Microsoft unveils ASP.NET server control

BANGALORE, INDIA: Software giant Microsoft has announced that the company has rolled out a software package for the .NET Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008.

Aimed at software developers, the new package allows developers to quickly setup interactive charts and graphs for applications without writing any code.

Named has Microsoft Chart Controls for .NET Framework, it provides rich data visualization for developers. Using the Chart controls, developers  can create ASP.NET pages or Windows Forms applications with simple, intuitive, and visually compelling charts for complex statistical or financial analysis. These controls are specifically designed for use with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.

According to a post by Scott Guthrie, developer corporate vice president, Microsoft, he wrote "This should provide a useful (and free) addition to your standard ASP.NET toolkit of functionality, and enable you to easily add richer visualization and data workflow scenarios to your ASP.NET applications."

The new ASP.NET server control can also be used for free with ASP.NET 3.5 to enable rich browser-based charting scenarios.

Tool also supports a rich assortment of chart options - including pie, area, range, point, circular, accumulation, data distribution, ajax interactive, doughnut, and more.  Developers can statically declare chart data within the control declaration, or alternatively use data-binding to populate it dynamically, the report added.