Chart finished rendering event

Hi,

In our application we are sometimes rendering ~20 charts at once which caused a bit of a wait. As the UI is still responsive (as you are using the Dispatcher) I would like to be able let the user know that something is still happening, e.g. using a cursor override and progress bar etc.

Looking at Chart.cs, you could possibly add an event when BuildChart() completes... however as calls to it are queued you cannot deterministically tell if that is the chart is really built. i.e. if you set a WhenHit breakpoint in VS2010 at the end of BuildChart() printing to the Output window and (in our application) build a single chart you will see multiple messages.

*********** BUILD CHART COMPLETE
*********** BUILD CHART COMPLETE
*********** BUILD CHART COMPLETE
*********** BUILD CHART COMPLETE
*********** BUILD CHART COMPLETE

Question

What is the best way to determine if a chart is truly finished building/rendering?

Hello

Thanks for your feedback on this. We are currently doing another pass on improving the performance of the charting controls. This will reduce call counts of various methods such as BuildChart. While we're at it, we'll include a hook for listening to when the chart has finished rendering. I'll let you know when this is available.

Jason Fauchelle

Excellent. That work is very much needed. Do you know, approximately, when this will be available? Our mega-pack subscription expires on the 21 April 2012 so if possible would be great to have it before then.

Hello

I've noted down this date. I can't exactly promise when it will be available, but at the rate we're going it should be done before then.

Hi Jason,

Just quickly; what is the status of the performance improvement pass of the charting controls?

Hello Dennis

This has been delayed slightly due to lots of customer requests - these generally get higher priority since the performance pass takes quite a bit longer. The bulk of the charting performance pass should be done by the end of next week. I've been working on some performance enhancements right now and it's been going well. I'll try work on the chart finished rendering event soon.

Jason Fauchelle

Thanks for the update Jason.

Hello Dennis

I've reduced the call count of the BuildChart method and included a FinishedPlottingData event that gets raised when the data has all been rendered. These updates will be available through the next nightly build. I believe there are still a couple of operations that can cause BuildChart to be called more than once but I'll be looking into resolving this soon. Try out this event as soon as possible so you can notify us if any changes need to be made before your deadline.

Let us know how it goes.

Jason Fauchelle

Excellent. Thank-you Jason.

EDIT: Is this in WPF Elements version 4.0 or 5.0?

Hello

This is only available in version 5.0. Do you need it in 4.0?

Jason Fauchelle

We haven't upgraded to version 5.0 as are currently in lock-down on middleware because our game's* is in currently in beta. Patches are fine, however not full point updates.

That said, I do not expect the changes to be ported back to version 4.0. I will talk to our lead programmer and see what we can do.

Thanks Jason.

_{* Devil May Cry 5 on PS3/X360.}

Hello Dennis

This is no problem, I have ported this event back to version 4.0 and reduced the call count of the BuildChart method. This will be available through the next nightly build.

I look forward to when Devil May Cry 5 comes out.

Jason Fauchelle

Tweet from another Mindscaper regarding this thread: https://twitter.com/ppogpenguin/status/193103766503952384

Thought you'd enjoy it Dennis :-)

John-Daniel Trask

I certainly did; I forwarded it onto the rest of the studio. Thanks JD.

As for porting the feature back, that is greatly appreciated. I'm still going to push for the upgrade to v5.0 as we certainly need the promised performance improvements you have made.