ChartDirector 7.0 (Perl Edition)

Installation


Perl Version Compatibility

ChartDirector for Perl requires at least Perl 5.8, and has been tested up to Perl 5.40 (the latest Perl release as of the date of this document).

Installing ChartDirector for Perl

ChartDirector for Perl does not require installation. Simply extract the ChartDirector for Perl download to a directory to use it.

Running ChartDirector Sample Programs

ChartDirector for Perl comes with numerous sample Perl scripts under the "ChartDirector/perldemo" directory. They are good examples and tutorials on how to use ChartDirector.

You may run these sample scripts to verify that ChartDirector is correctly installed.

To run the ChartDirector sample scripts:

Using ChartDirector for Perl in Your Own Scripts

To use ChartDirector for Perl in your own script, you would need to include the ChartDirector for Perl module in your code like:

use lib "/path/to/module/directory"; use perlchartdir;

In the above, the "/path/to/module/directory" is the directory that contains the ChartDirector for Perl module. The "use lib" statement adds this directory to the Perl module search path so that the Perl interpreter can find the ChartDirector for Perl module "perlchartdir".

In the sample code, the ChartDirector for Perl module is assumed to be located in the "../lib" directory relative to the script, so in the sample code, there are the following lines:

#Add the "../lib" directory to the Perl module search path use File::Basename; use lib dirname($0)."/../lib"; #Use the ChartDirector for Perl module use perlchartdir;

As an alternative to the "use lib" statement, you can copy the ChartDirector for Perl module to a directory in the default Perl module search path. In this way, only one line is needed:

use perlchartdir;

The default Perl module search path can be found by using "perl -V" and looking for the @INC variable. To copy the ChartDirector for Perl module to the directory, you should copy *everything* inside "ChartDirector/lib", including all files and the fonts subdirectory. (Note: The fonts subdirectory is only available for certain operating system editions of ChartDirector.)

Installing the ChartDirector License

If you have purchased a license to use ChartDirector, you should have a license key delivered to your via email and postal mail. Please install the license key as according to the following instructions.

Even without a license key, ChartDirector will work normally, but the charts will include a yellow bar at the bottom that marks the charts as produced by the "unregistered" ChartDirector. You can freely test ChartDirector for as long as necessary.

If your license key is for upgrading from a previous version of ChartDirector, please append the upgrade license key to the previous version license key, and use the combined license key.

ChartDirector Developer License

Please follow the steps below to install the license key for the "ChartDirector Developer License":

The license file should remove the "unregistered" message on the charts. If the license file appears to have no effect, please refer to http://www.advsofteng.com/license_diag.html for trouble-shooting instructions.

ChartDirector Redistribute License

The "ChartDirector Redistribute License" can be installed using the same method as that of the "ChartDirector Developer License". You can also embed the license key in your code by adding a line to call perlchartdir::setLicenseCode and pass the license key as the argument.

perlchartdir::setLicenseCode(".....your-license-key.....");