ColdFusion 11 Destroyed My Charts

[sdsinc_pmascari]

Surely we can't be the only ones who are disappointed with the newest charting engine in CF11?  Yes, ZingCharts can be cool and the plethora of style options gives us total freedom to build the perfect chart.  However, that is also the root of the problem!  Since CF8, CFCHART has been adequate for our needs.  It produced good looking chart images and was just flexible enough for us to produce what we needed while staying simple enough for us to put together quickly and move on in development.  This has been true up through CF10....

We just installed CF11 on our test server and it has DESTROYED every chart we produce using the same code we've had in place for years.

Custom chart colors: gone.  Readability: hit or miss.  3D angles and depths: changed.  Proper fitting of images in pages: gone.  Legends specifically told to hide: now showing, and showing incorrectly.  Labels: FUBAR.

What the hell?!  Who was in charge of the backward compatibility of this charting engine?  The least that should have been done was to give us a default style similar to the old one.

Again, we liked the simplicity the old engine gave us.  And, while it would be cool to spend some time with the ZingChart Editor creating super awesome charts, we don't have the time to mess with the minutiae of all the little details for these charts.  But it looks like I have no choice.  So, instead of proceeding with our upgrade to CF11 we have to stop and reconfigure hundreds of CFCHART tags!

Here are some examples of our mangled charts that have had NO CODE CHANGES from CF10 to CF11:

CF10	CF11

OK, rant over.  Have to waste time fixing this bullsh*t...

[mike42780]

Right there with you.  Going from CF9 to CF11 and all my charts are completely destroyed!  Have to completely redo everything before I can move this into production.  Why Adobe?

[D S Shinde]

Coldfusion has provided a way to convert old xml style sheet of cfchart to the JASON format but doing that also we cannot achieve the old look and feel for charts.Is there any way to include old WebCharts3D http://www.gpoint.com/engine in cf11?

[D S Shinde]

@sdsinc_pmascari - Do you found any way to fix the cfcharts in CF11 with minimal changes?

[sdsinc_pmascari]

Sorry, I did not find a way to fix easily.  I've had to go through one by one and fix the charts by using JSON styling.  In the CF Documentation, each attribute that says it requires a "A struct of keys" will accept it.  It has been pure trial and error to get the charts looking somewhat normal again.

The documentation for what struct/JSON is needed can be found here:

http://www.zingchart.com/docs/json-attributes-syntax/

[BKBK]

Please report this as a bug, including the image as proof.

[sdsinc_pmascari]

I have submitted several bugs and included the images.  I even had reps from Adobe reach out with offers of help.  But, sadly, after I replied to their original offers I never heard from them again.  Way to follow up, Adobe!

What's more infuriating is most of the bugs I've posted, as well as those I've encountered but were already posted by others, have been listed as "Fixed" in the bugbase.  Yet....there have been no updates for CF released!  So, Adobe, you've supposedly fixed these bugs but you leave us hanging with no solution and no timeframe as to when we might see these fixes?  I long for the old "hotfix" days rather than waiting for big update releases.  Bravo, Adobe.....

[Anit_Kumar]

We apologize for the inconvenience caused. Can you share the bug numbers, you are referencing to?

Regards,

Anit Kumar

[sdsinc_pmascari]

Inconvenience?  That's putting it lightly.  We've put off our entire CF11 deployment due to this issue.  It's put us behind for at least 6 months.

Might I also add: these are issues I've run into in trying to FIX the terrible looking charts in the first place!  So, not only is the backward compatibility of CFChart non-existent in CF11, it's filled with bugs that make it impossible to "fix" without completely recoding the way the charts are implemented.

Bugs (not all were submitted by me):

3800311

3798825

3797316

3756789

3756754

3756738

[Anit_Kumar]

We are looking into it.

Regards,

Anit Kumar

[D S Shinde]

@Anit- Do  you come to any conclusion? It's very serious issue and hoping for the help ASAP!

[Anit_Kumar]

I have a fix, and I am currently testing it. I will keep you posted.

Regards,

Anit Kumar

[BKBK]

Good news, Anit Kumar!

[Anit_Kumar]

just an fyi,

We tested the fix with two of the users. The hotfix didn't fix the issue. We are currently working on it.

Regards,

Anit Kumar

[BKBK]

Power to your pencil, Anit Kumar!

[fede_ctfd]

I add my line to the sad list of destroyed charts,

jus upgraded to CF11

and spent three hours now fixing bad charts, still going...

worst of all seems to be "pie" type, comes out too small if showing legend and/or labels together

big problem also the legend who is thieving out a lot of space which was used for the main chart before

and empty title bordered box showing for non-titled charts

to be fair, however, default styles look pretty good (at least compared to CF8)

[stuartw81]

I also have old code that I'm having to amend.

Specifically the empty title box with a border showing for non-titled charts and having to remove style="default" too.

I look forward to a hotfix for this.

[Anit_Kumar]

The "title" issue would be fixed soon and the others are being worked upon, as we discuss.

Regards,

Anit Kumar

[dagpet1960]

Hello Anit

When do you expect a fix for this issue?

No point for us upgrading to CF11 until there is a fix for CFcharts.

Mvh

Dag Pettersen

[c_siegfried]

I Feel your Pain.  Need a downgrade ...

[shinglehouse]

Any updates on this?  I just discovered that the upgrade to CF11 also destroyed my charts.  Sigh

[sdsinc_pmascari]

I asked Adobe in an email and received this response:

"Cfchart is something we are working on and would update you after consulting with Engg.

[We have] sent a few test cases to Engg to get them fixed. "

I do not know who/what "Engg" is.

So, still waiting.  My opinion is that, the developers got the new CFChart "working" for CF11 but somehow thorough testing for functionality and backward compatibility were totally missed.  How it ever got through BETA testing is a mystery as well.  I think Adobe owes its community an explanation, apology, and some kind of compensation or offer of good faith.

At this point, I'm guessing a hot fix isn't going to be released.  We're probably looking at a major version update before relief.  CF11.1 maybe?

[porkchop520]

So are there any recent updates regarding these issues? We're having the same problem and would like to know the timetable for a resolution.

[Anit_Kumar]

Please apply the pre-release update 3 ColdFusion 11 Update 3 build has been updated — Adobe ColdFusion Blog

Regards,

Anit Kumar

[porkchop520]

Thanks for your reply. This helps for testing & development, but I cannot put out a pre-release update to a production server. Any idea of when this will be officially released?