OAS - Dynamic Graphs Question

Hi-

I have a customer who wants to present on the web dynamically created graphs built from data stored in his Oracle database. He's got Oracle Application Server (version 3) running on Windows NT server. Basically, the process as far as the end user is concerned is as follows:

1. Open an HTML page.
2. Enter report criteria.
3. Submit Form.
4. View resulting graph.

I know that you can generate real simple bar graphs using OAS (I think it does so with tables and backgrounds, etc), but the graphs needed here are more complex.

So, my thinking goes something like this:

1. Request for a graph comes in to OAS
2. Request is passed to a custom-built cartridge
3. Cartridge calls some graphing/report software (like Crystal Reports or Excel) which generates the graph and spits it out into a GIF file.
4. Cartridge picks up this gif file and sends it back out to the browser.

Scalability shouldn't be a big issue here- the number of people requesting these graphs will be pretty minimal.

Am I in the right ballpark here? Is there a different approach to consider? Is there a packaged solution to this?

Any input greatly appreciated...

Thomas Barry
TwoCoast Consulting
tbarry_at_twocoast.com Received on Fri Oct 23 1998 - 00:00:00 CDT