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Installation

Overview

KavaChart is a collection of Java classes, Java source code, documentation files and Zip archives. These files may have been downloaded from Visual Engineering's web site, or you may have obtained the software in a variety of media. This document assumes that you have successfully transferred the KavaChart files to your target computer system, and that you now have a "javachart" directory hierarchy, as described below. If you have problems with this process, please contact Visual Engineering's support staff via e-mail at support@ve.com, or by phone at (925) 829-2218.


Required Software

Like all Java development tools and applets, KavaChart always requires a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) for operation. KavaChart classes will operate correctly with a wide range of JVMs, including those found in most popular web browsers, such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Other suitable JVMs may be found in various Java Development Kits (JDKs), and in standalone Java execution environments. Most current personal computer operating systems include some sort of Java execution environment.

To recompile or modify the KavaChart classes, you'll also need a Java compiler, such as the javac found with JavaSoft's JDK. KavaChart has also been tested with a wide range of other Java compilers, such as Microsoft's Visual J++, Apple's JDK, Symantec Cafe, VisualAge, JBuilder, and others. This version of KavaChart requires JDK 1.1 support, and it can be used with newer versions of Java, including Java 2. If you require support for JDK 1.0.2, you should instead use KavaChart version 2.0.

KavaChart also requires access to various Java base classes and utility classes. In particular, it makes extensive use of the Java AWT package, the applet package, and several utility classes, such as Vector and Date. These classes are generally a part of every Java installation. If you're planning to use Java Foundation Classes (JFC) in lieu of AWT, you may want to make some minor modifications to the source code provided for our top level chart beans (change javachart.beans.chart.ChartBean to subclass JPanel instead of Panel), but most of KavaChart should work without a hitch.


Organization

KavaChart is organized into a hierarchy of directories as follows: To use KavaChart classes within a program, you would add the complete path of the directory containing "javachart" to your CLASSPATH environment variable. This operation is performed in different ways on different operating systems.

The standard KavaChart installation also includes a javachart.jar file that contains all the chart package classes. As an alternative to adding the javachart directory hierarchy to your CLASSPATH, you can simply add the javachart.jar file to CLASSPATH, and operate as if you were using separate classes.


Deployment

The class files used by your program must also be included in any deployment, whether these are classes you reference directly, such as "BarChart.class", or classes used indirectly, such as Bar.class, Axis.class, and Legend.class, which are all used by BarChart.class.

KavaChart's modular architecture means that you don't need to make every KavaChart class available for every installation. For example, if you're building an applet that only uses BarCharts, you don't need to include classes for Lines, Pies, and so on. By eliminating unused classes in your distributions, you can reduce the overall size of your application's footprint, and significantly decrease startup times for applications loaded over a network.

For more information about packaging classes for distribution, see Appendix A


[Index] [Introduction] [Cookbook] [Package] [Component] [Chart] [Axis] [Utility] [Applet] [Servlet] [Appndx A] [Appndx B] [API]