The default user interface for a Java-client graph presents options for the axes. These options include whether to display a title for the axis, the text for the title, the display of tick labels, and so on. There are two different panels for these options:
The GroupAxis
panel presents options for the ordinal axis (O1Axis
),
including:
Whether to show a title
The text to display in the title and the formatting of the text
Thickness and color of the axis
Whether to skip some tick labels on the axis and where to start if you skip
How to format tick labels
The ValueAxis
panel presents options for a data axis (X1Axis
,
Y1Axis
, Y2Axis
), including:
Whether to show a title
The text to display in the title and the formatting of the text
Thickness and color of the axis
How to format tick labels
How to scale the axis -- the minimum value, the maximum value, how frequent the tick marks should be, whether to use a logarithmic scale and, if so, what base to use
Because both the ordinal axis and the X-axis are horizontal axes (on vertically oriented graphs), end users tend to think of them both as X-axes. To simplify the task of setting options for these axes, the default user interface for the graph calls them both X-axes, to match the end users' mental model.
Using the term X-axis for both the X1Axis
and the O1Axis
is easier for end users, but it does mean that application developers must map the end-user's
term X-axis to the appropriate graph component.
In the following graph types, the end-user's X-axis maps to the O1Axis
and uses
the GroupAxis
user-interface panel:
Bar graphs
Line graphs (including point graphs)
Area graphs
3-D graphs
Stock graphs
Radar graphs
In the following graph types, the end-user's X-axis maps to the X1Axis
and uses
the ValueAxis
user-interface panel:
Scatter graphs
Bubble graph
Polar graphs