Is it possible to export/save tooltips with MSChart in ASP.NET?

Question

I currently have two separated servers; an internal server with a database and an external server to which clients have access. On the internal server I want to query a database and generate a number of charts based on requests made by clients. So far I can do that, generate the charts, and using the SaveImage() function export those charts as PNG images I can send to the client server.

However, I would like to also export the tooltips generated by MSChart, so when the clients view the charts (as pre-rendered PNGs) they can also view the tooltips. I'm under the impression that the MSChart control generates those tooltips as a <map><area> which is output to the page when the charts are rendered, but is it possible to have that output to, for example, a text file, so that when I call the PNG charts I can also call and output the relevant map?

Answer 1

YES, it is possible, albeit indirectly, with the Serializer() function

By using Chart.Serializer.Save("filename.xml"), you can export all of the details needed to recreate a chart as an XML file. This means you don't also have to use SaveImage() to export a PNG, because when you import the XML with Chart.Serializer.Load("filename.xml") in your client-side page, you will be able to re-render the chart, tooltips and all.

If it is absolutely necessary to produce a PNG file with an associated <map><area>, you may be able to export the XML (or to a a memory stream) and then process that data to reproduce the necessary HTML and save it as plain text (eg: to a database). If the client-side server has no ASP processing capabilities, this might be a necessary extra step on the server-side application.

Thanks to Chris Zeh for the lead to the MSDN article that helped me figure out this solution.