How to Create Dynamic WPF Charts in .NET C# Apps

Visualizing data is a common need for users. Data can be visualized in different forms, like in a table/grid form or a graphical representation, for example. ComponentOne FlexGrid is used to visualize data in table/grid form, and FlexChart is a graphical representation of data. FlexGrid and FlexChart can be synchronously connected to the data to see dynamic updates on any change in data.

This blog will show how to connect a FlexChart to a FlexGrid to create a bound MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) scenario similar to Microsoft Excel. Users can add, delete and modify items in FlexGrid, which will reflect in FlexChart.

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Steps to Create a Dynamic WPF Chart

Create the Model and ViewModel

Create a model class according to the data and implement the INotifyPropertyChanged interface to notify when a property value changes. This is the key step so that when data changes by FlexGrid, the View (which also contains FlexChart) will be notified.

   public class Country : INotifyPropertyChanged
    {
        private string _name;
        public string Name
        {
            get { return _name; }
            set { _name = value; OnPropertyRaised("Name"); }
        }
        
        private int _sales;
        public int Sales
        {
            get { return _sales; }
            set { _sales = value; OnPropertyRaised("Sales"); }
        }

        private int _downloads;
        public int Downloads
        {
            get { return _downloads; }
            set { _downloads = value; OnPropertyRaised("Downloads"); }
        }

        public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
        public void OnPropertyRaised(string property)
        {
            if(PropertyChanged != null)
                PropertyChanged(this, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(property));
        }
    }

Now, create a ViewModel named DataViewModel, which will connect to the View. We can create some properties and methods in ViewModel which can be bound to the view.

    public class DataViewModel
    {
        private ObservableCollection<Country> _countries;

        public ObservableCollection<Country> Countries
        {
            get { return _countries; }
            set { _countries = value; }
        }

        private string _desc;

        public string Desc
        {
            get { return _desc; }
            set { _desc = value; }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// C'tor
        /// </summary>
        public DataViewModel()
        {
            //create a dummy data
            var country = new string[] { "China", "India", "Japan", "US" };
            var count = country.Length;
            Countries = new ObservableCollection<Country>();
            var rnd = new Random();
            for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
                Countries.Add(new Country()
                {
                    Name = country[i],
                    Sales = 1 + rnd.Next(100,1000),
                   Downloads  = 1 + rnd.Next(100, 1000),
                });
            Desc = "You can modify, add or delete Flexgrid's item and this will reflect on FlexChart.";
        }
    }

Create the View

Now, it’s time to create a User Interface(View). Add C1FlexChart and C1FlexGrid to the view, bound their ItemsSources and respective properties.

<Window
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        xmlns:local="clr-namespace:DynamicFlexChart"
        xmlns:c1="http://schemas.componentone.com/winfx/2006/xaml" x:Class="DynamicFlexChart.MainWindow"
        xmlns:vm ="clr-namespace:DynamicFlexChart.ViewModel"
        mc:Ignorable="d"
        Title="Dynamic FlexChart" Height="450" Width="800">
    <Window.DataContext>
        <vm:DataViewModel/>
    </Window.DataContext>
    <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="40"/>
            <RowDefinition/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <TextBlock x:Name="desc" Text="{Binding Desc}" FontSize="14" TextWrapping="Wrap" Margin="10,0,0,0"/>
        <Grid Grid.Row="1">
            <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
                <ColumnDefinition />
                <ColumnDefinition/>
            </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
            
            <!-- FlexGrid -->
            <c1:C1FlexGrid x:Name="flexGrid" ItemsSource="{Binding Countries}" AllowAddNew="True" KeyDown="Key_Down" AutoGenerateColumns="False">
                <c1:C1FlexGrid.Columns>
                    <c1:Column Header="Name" Binding="{Binding Name}"/>
                    <c1:Column Header="Sales" Binding="{Binding Sales}"/>
                    <c1:Column Header="Downloads" Binding="{Binding Downloads}"/>
                </c1:C1FlexGrid.Columns>
            </c1:C1FlexGrid>

            <!-- FlexChart -->
            <c1:C1FlexChart x:Name="flexChart" Grid.Column="1" ItemsSource="{Binding Countries}" BindingX="Name" LegendPosition="Bottom">
                <c1:C1FlexChart.Series>
                    <c1:Series Binding="Sales" SeriesName="Sales"/>
                    <c1:Series Binding="Downloads" SeriesName="Downloads"/>
                </c1:C1FlexChart.Series>
                <c1:C1FlexChart.DataLabel>
                    <c1:DataLabel Content=" {value}" Position="Top"/>
                </c1:C1FlexChart.DataLabel>
            </c1:C1FlexChart>
        </Grid>                
    </Grid>
</Window>

And it’s done. Now you can edit, add or remove data from Flexgrid, which will dynamically update to the FlexChart.

For full implementation, you can download the sample.

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