Upgrading from FusionCharts Free to FusionCharts v3

If at any time, you feel the need to upgrade from FusionCharts Free to FusionCharts v3 to harness the powerful and advanced features of v3, you can painlessly do so. Upgrading just involves copying and pasting the v3 SWF files and you're ready to roll. You do not even need to make any changes to your XML structure.

We've tried to make FusionCharts v3 as backward compatible as possible. Effectively, that means you can simply over-write your existing FusionCharts Free SWF files with the new v3 SWF files and they'll still work the same way, without incurring any changes in the XML. However, there might be minor differences in the looks of the new chart, as we've tried to enhance looks in v3.

To upgrade from FusionCharts Free to v3 charts, all you need to do is:

  1. Replace FusionCharts Free SWF with the new v3 SWF Files.
  2. Either rename the v3 SWF files to use old FusionCharts Free SWF names or update your code to use new SWF names.
  3. Clear your browser cache.
The above process doesn't automatically enables the chart to use ALL the new features introduced in v3. To do so, you'll have to add the appropriate v3 elements/attributes in your XML document.
 
Changed Behaviors

There are few changed behaviors from FusionCharts Free to v3 listed below:

  • Root element of XML data document has been changed from <graph> to <chart>. However, <graph> element would still continue to work from your old XML documents. But, we recommend using <chart> element for any new charts that you now make.
  • <set name='' ...> has been changed to <set label=''> for better interpretation. <set name=''> would still continue to work for backward compatibility, but we recommend using <set label=''> now.
  • Similarly, <category name='' ...> has been changed to <category label='' ...>.
  • showNames and rotateNames attributes of <chart> element are now showLabels and rotateLabels respectively.
  • hoverText attribute converted to toolText. Also, toolText now shows the exact information provided for the attribute thereby not adding data values as a part of tooltip.
  • vDivLines and vertical grid colors not supported in bar and column charts any more, as vertical separator lines have been introduced.
  • Developers who're URLEncoding their characters in dataURL mode need not do so anymore.
  • showYAxisValues attribute now manages both showLimits and showDivLineValues.
  • showAnchors attribute renamed to drawAnchors
  • In Dual Y Axis Charts, number formatting properties (like numberPrefix, numberSuffix etc.) are now provided as attributes of <chart> element instead of <dataset> element.