Re: PlotWS software

[Kim L. G. <kim...@gm...>]

Hi PM,

On 7/18/06, Petr Mikulik <mi...@ph...> wrote:
> >  I've been using the open source PlotWS software.
> > http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ghydflex/plotws/ :
> >
> > "PlotWS provides a graph generation WebService. It is implemented as a
> > wrapper around gnuplot and exposes a subset of gnuplot's
> > functionality. The Web Service layer is implemented using Apache AXIS."
> >
> > Perhaps, PlotWS could be added to the links page,
> > http://www.gnuplot.info/links.html under Java (where it says " Version
> > for Java and others: please contribute.")
>
> It's not for this category, but for
>         Gnuplot used for generating web pages
>
> ??

It' actually implemented in java. Strictly speaking, it's not used for
generating web pages. PlotWS is used to generate graphs in the
following formats: SVG, PNG and Postscript.

 An overview: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ghydflex/plotws/web_page_doc/overview.html

An implementation:
http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ghydflex/images/General/hydroflex_graphs_large.gif
(from: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ghydflex/technologies/index.htm)


>
> It would be useful to write down few more examples of this use of gnuplot.
> If someone writes down such a review/short list, I will put it into gnuplot
> web pages.

On a linux system, if the 2 steps I mentioned are followed (which I
spent a long time figuring out), PlotWS should be very easy to use and
deploy since it is just a war file. The only thing lacking for me is
that time series graphs are not part of the functionalities yet
(hopefully, someone can take this up, if not me).

btw, "Build a static linked executable gnuplot" was mentioned in the
instructions for using on linux
(http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ghydflex/plotws/README.html) but I find that
it may not be really necessary.


if anyone really wants to build a static linked executable gnuplot on
RH9, this may be useful:

first download and install fontconfig (I used fontconfig-2.3.2.tar.gz),
then for building gnuplot:
./configure --prefix=/home/anon/gnuplot --without-x LDFLAGS="-static
-L/home/anon/fontconfig/lib


Finally, I wanted to use gnuplot but was limited to using java in my
application. I could have used JFreeChart but the documentation had a
price tag (I've since found some short tutorials). That's why I chose
PlotWS as a quick solution to my problem.


Regards,
KL