Hi there,
I have finally found the solution to migrating RadCharts to Q3 2011. Below will be the step-by-step process I took for anyone else that are experiencing the same problems. I will also list the symptoms that people might encounter with RadChart during their migration to Q3 2011 and the solution following.
Custom Theme for RadChart Q3 2011
Symptom: When using custom themes (Telerik approach), bar, pie or lines are not visible even when the chart contains data and seems to have loaded without any errors or exceptions.
Diagnosis: From what I have been made aware of the Q3 2011 release is that there has been changes made to the theming mechanism of Telerik controls. This means that you will be required to perform an additional step when using custom themes for RadChart. The step is indeed mentioned here in Telerik's documentation, however, the documentation is not completely clear (IMO).
Solution: Here are the steps you need to take to migrate custom themes for RadChart to Q3 2011.
1. Create a new resource file in your theme project and give it a meaningful name (e.g. Telerik.Windows.Controls.Charting.Resources.xaml).
2. Copy and paste all the XAML animation code from
here into that resource file.
3. Find and replace the string sequence "My" with the name of your custom theme (omitting "Theme" if your theme name ends with "Theme"). This step is also mentioned in the documentation.
4. Open your Silverlight application's App.xaml and merge the newly created resource in. See code sample below.
Custom RadChart for Q3 2011
Symptom: Custom charts (user custom control that inherit or extends RadChart) will not load and throws an exception.
Diagnosis: The style of RadChart has changed from Q3 2011 to previous versions, now requiring additional resources and containing more "named parts". This means that if you have created a custom control (AKA. templated control) that inherit from RadChart, you will need to also update your control style and template accordingly. Failing to do so will reward you with the following run-time exception:
Solution: Here I will try to keep the steps as simple and as clear as possible because this solution will be different for each case and is dependent on the complexity of your styling.
1. Open your custom control style (typically located under Themes/MyCustomChart.xaml of your control library) and compare it to the default styling of the RadChart in Q3 2011. You will notice that there are a few differences in the chart's control template.
2. Depending on how complex you have styled your custom chart, try to merge the differences between your style and the default RadChart style in Q3 2011. You can use a "diff tool" such as
WinMerge to assist you. In my case, my custom style was not complex so my best option was to completely copy the default style (including any resources) for RadChart and make the modifications required to get it back to my original chart style.
3. Make certain that the new style targets your custom control and not the default "telerik:RadChart". See code sample below.
This concludes my RadChart migration guide. I hope you find this helpful and please comment/add on any additional hints and gotchas that you may find to help others that are experiencing the same issues relating to migrating RadChart to Q3 2011.