Miscellaneous Commands

The following command line arguments to the PDF Chart Creator are miscellaneous commands:

  -DataSeparator
Parameters: separator text - specifies the text characters (up to 10 characters) that differentiate between separate data fields that are used by the -DataSet command.
Notes:
  • This has a default setting of a comma.

  •   -DataSort
    Parameters: field - specifies which data field to sort, and must be one of the following values:
  • First - the first data item field as defined by the chart specific datum command
  • Second - the second data item field as defined by the chart specific datum command)

  • order - specifies how the field is to be sorted, and must be one of the following values:
  • Ascending - sorts the data so that the lowest item is first and highest item is last
  • Descending - sorts the data so that the highest item is first and the lowest item is last
  • Notes:
  • Sorts the data items (either by name or value) before they are displayed within a chart.

  • Because chart types are different, chart agnostic sorting names have been used.
  • If multiple data series have been specified for a supporting chart type the sorting is performed based on the field values in the first data series.

  •   -Options
    Parameters: options filename - specifies the name and location of an options file.
    Notes:
  • If you need to pass a lot of command line arguments to the PDF Chart Creator then the command line can get rather long and unwieldy, and there may be a limit to the amount of data that can be passed. In which case all of the command line arguments can be placed within one or more external files by using as many –Options command.

  • There can be many commands on a line in an options file, or, more conveniently, just one per line – it is up to you.

  • If a line starts with a semi-colon (;) then it is treated as a comment and is skipped. Empty/blank lines are ignored.
  • If spaces are required in the filename then put quotes around the filename text.

  •   -Log
    Parameters: log filename - specifies the name and location of the log file.
    Notes:
  • All information and error messages are appended to the end of the file specified (with a timestamp).

  • This is useful when the PDF Chart Creator is being used in a batch mode when there may not always be a person monitoring the progress or results of a conversion.

  • This provides a complete audit log of any failures plus exactly which charts have been produced as PDF documents.
  • If spaces are required in the filename then put quotes around the filename text.

  •   -Errors
    Parameters: error filename - specifies the name and location of the error file.
    Notes:
  • Any error messages produced are appended to the end of the file specified.

  • This is useful when the PDF Chart Creator is being used by a controlling application or process which can detect that an error has occured and can then display the text from the errors log file.

  • If spaces are required in the filename then put quotes around the filename text.

  •   -OpenPDF
    Parameters: None
    Notes: When a PDF document is successfully created you can have it open automatically in the default PDF viewer application by including this argument.