Customizing Charts using XML – Part 1

Dynamics CRM 2011 provides a very useful feature called charts. Charts can be designed within charts designer provided out of box and they can also be customized using charts XML. In this post we will look into various customization options available to design charts using XML.

Charts are used to display and portrait information in a meaningful way so that chart’s audience can quickly understand and analyse data trends. Some charts convey message more accurately than other. For example, a line chart conveys trending information better than a pie chart.

There are a handful of chart types available in charts designer such as:

1. Column chart
2. Bar chart
3. Line chart
4. Pie chart
5. Funnel chart
6. Multi-series chart
7. Stacked charts
8. Mixed chart
9. Series chart

Dynamics CRM 2011 uses Microsoft Chart Controls for Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5. This framework is rich in functionality and provides more chart types. Following chart types can be consumed within Dynamics CRM 2011.

Area	StackedArea	Column	StackedColumn100
Pyramid	Funnel	Renko	PointAndFigure
Bar	StackedArea100	Doughnut	StepLine
Radar	Kagi	Spline	Polar
BoxPlot	StackedBar	ErrorBar	Stock
Range	Line	SplineArea	ThreeLineBreak
Bubble	StackedBar100	FastLine
RangeBar	Pie	SplineRange
Candlestick	StackedColumn	FastPoint
RangeColumn	Point

Let’s dig deep into Chart XML and Customize few of them to unleash their potential.