NAME Apache::GD::Graph - Generate Graphs in an Apache handler. SYNOPSIS In httpd.conf: SetHandler perl-script PerlHandler +Apache::GD::Graph # These are optional. #PerlSetVar Expires 30 # days default. #PerlSetVar CacheSize 5242880 # 5 megs default. #PerlSetVar ImageType png # Default. # The default image type that graphs should be. # png is default, gif requires <= GD 1.19. # Any type supported by the installed version of GD will work. # # The next specifies the quality of generated JPEG images, best not to # specify this one and let GD figure it out. #PerlSetVar JpegQuality 75 # 0 to 100 # TTFFontPath tells GD::Text where to look for true type fonts. The # example here is the default value used. #PerlSetVar TTFFontPath /usr/ttfonts:/var/ttfonts:/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/ttf/:/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype/:/usr/share/fonts/truetype Then send requests to: http://www.server.com/chart?type=lines&x_labels=[1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th]& data1=[1,2,3,4,5]&data2=[6,7,8,9,10]&dclrs=[blue,yellow,green]> Options can also be sent as x-www-form-urlencoded data (ie., a form). This works better for large data sets, and allows simple charting forms to be set up. IE, for example, does not allow query strings larger than a kilobyte. Parameters in the query string take precedence over a form if specified. INSTALLATION Like any other CPAN module, if you are not familiar with CPAN modules, see: http://www.cpan.org/doc/manual/html/pod/perlmodinstall.html MAKE SURE TO RESTART YOUR APACHE SERVER using `apachectl graceful' after upgrading this or any other Apache Perl module. DESCRIPTION The primary purpose of this module is to allow a very easy to use, lightweight and fast charting capability for static pages, dynamic pages and CGI scripts, with the chart creation process abstracted and placed on any server. For example, embedding a pie chart can be as simple as: pie chart of a few deadly sins And it gets cached both server side, and along any proxies to the client, and on the client's browser cache. Not to mention, chart generation is very fast. Of course, more complex things will be better done directly in your own Perl handlers, but this module allows a non-Perl environment to have access to the capabilities of GD::Graph. Another solution is to use ASP scripting with Microsoft Excel, which of course requires a Windows NT server and I have no idea how easy this is to do, or how fast. There are also many other ways to connect programs with charting capabilities, such as GNUPlot, or rrdtool to a web server. These may or may not be faster/more featureful etc. TIPS Most more complicated things depend on knowing the GD::Graph interface. Firstly, make sure you are not using any spaces! If you want to pass a space in a parameter in a URL-encoded string, use `%20', in a form use a `+'. Make sure to use `cache=0' or `PerlSetVar CacheSize 0' when debugging, otherwise you will spend hours being very confused. FONTS GD::Graph has some options that take a font description, such as title_font, legend_font, etc. (these map to the appropriate set_FOO methods in GD::Graph, see that manpage). See the TTFFontPath variable under SYNOPSIS for how to set the search path for fonts. MAKE SURE your fonts are readable by the user the Apache server runs under, this is usually "www-data" or "nobody". Otherwise your fonts will mysteriously fail with no notice. Sizes can be specified by using a list with the name and size. For example, if arial.ttf can be found somewhere in your TTFFontPath, you can do: ...title_font=(arial.ttf,20) To get a title using font Arial, in 20 points. Note that GD::Text does not parse out the names of fonts and such, you have to give it an actual filename, in the right case. So if using the Microsoft Windows core fonts, Arial Bold would be `arialbd.ttf'. Here's an example: http://server/chart?data1=[1,2,3,4,5]&title_font=(arialbd.ttf,20)&title=Just%20A%20Line IMAGES You can place a logo in any corner of the graph using the `logo', `logo_resize' and `logo_position' options. See the GD::Graph manpage. If you just want a background image that is resized to fit your graph, see the `background_image' option herein. TEXT/CAPTIONS The following GD::Graph options control placing text on the graph: title, x_label and y_label. the GD::Graph manpage for those and related options. In addition, this modules allows you to use the captionN option(s), to draw arbitrary strings on the graph. See below. IMPLEMENTATION This module is implemented as a simple Apache mod_perl handler that generates and returns a png format graph (using Martien Verbruggen's GD::Graph module) based on the arguments passed in via a query string. It responds with the content-type "image/png" (or whatever is set via `PerlSetVar ImageType'), and sends a Expires: header of 30 days (or whatever is set via `PerlSetVar Expires', or expires in the query string, in days) ahead. In addition, it keeps a server-side cache in the file system using DeWitt Clinton's File::Cache module, whose size can be specified via `PerlSetVar CacheSize' in bytes. OPTIONS type Type of graph to generate, can be lines, bars, points, linespoints, area, mixed, pie. For a description of these, see the GD::Graph(3) manpage. Can also be one of the 3d types if GD::Graph3d is installed, or anything else with prefix GD::Graph::. width Width of graph in pixels, 400 by default. height Height of graph in pixels, 300 by default. expires Date of Expires header from now, in days. Same as `PerlSetVar Expires'. image_type Same as `PerlSetVar ImageType'. "png" by default, but can be anything supported by GD. If not specified via this option or in the config file, the image type can also be deduced from a single value in the 'Accept' header of the request. jpeg_quality Same as `PerlSetVar JpegQuality'. A number from 0 to 100 that determines the jpeg quality and the size. If not set at all, the GD library will determine the optimal setting. Changing this value doesn't seem to do much as far as line graphs go, but YMMV. background_image Set an image as the background for the graph. You are responsible for choosing a sane image to go with your graph, the background should be either transparent or the same color you will use. This is the same as using the `logo' parameter with an image of the same size as the graph, except this option will resize the image if necessary, making it more convenient for this purpose. The file or URL can be of any type your copy of GD supports. captionN Draws a character string using a TrueType font at an arbitrary location. Takes an array of `($fgcolor,$fontname,$ptsize,$angle,$x,$y,$string)' where $fgcolor is the foreground color, $fontname is the name of a TTF font see the FONTS entry elsewhere in this document , $ptsize is the point size, $x and $y are the coordinates, and $string is the actual characters to draw. N is an integer from 1 onward, like for the dataN option. This lets you specify multiple strings to draw. This follows exactly the GD stringTTF method, see the GD manpage. Angle is in degrees, you will primarily use angle `0' for normal left-to-right text. $x and $y are pixel coordinates from the upper left corner. $fontname is the name of a true-type font that will be found in the font path (see FONTS). Example: http://isis/chart?data1=[1,2,3,4,5]&caption1=(1,arial.ttf,9,0,30,30,Hello) cache Boolean value which determines whether or not the image will get cached server-side (for client-side caching, use the "expires" parameter). It is true (1) by default. Setting `PerlSetVar CacheSize 0' in the config file will achieve the same affect as `cache=0' in the query string. to_file The graph will not be sent back, but instead saved to the file indicated on the server. Apache will need permission to write to that directory. The result will not be cached. This is basically the same as making an RPC call to a Perl process to make a graph and store it to a file. no_axes This sets x_labels to an empty lists and sets y_number_format to "", effectively disabling axes labels. For the following, look at the plot method in the GD::Graph(3) manpage. x_labels Labels used on the X axis, the first array given to the plot method of GD::Graph. If unspecified or undef, no labels will be drawn. dataN Values to plot, where N is a number starting with 1. Can be given any number of times with N increasing. ALL OTHER OPTIONS are passed to the corresponding set_