Few Tips on Gantt Charts - Part 2

In one of my previous blog post, Few tips on Gantt Charts, I have explained how you can create Gantt chart to show employees calendar data. In this blog post, I am going to explain two more tips on the Gantt chart. This is continuation of previous blog post. So, if you have not read it yet, I recommend to read it first and then come here.

Vertical Grid for Minor Axis

If you go to Gantt Chart > Attributes, there you can enable vertical and horizontal grid lines using "Show Vertical Grid" and "Show Horizontal Grid" options. In our example, horizontal grid lines displays a line after every employee row. This looks good. However, vertical grid lines are displayed based on "Major Axis". So if "months" are displayed as scale for major axis, then vertical grid line is displayed after every month. However, it will be helpful if we display vertical grid line after every day (minor axis), especially when there are several employees in the Gantt chart. So how can we display grid lines for minor axis? 

We can achieve this using little trick. Just swap the axes definitions, so minor axes displays on the top and major axes is displayed below minor axes. Here is the JS code to do this. You need to keep this code in "Gantt Chart > Attributes > JavaScript Initialization Code" section.

function(options) {
 // number of days displayed in Gantt Window
 var windowDays = $v("P14_GANTT_DAYS");
 // axes options
 var minorAxisOptions = {},
  majorAxisOptions = {};
 // set scale and zoom order for minor and major axes 
 // depending on number of window days
 if (windowDays > 0 && windowDays <= 90) {
  minorAxisOptions = {
   "scale": "days",
   "zoomOrder": ['quarters', 'months', 'weeks', 'days']
  };
  majorAxisOptions = {
   "scale": "months",
   "zoomOrder": ['months', 'weeks', 'days']
  };
 } else if (windowDays > 90 && windowDays <= 270) {
  minorAxisOptions = {
   "scale": "months",
   "zoomOrder": ['quarters', 'months', 'weeks', 'days']
  };
  majorAxisOptions = {
   "scale": "quarters",
   "zoomOrder": ['quarters', 'months', 'weeks', 'days']
  };
 } else if (windowDays > 270 && windowDays <= 730) {
  minorAxisOptions = {
   "scale": "months",
   "zoomOrder": ['quarters', 'months', 'weeks', 'days']
  };
  majorAxisOptions = {
   "scale": "years",
   "zoomOrder": ['years', 'quarters', 'months', 'weeks', 'days']
  };
 } else {
  minorAxisOptions = {
   "scale": "quarters",
   "zoomOrder": ['quarters', 'months', 'weeks', 'days']
  };
  majorAxisOptions = {
   "scale": "years",
   "zoomOrder": ['years', 'quarters', 'months', 'weeks', 'days']
  };
 }
 // to display vertical grind lines for minor axis, just reverse the axes
 // minor axis will display first and then major axis will be displayed
 options.minorAxis = majorAxisOptions;
 options.majorAxis = minorAxisOptions;
 return options;
}

Dynamic Height for Gantt Chart

You can define Gantt Chart height in "Gantt Chart > Attributes > Layout > Height" section. However, you have to specify "height" in pixel. i.e. height of the Gantt chart is static. So, how can you make it dynamic? How can we adjust Gantt chart height automatically based on data?

You can do this with little JS code. 

1) As usual, define "Height" in Gantt chart attributes. Here, specify maximum height that should be used for the Gantt chart. In the case of demo, it's been specified as 600 pixel.

2) Create a D.A. which will fire "After Refresh" of the Gantt chart region. Create "True" action with type "Execute JavaScript Code" and put below JS code.  If you are refreshing Gantt chart region using AJAX call (Using "Refresh" D.A.), then you have to specify "Event Scope" as "Dynamic" for this dynamic action. In case of demo, when you click "Go" button then page is being submitted. So I have specified "Event Scope" as "Static".

D.A. JavaScript Code:

try {
 // static ID specified for Gantt Chart Region is emp_gantt_chart
 var ganttContainer = document.querySelector("#db_outer").getBoundingClientRect();
 // 70 pixel is for the axes displayed
 var ganttHeight = ganttContainer.height + 70;
 // limit max height for gantt to 600
 ganttHeight = (ganttHeight < 600) ? ganttHeight : 600;
 // container div will have _jet appended to region static id
 $('#emp_gantt_chart_jet').css("height", ganttHeight);
} catch (err) {
 console.log('Error in "Gantt Chart Dynamic Height" D.A.' + err.message);
}

Here is the link to demo.

Thank you.