Setting min & max on X-axis to a time parameter

So, the report runs only for the current day, between the times entered in the parameters? Is this correct? Let me know. Also, let me know your BIRT version. Thanks.

Yes, exactly. Let's say between 07:00:00 and 08:00:00 on a single day. 
 
I have even tried hard coding a long integer when creating the date objects: 
 
<pre class='_prettyXprint _lang-auto _linenums:0'>
start_time = new Date(1337119200000);
finish_time = new Date(1337205600000);

// Get the X-Axis object
xAxisArray = chart.getBaseAxes();

// Set the Min and Max values
xAxisArray[0].getScale().setMin(DateTimeDataElementImpl.create(start_time));
xAxisArray[0].getScale().setMax(DateTimeDataElementImpl.create(finish_time));
</pre>
 
and I get the axis drawn, no errors, but no line chart either. Maybe the line chart is outside the time axis I have defined, but I did make sure the long int time was the same as the parameters passed in. 
 
I hope this makes sense... 
 
My Birt version is 3.7.2. 
 
Stephen 
 
 
<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'mwilliams'" data-cid="100624" data-time="1337269641" data-date="17 May 2012 - 08:47 AM">
So, the report runs only for the current day, between the times entered in the parameters? Is this correct? Let me know. Also, let me know your BIRT version. Thanks. </blockquote>

Take a look at this example.

Thanks for your reply. This is closer to what I am trying to achieve. But I notice the hour parameters that are selected are integers. The data sets I am dealing with have one second intervals, so it is feasible that the start and stop times could be: 07:10:00 and 07:10:40 on a selected day.

I was thinking of adding the BIRT time parameter to the date object constructor. This will give the user total flexibility.

Another option is to take the time and convert it to seconds from midnight and add it to the date (converted to seconds from the epoch). Java is not (yet) my strong suit, so any help or advice is much appreciated.

Here's the same report, only using times, hh:mm:ss, as the parameter values. Hope this helps.

Very helpful thanks. I decided to go the millisecond way though: 
 
<pre class='_prettyXprint _lang-auto _linenums:0'>
function beforeGeneration(chart, icsc)
{
importPackage( Packages.org.eclipse.birt.chart.model.data.impl );
importPackage( Packages.org.eclipse.birt.chart.util );

// Get the x axis.
xAxis = chart.getBaseAxes()[0];
scale = xAxis.getScale();

// Grab the day, start and finish time parameters.
s_date_p = icsc.getExternalContext().getScriptable().getParameterValue("day");
start_time_p = icsc.getExternalContext().getScriptable().getParameterValue("start_time");
finish_time_p = icsc.getExternalContext().getScriptable().getParameterValue("finish_time");

// Add the times to the day (as milliseconds) and it seems a timezone offset needs to be used.
start = new Date(s_date_p.getTime() + start_time_p.getTime() - (start_time_p.getTimezoneOffset() * 60000) );
finish = new Date(s_date_p.getTime() + finish_time_p.getTime() - (start_time_p.getTimezoneOffset() * 60000) );

// Apply the new times to the start and end of the x axis.
scale.setMin( DateTimeDataElementImpl.create(start) );
scale.setMax( DateTimeDataElementImpl.create(finish) );
}
</pre>
 
The UTC offset I found confusing... I am at +1 GMT (CEST), but I think this correct. Without that adjustment the time used by the axis is 1 hour earlier. 
 
Anyway, the chart now behaves like this when the start time parameter is set to 05:00:00

So, the data is supposed to be shifted over an hour earlier? Or is the data just missing? Since I can't see the data, I don't know what you're expecting.

Let me know!

There is no data before where the chart has started drawing the line. But I had the request to have a parameter set time axis so the user can see when the data starts and that there was definitely no data before then.

Also, the parameter set time span produces an easier to read scale and gridlines..Intervals between

06:00:00 and 08:00:00

are easier to understand than between (for example)

06:23:39 and 07:45:33

when the engine draws the chart based upon available data.

Sorry for the delay. I had been working on a project that didn't allow me to get back in here, this week. Do you have what you're wanting, now? Or is this still an issue? Are you wanting there to be less space between the minimum scale value and the actual start of the data? Would using the minimum value of the data to determine how far back to set the scale be helpful? Let me know.

Hi I have this exact similar question.But in my case i'm getting the report parameters from another report (which takes them from a oracle db). Format of the report parameter date is like this 
2015-04-30 17:40:30.000
But in the preview result of the data set used to plot the chart , time_stamp column(column used to take data for x axis) values are formatted like this May 6, 2015, 5:07 PM. 
But both the values are taken from a oracle db.Only difference is the report parameter is passed from a different report.(Drilled Down method)
 
I tried the codes mentioned here to set the min max values of the chart to the start and end dates taken from the report parameters but it always gives me a date format error.
 
