Background: I am using Javacript InfoVis Toolkit (JIT) to display a diagram to a user in a web browser that displays dataflows for a metadata repository we are developing. It generates a SpaceTree diagram, showing nodes and arrows to demonstrate how one data element (a field on a file) flows into another data element. (See attached image) The basic architecture of my application is a Java EE Spring 3 IoC/Hibernate based web app with GWT front end.
Problem: I now have a requirement to generate many of these diagrams on the server side as attachments to an Excel report. Of course, JIT is a javascript utility and not available to me when generating the Excel report on the server side. I have been researching SVG and VML, but have not found a server side Java Library that will create the same type of diagram to an image file as I am creating with JIT. I would prefer any technology I integrate into my application be well-established and have BSD licensing.
As I am a new user to stackoverflow, they will not yet allow me to upload an image, so here is a link to an example diagram I generated on the client side with JIT for your reference. http://i892.photobucket.com/albums/ac130/originalthought/lineage_diagram.jpg
