Our component for building Gantt charts has been updated. The new version - AnyGantt 4.2.0 - contains the following changes:

• AnyGantt JS integration library has been refactored:
  — AnyChart.js is now named AnyGantt.js;
  — AnyChart class is now called AnyGantt.

  Please note, that you have to change these names in your JS code when upgrading.

• A Flex version of AnyGantt component. Read more at Working with Gantt Chart in FLEX.
• Expand and collapse tasks using JavaScript.
• Scroll and Zoom using JavaScript.
• dateTimeRangeChange, verticalPositionChange and expandCollapse events to handle changes in data plot.
• Printing fixes.

Version history: http://www.anychart.com/products/anygantt/history/
Trial download: http://anychart.com/download/
Download for registered customers: http://www.anychart.com/customer_area/

We are proud to release AnyStock 1.1.0 – a new version of Stock and Financial Charts component, where some significant features have been added:

Drawing tools and annotations
AnyStock 1.1.0 offers a complete set of shapes for technical analysis that can be added to the chart plot, both programmatically and via user interface. Already added objects are easy to move, change, and remove.

Available shapes include: line segments, rays, trend lines, vertical and horizontal lines, rectangles, ellipses, triangles, trend channels, Andrew’s pitchforks, Fibonacci fans, Fibonacci arcs, Fibonacci retracements, Fibonacci time-zones, buy/sell signals, and custom text labels to mark important points and trends discovered.

Check out the online demo of these tools: AnyChart Stock: Drawing Tools and Annotations Demo

Flex Component
Flex developers have received the great opportunity to use AnyStock and build smart scrollable charts into their rich internet applications and trading solutions.

Improvements
A huge performance improvement for mouse over the chart area has been made, as well as an improvement in range picker behavior: input values and input masks are now internally trimmed.

Misc
Besides that, a few bugs have been fixed and several minor features have been added, such as:

• a wide range of options that are intended to control the display of missing points;
• a new boolean attribute named adjust_margins that allows to add dynamic margins;
• the possibility to use RangeArea, RangeSplineArea or RangeBar series types to visualize Bollinger Bands;
• the possibility to configure event markers position.

Full list of fixes, features and improvements: http://anychart.com/products/stock/history/

You can take look at the product page: http://anychart.com/products/stock/overview/

Or download the new version: http://anychart.com/download/

Registered customers can obtain the latest build from the Customer Area.

Flash and Firefox have always had a lot of compatibility problems - for instance, Flash content can’t be printed in Firefox.

A long time ago we found a workaround and published it as a free library. Three years have passed, but the bug still exists, and the fix is still relevant.

So here it is – a small library that allows to achieve correct Flash content printing in Firefox:
http://code.google.com/p/flash-print-fix/

For example, that’s how a Flex application is printed in Firefox:

And that’s how it looks like with the fix applied:

The idea is very simple:

1. Get a PNG screenshot.
2. Encode the PNG file in base64 string.
3. Add a picture with src=”data:img/png;base64,…” mce_src=”data:img/png;base64,…” to the page.
4. In CSS, specify to hide Flash while printing and to show the picture:

@media screen.flashScreenshot { display: none; }
@media print.printableFlashObj { display: none; };
.flashScreenshot { display: block; border: 0; outline: none; }

We’re happy to announce the production release of AnyChart 5.1 - the most advanced flash charting component. Version 5.1 builds on the success of the earlier 5.0 offering by adding several new chart types, new features, significant performance improvements plus new advanced dashboard features and Adobe AIR support.

New chart types: TreeMaps, HeatMaps, Funnel Charts both in 2D and 3D, Accumulation Pyramid (also known as Pyramidal Funnel) both 2D/3D, 3D Pie and  Doughnut charts.

New features: Scrolling support,  Multiple X Axes both for Categorized and Scatter plots, Markers in Legend, Interactive Labels, Multiple Data Labels Support, Multiple Data Tooltips Support, Multiple Data Markers, Context Menu Localization, Axis Markers Styling Support.

Another exciting news - Now AnyChart is fully compatible with Adobe Air ™. Build your RIA or Desktop Application utilizing the power of AnyChart Flash Charting engine. Also all chart types can now be combined within interactive dashboard: all charts, gauges, maps, funnels.

And the last, but not the least - Significant Performance Improvements. (more…)

Sometimes it is necessary to create custom preview of the component in the Flex Builder “Design” view.
It is undocumented feature
I’ve found very interesting class in the Flex SDK 3: mx.core.UIComponentGlobals.

This class contains static field designMode:Boolean.

Just check that field in your component code.
You can download example component with the source code from here:
http://anychart.com/tips_and_tricks/designMode/DesignModeComponent.zip

Also you can download the usage sample:
http://anychart.com/tips_and_tricks/designMode/DesignModeComponentSample.zip

Running in the Flex Builder “Design” mode it shows AnyChart image. But when it runs in the flash player it shows only gray rectangle.