AnyChart with Flash Islands?

[Former Member]

There is a commercial component from AnyChart.com which allows very professional looking Gantt charts. The input is an XML string in a proprietary format. We have managed to integrate this in a WDA with an IFrame but we have no feedback from the IFrame to the WDA. Perhaps flash islands are the solution but the demo by Thomas seems very FLEX specific relying on complex programming to map data sets.

Question: How can I feed custom XML data from my WDA to the AnyGantt component as a Flash Island?

Example of XML string being fed in via JavaScript:

http://www.anychart.com/products/anygantt/docs/users-guide/livesamples/textarea/index.html

http://www.anychart.com/products/anygantt/docs/users-guide/SetXMLAsString.html

Sample XML:

<anygantt>
 <project_chart>
 <tasks>
 <task id="1" name="Task 1" parent="" actual_start="2008.07.01" actual_end=" 2008.07.12"/>
 <task id="2" name="Task 2" parent="1" actual_start="2008.07.01" actual_end="2008.07.07"/>
 <task id="3" name="Task 3" parent="1" actual_start="2008.07.04" actual_end="2008.07.09"/>
 <task id="4" name="Task 4" parent="2" actual_start="2008.07.05" actual_end="2008.07.12"/>
 </tasks>
 </project_chart>
 </anygantt>

[thomas_jung · Accepted solution]

>How can I feed custom XML data from my WDA to the AnyGantt component as a Flash Island?

You will need a wrapper component around the AnyChart controls to include the FlashIsland library. Passing the custom XML in shouldn't be any problem. Just pass the whole thing as a single STRING attribute in the bound context.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Thomas but way out of our league. Any hints on how to begin? This sounds like something which would benefit users of external flash components in general.

[thomas_jung · Accepted solution]

Have a look at the tutorials, specially the Google Maps one becuase that was also the case of creating a FlashIslands wrapper around any existing Flex control.

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/EmTech/SAPRichIslandsforAdobe+Flash