Question

Is it possible to create a key for the colors used in a diagram? I want to create a color key or like a legend.

Is there any default asp controls that I can use? I even tried to create a Rectangle shape followed by a Text. but I dont want to use a gif or any img file. (because the color codes may vary.)

I see there is a tag as legend, will that serve my purpose?

Answer 1

Consider using an HTML <table>. If the contents of the legend is static then you could create such a legend using the following markup, perhaps:

<table style="width:400px">
    <tr>
        <td style="background-color:Blue;width:50px">&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Text to appear next to the blue rectangle...</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="background-color:Red;width:50px">&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Text to appear next to the red rectangle...</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td style="background-color:Purple;width:50px">&nbsp;</td>
        <td>Text to appear next to the purple rectangle...</td>
    </tr>
    ...
</table>

The above will create a three-row, two-column table. You can add additional rows by repeating the <tr>...</tr> syntax for each row.

If the legend is dynamic – that is, if you don’t know what items will appear in the legend until runtime – then consider using the ASP.NET Table control, to which you can add rows and columns programmatically. The drill-down demo available in this article, Using Microsoft’s Chart Controls In An ASP.NET Application: Enhancing Charts With Ajax, shows how to construct such a dynamic legend.

I see there is a tag as legend, will that serve my purpose?

No, that has to do with the text that appears at the top of a set of grouped controls. For more information, see http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_legend.asp