dotProject Annoyance #38 – Gantt Charts

One of the most common issues hit with new dotProject installs happens when a user dives into the Gantt Charts. The exact message is:

JpGraph Error:
Font file "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/truetype/arial.ttf"
is not readable or does not exist.

Previously, we've been unable to do much about it. We – and the jpGraph group – don't have the legal authority to distribute these fonts. While there is a module on SourceForge – called corefonts – which provides these fonts, it's rarely a viable option for our users on shared hosting servers. Luckily, while watching the commit messages a couple weeks ago, I saw Cyberhorse commit the solution to Head.

He simply tracked down a free fonts package, added it to dotProject, and tweaked the jpGraph library to include these fonts. We've specifically avoided modifying third party libraries* in the past – instead opting to pass fixes back to those groups – in this case it simply made the most sense. This has been a problem plaguing our users for years and enough is enough. The best part about this is that these changes have been backported to the stable_2 branch (the 2.0 and 2.1 lines) and should be included in the next release. Hopefully we can put this one to rest once and for all.

* I am investigating a way of "registering" the custom font with the jpGraph library with the goal of removing our customization but I haven't figured out a reliable way yet. If you have some insight in this area, please pass it along to someone on the dotProject team.