We are delighted to announce the launch of GFChart v0.6. This is a major upgrade.
Changes
- No change: full backwards compatibility with v0.53RC2 including bar charts and counter with filters.
- New: user-friendly interface to design pie charts.
- New: automatic plotting of pie chart elements, without having to specify them in the shortcode.
- New: comprehensive filtering options.
- New: introduced Google Charts for charts designed with the new user interface.
- New: 3D and donut options.
- New: access to Google Charts formatting options, including size.
- New: button to easily insert charts into posts or pages.
- Fix: license activation issue with a few websites.
Minimum requirements for v0.6:
- WordPress v4.3, Gravity Forms v1.9, browsers compatible with Google Charts.
Known issues:
- Pie charts only have been included in the new interface. Bar and line charts, and calculations are not yet available. Icons for these are greyed out and cannot be used. Please continue to use the original shortcode for bar charts and the counter. These will be migrated and enhanced in upcoming releases.
- First ‘Preview’ of the new chart sometimes renders a chart requiring formatting enhancements. Go back to ‘Labels and fonts’ then return to ‘Preview’ and the formatting should now be fine. This is a known issue with Google charts and does not affect the final display.
Overview
Until now, GFChart has had limited capability and options. It was also rather fiddly to configure using shortcodes. This major upgrade is a significant step into the future for GFChart.
By introducing a new user-friendly user interface to design charts, it has become much easier to design and insert charts. It also makes it much easier for additional options to be added without increasing shortcode complexity. Google Charts have been introduced in place of jqPlot to improve future-proofing and give access to a much broader collection of chart types.
Full backwards compatibility with v0.53RC2 has been maintained. That means that existing shortcodes rendering jqPlot charts and calculations will continue to work unchanged.
What next?
Pie charts are the first to be migrated to the new user interface, and will we will next start work on bar and line charts, and then numerical calculations. Now that this major upgrade has been released we anticipate dripping out more incremental enhancements more frequently in future.
How to use v0.6?
- Navigate to Forms > Charts/Calculations.
- Press ‘Add new’ and follow the intuitive interface
- To insert into a post or page, press ‘Add Chart’ to the right of the ‘Add Media’ button.
Currently no further instructions for using v0.6 are available. Instructions for the original legacy shortcode remain unchanged.
How to obtain a copy of v0.6?
GFChart customers with a valid license key activated on their website(s) will be notified via their plugin dashboard for a 1-click upgrade.
Credit
The Google Charts portions of the plugin are modifications based on work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.