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creating GIF-images
for my internship at a hospital i need to make graphics from some measured values and display them to many users. These values change constantly so i have to generate these images every second.
I read the gif89-specs and i could build a gif-creator all by myself, but why invent the wheel again.
Does anyone know about a snippet of code in VB (freeware) that i can use?
I read the gif89-specs and i could build a gif-creator all by myself, but why invent the wheel again.
Does anyone know about a snippet of code in VB (freeware) that i can use?
Hi!
Is this a "line" type graph.
Is this a networking issue?
Does it need also print out's, some bitmap type graphics are for "display only" and print quality is low.
GIF may have some licence fees used in a product, this is one problem whit it.
Matti
Is this a "line" type graph.
Is this a networking issue?
Does it need also print out's, some bitmap type graphics are for "display only" and print quality is low.
GIF may have some licence fees used in a product, this is one problem whit it.
Matti
yes, what type of graphics do you wish to generate?
an MSChart control may do the job a lot easier...
ASKER
it IS a networking problem. I use VB to acquisite my date with special hardware, then put this data in a SQL-database. My clients are webbrowsers who access the data via a webserver (Internet Information Server). I could use an applet to render the graph straight from the database, but that would cost me a fortune for a many-user SQL-license. Instead, i want to generate the graph once a second on the server and then have the browsers display that image. So, it can be any image format supported by browsers. (i control the clients, so i can choose a specific browser, i planned to use IE 4). If this all isn't possible, i generate a textfile which will be interpreted by a java applet. Problem there is that there should be 30 graphs on one page, each being refreshed once every 2 or 3 seconds
Hi!
How fast is the connection?
Fast Intranet or regular Internet speed?
Do you think does the conection speed
allow present of 30 pictures?
Try it whit a normal web page.
If you make a database on server side
this requies e.g. asp technique, there are other drivers than SQL7, like those which comes whit VB/VS Ent version.
ASP is browser independet do you need that?
Need also have a very powerfull server macine to feed 30 pictures * number of user in 2- 3sek.
I have my IIS(4) test enviroment in P350II /128Mb macine and the server take a few seconds to run query and give data for client browser using a asp-page and Access MDB as system DSN
(this is in 1MB limited connection.)
If you can just make those datafiels numeric and draw graphs on user macines
using Active-X there, the speed of the connection is not so critical any more, this will stop the browser indepencency but it simplify much your work.
Matti
How fast is the connection?
Fast Intranet or regular Internet speed?
Do you think does the conection speed
allow present of 30 pictures?
Try it whit a normal web page.
If you make a database on server side
this requies e.g. asp technique, there are other drivers than SQL7, like those which comes whit VB/VS Ent version.
ASP is browser independet do you need that?
Need also have a very powerfull server macine to feed 30 pictures * number of user in 2- 3sek.
I have my IIS(4) test enviroment in P350II /128Mb macine and the server take a few seconds to run query and give data for client browser using a asp-page and Access MDB as system DSN
(this is in 1MB limited connection.)
If you can just make those datafiels numeric and draw graphs on user macines
using Active-X there, the speed of the connection is not so critical any more, this will stop the browser indepencency but it simplify much your work.
Matti
ASKER
it's all on a local intranet, zo transfer speed is not a problem. I;m quite experienced in ASP and it has allways worked out just fine. Rendering the pictures shouldn't be such a big problem, when it does i just take a faster computer. Besides, it has do to do 30 pictures, not 30 pictures per connection, that' why i want to do it serverside. All users make some selection of those 30 images and reload it every 3 seconds.
Access is _very_ slow, because the file has to be opened every time you do a new query. I tested the differences between Acces and SQL-server on a project with a total of 50 querys per second from 8 nodes and it appears that SQL is twice as fast. I did about a 100 querys per second on 20 nodes and my amd k6-2 300 / 64 MB was for 90-100% processortime occupied ...i don't expect any difficulies there (the final system will be a pIII / 128 MB)
**** But the question was: does anyone know how to make those pictures or do i really have to make a textfile which is parsed by a java-applet?
Access is _very_ slow, because the file has to be opened every time you do a new query. I tested the differences between Acces and SQL-server on a project with a total of 50 querys per second from 8 nodes and it appears that SQL is twice as fast. I did about a 100 querys per second on 20 nodes and my amd k6-2 300 / 64 MB was for 90-100% processortime occupied ...i don't expect any difficulies there (the final system will be a pIII / 128 MB)
**** But the question was: does anyone know how to make those pictures or do i really have to make a textfile which is parsed by a java-applet?
What format is your data?
What type of Graphic do you wish to generate?
we still need to know!
What type of Graphic do you wish to generate?
we still need to know!
Oh! I see, you just need to make GIFs for download reasons.... Ah!
Personally, I'd make the graphs in whatever format I can, then convert them to GIFs
Personally, I'd make the graphs in whatever format I can, then convert them to GIFs
ASKER
generating and converting, that sounds good!
ok, then the question is:
- how do i make .bmp-files
- does anybody know a freeware/shareware batch bmp2gif application?
ok, then the question is:
- how do i make .bmp-files
- does anybody know a freeware/shareware batch bmp2gif application?
>- how do i make .bmp-files
1) use setpixel/pset or line methods etc in a picturebox to draw the graph
2) Use Picturebox's SavePicture() method to save the contents you've just drawn (ONLY saves as BMP format)
>- does anybody know a freeware/shareware batch bmp2gif application?
http://www.dkt.com/otfGIF/
this looks like just what you need!
1) use setpixel/pset or line methods etc in a picturebox to draw the graph
2) Use Picturebox's SavePicture() method to save the contents you've just drawn (ONLY saves as BMP format)
>- does anybody know a freeware/shareware batch bmp2gif application?
http://www.dkt.com/otfGIF/
this looks like just what you need!
ASKER
ok nutwiss, repost as answer and you'll get the points, this solution seems to work
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- anyway it wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) be freeware
- 'cos Unisys have the patent on the LZW compression algorithm used in GIF89
However: Does it have to be a GIF? Why?