I tried adjusting the format of the report parameters but it still gives an Chart (id = 232):
<div style="color:rgb(255,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.3333330154419px;">+ TypeError: Cannot find function getHours in object May 6, 2015, 5:07 PM. at line 23 of chart script:''stm</div>
<div style="color:rgb(255,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.3333330154419px;"> </div>
<div style="color:rgb(255,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.3333330154419px;">Could you please help me out with this?

</div>

And when i do a workaround those errors, I get this error

<div style="color:rgb(255,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.3333330154419px;">Chart (id = 232):</div>
<div style="color:rgb(255,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13.3333330154419px;">+ Unable to render too many steps. Please adjust the Scale Step or Unit.</div>

Have you tried using SimpleDateFormat to format the date to the format you need?

To which format should it be formatted. 
I tried following coding and gave the time as milliseconds using the "start" and "end" parameters.
 
<div>
<pre class="_prettyXprint">
importPackage(Packages.org.eclipse.birt.chart.model.data.impl);

function beforeGeneration( chart, icsc )
{
//importPackage(Packages.birt);

//var jd = new jsonDemo();
//startDate_p = jd.getEpochTime(getParameterValue("start"));
//endDate_p = jd.getEpochTime(getParameterValue("end"));

/* Get the start and end dates from the parameters */
startDate_p = icsc.getExternalContext().getScriptable().getParameterValue("start");
endDate_p = icsc.getExternalContext().getScriptable().getParameterValue("end");

//startDate_p = "1429099830000";
//endDate_p = "1429100041000";

/* Convert the datetimes */
startDate = new Date(parseFloat(startDate_p));
endDate = new Date(parseFloat(endDate_p));

/* Get the X-Axis object */
xAxisArray = chart.getBaseAxes();

/* Set the Min and Max values */
xAxisArray[0].getScale().setMin(DateTimeDataElementImpl.create(startDate));
xAxisArray[0].getScale().setMax(DateTimeDataElementImpl.create(endDate));

}</pre>
Then the x axis got changed to the given time range but the data didn't get displayed.

</div>

If I pass the epoch time (seconds since Jan 1, 1970) through a parameter, I get the values I expect on my dateTime axis, if I change your startDate and endDate lines to:
 
<pre class="_prettyXprint _linenums:0">startDate = new Date(1970,0,1,0,0,startDate_p);
endDate = new Date(1970,0,1,0,0,endDate_p);
</pre>
 
Hope this helps.

I tried this way also but then i got this kind of output. 
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7oMG03R1lyZkJOM2c/view?usp=sharing'>https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7oMG03R1lyZkJOM2c/view?usp=sharing</a> 


These are the values i'm passing 
 
start = "1429099830000" = 2015-04-30 17:40:30.000 
end = "1429100041000" = 2015-04-30 17:44:01.000 
 
Previous code i posted gives me this out put. 
Output 1
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7ockp6LVhMcHN2RkU/view?usp=sharing'>https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7ockp6LVhMcHN2RkU/view?usp=sharing</a> 
 
The output without setting the min max values looks like this 
Output 2 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7ocUZUb3VtWmtpUnc/view?usp=sharing'>https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7ocUZUb3VtWmtpUnc/view?usp=sharing</a>
 
What i want to achieve is the combination of these two outputs.I think there's something wrong with the settings of the chart. :mellow:
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7oNlBPQ1JzUEJCQ2c/view?usp=sharing'>https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7oNlBPQ1JzUEJCQ2c/view?usp=sharing</a>

What is your grouping set at on your x-axis? You can see this on the select data tab by clicking the sorting and grouping button next to the x-axis field.

If you can set up a simple example showing your issue using a flat file source or something, it might help out a bit.

Grouping is done on the TIMESTAMP column. 
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7oOExGNG9UMGU4WkU/view?usp=sharing'>https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7oOExGNG9UMGU4WkU/view?usp=sharing</a>
 
I'll create a simple example and share in a while

I have created this example report with the exact set of data in an excel sheet.
I used a excel data source and data set.
 
<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7oYm9qRHRBQzlXd00/view?usp=sharing'>https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8JZMxx6Km7oYm9qRHRBQzlXd00/view?usp=sharing</a>
 
In this report you can see when the last two lines of the chart script is commented the data will be displayed but with the x axis range of 17.39 - 17.42
 
But when it's uncommented it will display the x axis in correct range 17.40 - 17.44 but without the data.