Setting up a fast chart to handle real-time data feeds and large data sets in Silverlight

With only a month left to the release of the NetAdvantage for Silverlight Data Visualization, we felt that some guidance is due on how to use the XamDataChart in a Silverlight application. We’ve developed a sample to demonstrate its capability to handle real-time data streams and cope with large amounts of data. 

Many of you have probably seen samples featuring the XamDataChart, which will be available in both Silvelright and WPF as a part of the NetAdvantage for Data Visualization products. It is currently available as a CTP download for WPF, with the official release for both WPF and Silverlight scheduled in June 2010. You can see the NetAdvantage for Silverlight Data Visualization product roadmap here. In a few words, the XamDataChart features zooming, panning, styling, rich templating - all the good stuff that gets data analysts and developers excited. We’ve received very positive feedback from customers, many are already building applications with pre-release versions of the XamDataChart. As you might be aware, we’ve provided guidance allowing Windows Forms developers to provide users with the benefits from this component right in their Windows Forms applications.

You can see the superior performance of the chart using these two parameter setups:

1. Real-time data: Set the interval slider to the smallest possible value – 10ms. You can then decrease the size of the window, or zoom toward the right edge of the chart in order to see that the chart handles well a substantial amount of data points added quickly.

2. Big data load: Set the window size slider to the maximum value possible – 50,000. Click the ‘Fill Window’ button to fill the chart with this amount of data points. You can then zoom in and out, and change the active tab in order to see that the chart is redrawn without any delay, despite the significant data load.

Remember, only a month remains until the NetAdvantage for Silverlight Data Visualization is officially released – request a stable pre-release build, and get a headstart using it.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to email me at kmatev@infragistics.com