In addition to using the Microsoft Office Chart Web
Component as a Component Object Model (COM) control hosted on a form, it is
possible to use the Chart Web Component as a non-visible, in-memory object.
This article illustrates how you can use the Chart Web Component on a server to
create a chart represented as a Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) image. You
can implement the strategy discussed in this article to generate chart images
that can be used across the Internet or in enterprises with heterogeneous
With the Chart Web Component, you can create charts using
data from various sources, such as arrays, a databases, spreadsheets, or any
custom data sources. Once you create a chart, you can use the ExportPicture
method of the Chart Component to generate a GIF image of that chart.
To accomplish this, you can modify the global.asa file and create an ASP page
with the code illustrated in the following steps.
Steps to Create Project
- Start Microsoft Visual InterDev.
- Create a new Web Project called
ServerChart and click the Next button.
- Type in the server that is to be used for this Web
- Click Finish to create the Web Project.
- Right-click your project directory on the server (typically
this is C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ServerChart), select Properties and then click the Security tab.
- Click on Permissions, and add the following directory permissions:
IUSR_SERVERNAME : Read, Write, Execute and Delete
Creator : Read, Write, Execute and Delete
- Click OK to set the permissions.
- In the Visual InterDev project, right-click the global.asa
file and select Get Working Copy.
- Modify the global.asa file to contain the following script:
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE=VBScript RUNAT=Server>
' Create a FileSystemObject to provide files in the script
Set Session("FSO") = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
' Create a variable that has the number of files created in this session
Session("n") = 0
' Set timeout to be 1 minute
Session.Timeout = 1
' Delete the files created in this session
For x = 0 to Session("n")-1
Session("FSO").DeleteFile Session("sTempFile" & x), True
- Click on the Project menu, select Add Web Item, and then select Active Server Page. Name the page chart.asp.
- Modify the script in chart.asp to contain the following:
<%@ language="vbscript" %>
<h1>Realtime CPU Utilization by Configurations</h1>
<FORM action="chart.asp" method=get name=frmChooseOrg>
<p> Select an Organization to see values for their machines:
<OPTION SELECTED value= 5>Org1</OPTION>
<OPTION value= 10>Org2</OPTION>
<OPTION value= 15>Org3</OPTION>
<OPTION value= 20>Org4</OPTION>
<INPUT type="submit" value="Go"></p>
Dim oChart, c, Categories(5), Vals(5), i, sCaption, nData, nOrg
' Get the input value
nData = Request.QueryString("sOrg")
'When the page loads the first time, set ndata to 5
if len(nData) = 0 then nData = 5
' Generate random categories and values for the chart
' These values can come from some existing data source
for i = 1 to 5
Categories(i) = "Machine" & CStr(i)
Vals(i) = nData * Rnd(100)
' Create a Chart Object
Set oChart = CreateObject("OWC.Chart")
Set c = oChart.Constants
' Set the different parameters for the ChartSpace
oChart.Border.Color = c.chColorNone
' Get Organization number and use it to set the Caption
nOrg = nData/5
sCaption = "Current Utilizations for Org"
sCaption = sCaption & CStr(nOrg)
' Add a chart and set parameters for the chart
oChart.Charts(0).Type = oChart.Constants.chChartTypeColumnClustered
oChart.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(0).Caption = sCaption
oChart.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(0).SetData c.chDimCategories, c.chDataLiteral, Categories
oChart.Charts(0).SeriesCollection(0).SetData c.chDimValues, c.chDataLiteral, Vals
oChart.Charts(0).HasLegend = True
oChart.Charts(0).HasTitle = True
' Get a temporary filename to save chart in that file
sFname = Session("FSO").GetTempName & session.SessionID & ".gif"
' Export the chart to the temporary file
oChart.ExportPicture server.MapPath(sFname), "gif", 600, 512
' Create a link to the generated file
Response.Write "<img src='" & sFname & "'>"
' Store the file with its path in the session object for cleanup
Session("sTempFile" & Session("n")) = Server.MapPath(sFname)
' Increment the number of files
Session("n") = Session("n") + 1
- Save the project.
- Right-click chart.asp in the Project Explorer and select View in browser.
The page appears with a chart containing CPU utilizations for
various computers. By selecting different organizations, you can view different
When you create multiple charts based on different sets
of data, each chart must be saved as a unique GIF file. In this sample, the
Scripting Run-time library's FileSystemObject generates a temporary file for
the GIF image. The file is placed in the same folder as the ASP page so that
you can use the MapPath method of the Session object to get the location of the
temporary file. The filename is saved as a session variable so that it is
deleted when the session ends.
Note that IIS executes the
Session_OnEnd subroutine whenever the session has timed out. The session times
out if the client has not requested a page within the timeout duration, which
is set to one (1) minute at the beginning of the session.
Currently, the only filter available to the ExportPicture method
is for "GIF" images.
The ExportPicture method has two arguments that
allow you to indicate the dimensions in pixels of the generated chart. In the
sample code provided, the width and height dimensions are hard-coded. Instead,
you can use dimensions that your client specifies.
ProgID applies to Office Web Components 9.0. If you want to use version 10 of
the components, change the ProgID from OWC.Chart to OWC10.ChartSpace or if you
want to use version 11 of the components, change the ProgID from OWC.Chart to
Problems with Server-Side Use
You should be aware that the Office 2000 Web Components are not
designed for server-side use, and you may encounter problems if you use the
components on a server with a high number of concurrent user connections. Many
of these issue are addressed in the Office XP Web Components and Office 2003
Web Components, and you should consider using the Office XP Web Components or
Office 2003 Web Components for large-scale server-side solutions.
For additional information,
click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge
INFO: Limitations of Office 2000 Web Components When Used Server-Side
Programming Microsoft Office Web Components by Dave Stearns
For additional information about using the Chart
Web Component, see the following Knowledge Base articles:
How To Create a Combination Chart with the Chart Web Component
How To Use the Office Chart Web Component With VB
How To Use VBScript to Bind a Chart to a Spreadsheet Component
Article ID: 244049 - Last Review: June 19, 2014 - Revision: 4.0
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