Gantt Chart component/library
Hi, I am looking for a component or a library or a framework to draw Gantt Charts much like MS Project. Either a free or a paid solution will do. I need to be able to incorporate it with my .Net application (written in C# 2005). I have searched around and found several solutions which more or less come close to what I am looking for. But I would like to hear from someone who might have researched it in the past and know about some good components or libraries out there.
Basically, I would like to simulate MS Project's project management charting solution, but in a simplified version.
Thanks in advance for any pointers.
Mehdi
There are many companies providing .NET controls for charting and I would expect that most of the big players have support for Gantt charts.
In the ISV lab we work mainly with Infragistics. They have support for Gantt in their charting control (http://www.infragistics.com/Products/NetAdvantage/WinForms/ChartingFeatures.aspx), but I don't have experience in using that specific chart type.
Other vendors such as Component One (http://helpcentral.componentone.com/C1WebDocs/?url=/docs/c1chart2d&file=ganttproperties.htm) and Dundas (http://www.dundas.com/Gallery/Chart/NET/index.aspx?Img=Other9) support Gantt as well.
As an ISV, I would consider factors such as licence terms, stability/reputation of vendor, availability of source code, quality of support etc more than initial price before taking a dependency. Then, if you program aganst an interface (as opposed to straight to the control) and structure you UI code properly using well proven UI patterns (such as MVP/MVC, Adapter, Command etc) you can completely isolate the view and the control that displays the Gantt diagram, allowing you to easilly replace one chart control with another if it one day doesn't meet you needs anymore.
Thanks kroxa, we have already checked that one out. It is good, has almost all the features we want and even more. However, the price of a component for one commercial application is a little too much for us (US$ 12000). With twelve thousand dollars we are better off developing it ourselves.
We are also evaluating GTP.Net from plexityhide now, which has a reasonable price (US$ 900; optional source code included with additional cost), and seems to serve most of our needs. And they have a very good customer service (they responded to my email inquiries in about an hour). If anybody has any comments to make about GPT.Net then please do so now, we are still evaluating it.
We also looked into ActiveGantt. The biggest problem with them is their customer service. They didn't respond to my queries yet (it has been 2 weeks I think). And their web form for prospective customers' queries is down. Also, I think the component has a couple of bugs (in one case the event argument was not the right type; in another case a property change had no effect, etc).
Besides these, we have checked other components as well (Dundas Chart, Chart FX, Aspose Chart, ChartDirector, Varchart XGantt, etc), but most of them are not Gantt oriented, so they had little user interactivity and customizability in the charts.
Anyways, we are probably going for GTP.Net from plexityhide if nothing dramatic happens in the meantime.
Thanks
I understand you didn't find a good Gantt Chart component yet, with a low price. I'm not sure if you have checked DlhSoft Project Management Control Library, which contains a GanttChart-enabled control (ProjectView).
Anyway, now there is another product which supports data-binding to any custom data source (objects list, DataSet/DataTable, etc.). It's called DlhSoft Project Data Control Library and it is a different product because it has a complete different design and goals list. Check it out if you want. The price is as low as 389 USD for a single developer license.
