer toolbar, among other locations. To manually specify the height of a visualizer component such as a Bar Chart, set a value for Row Height and set the Type property to Fixed in the Row Collection Editor dialog that displays when you click the ellipsis (…) next to the Row Grid Layout property on the Chart Layout tab. Perform a similar operation to manually configure the Column Width of a visualizer component on the Chart display surface by clicking the ellipsis (…) to the right of the Column Grid Layout property on the Chart Layout tab to display the Column Collection Editor dialog where you can configure the settings. You can adjust these settings as needed after you specify the type of visualizer component you will be using, which you can select from the Component Layout tab.

Component Layout Tab
On this tab, you can specify a Name that will appear above the visualizer component in your Chart. You should then select the Type of visualizer component you want to use, such as Bar Chart, Pie Chart, Timeline Chart, or Grid View. The Data Mapping drop-down list is set to My Map 0 by default and will contain the data-mapping configuration that you create from the Data tab. You can choose to use the default incremental mapping names that appear in this drop-down list or you can specify a custom name as needed. You also have the option to create, name, and save multiple data mappings that will each appear in this drop-down list to provide a selection of different data mapping configurations for your Chart. To create additional data mappings, display the Create Data Mapping dialog by clicking the New Data Mapping command from the Charts submenu that appears in the global Message Analyzer Session menu.

Data Tab
On this tab, you can choose the data mapping you want to work with if you have created more than one, or you can use a single mapping for multiple visualizer components. You can create a data mapping configuration by clicking the ellipsis (…) to the right of the Column Fields property to display the Data Mapping Field Collection Editor, from where you can Add one or more Entities or Formulas, as described in Chart Controls and Features. If you specify an Entity in the Data Mapping Field Collection Editor, you can then set the Entity to a property, annotation, protocol field name, capture module, and so on, by clicking the ellipsis (…) to the right of the Name property in the editor. If you specify a Formula in the editor, you can configure one or more Arguments, a FormulaType, and a Name for the formula, as described in Chart Controls and Features. Note that whenever you configure an Entity or a Formula in the Data Mapping Field Collection Editor, you will make use of the Field Chooser Tool Window to locate the message fields you want.

Viewing Chart Data

When you are finished with configuring a particular visualizer component, it should immediately display the current session data in that component on the Chart configuration surface. At this point, you have the option to add and configure another visualizer component for your Chart. When your Chart configuration is complete, you can save it by clicking the Save Chart button in the Charts submenu that appears in the global Message Analyzer Session menu. The Chart that you configured then becomes part of the local Message Analyzer Charts Library that is accessible from the New Viewer drop-down list in all of its locations. From there, you can manage your new Chart as you would any other Chart or Library item, as described in Managing Chart Viewers. From any of the locations described in Locating the Built-In Chart Viewers, you can select your Chart to render the data in a set of trace results in the graphic formats of the visualizer components that you configured.

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More Information
To learn more about Chart configuration, see the working example in the procedure Create and Edit an HTTP Chart Data Viewer.
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