Charting Solutions for SharePoint

Looking for a charting solution for SharePoint list data within your site? Here’s a quick summary of some options:

Dundas Chart for SharePoint
http://www.dundas.com/Products/Chart/SharePoint/index.aspx
$1999 server licence *

Bamboo Chart Plus
http://store.bamboosolutions.com/pc-57-1-chart-plus-web-part-release-22.aspx
$400 server licence *

LiteSuite LiteChart
http://www.litesuite.com/pages/litechart.aspx
$100 per Site Collection *

ChartPart
http://www.codeplex.com/ChartPart
Requires Microsoft .NET 3.5 Framework SP1 and the Microsoft Chart Controls for Microsoft .NET 3.5 installed.

Excel Services
Excel Services is one of the Business Intelligence features that comes as part of MOSS Enterprise Licence – see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms561082.aspx. Luis F. Bitencourt-Emilio did a great article which included consuming SharePoint Lists in Excel Services – http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb267252.aspx. Excel Services can then be used to create charts of the data in SharePoint list. Very flexible but could take some time to setup, configure, etc. as required.

Data View Web Part
You can do quite a bit with XSLT in a Data View web part – see for example http://paulgalvin.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!1CC1EDB3DAA9B8AA!447.entry. However, developing custom XSLT can be quite involved.

DIY
Of course, if you have time, resources and the necessary skills available, one can always take the DIY approach and develop your own charting solution. Silverlight opens up a whole new world of possibilities in this approach. For inspiration, have a look at http://weblogs.asp.net/jan/archive/2008/12/04/3d-silverlight-charts-in-sharepoint-smarttools-charts.aspx

If we’ve missed out on any other noteworthy options, please feel free to let us know.

* Prices correct at time of writing but subject to change.