Installation of ICommander includes the installation of a free graphing package
called Ploticus that is licensed under the General Public License of the Free
Software Foundation. This is a very flexible package that allows creation of
pie, bar, and many other graphs in various different formats.
ICommander File Manager is currently used to access the area in which the graphs are generated and to create command and data files for creating the graphs. The available commands are extensive and the first use may be somewhat intimidating. ICommander provides a number of example command and data files to help the learning curve. It is a fairly simple matter to make copies of those examples to edit for creating your own graphs.
The powerful ICommander Free-Form Data Extraction programs are the most efficient way to extract the data that you wish to graph. Currently you will then need to edit the file containing that data for use with Ploticus.
It is likely that the ICommander Free-Form Data Extraction programs may be changed in the future to provide a direct ICommander interface to setting up the graphing scripts and having the FFDE output file already formatted for use in graphing. The Ploticus graphing package has primarily been used only on ICommander Corporation servers. It is now being installed on customer systems at the same time that we are implementing an ICommander Intranet. As we get customers acquainted with using it, we will utilize their input to guide development of automating the process of creating graphs.
The present method of creating the graphs via File Manager is effective and the
starter ICommander Intranet has several examples of what can be done.
ICommander Enhanced Printing also allows use of tags in text files to insert
graphs and other image files. The ICommander Print Utility option to precede
any report by a Title Page and Explanatory Letter offers a convenient way to
make use of one or more graphs that relate to the accounting report being
printed by using such tags.