Using Google Charts in Email Messages Using AMPscript

The Data Extension

The data extension structure varies depending on your chart needs. In this example, the data extension contains fields for 5 individual cases and 5 individual months.

The AMPscript

The AMPscript below takes the information from a data extension and concatenates that information into a URL for use with the Google Chart API.

%%[
Var @url, @row
Set @row = Row(LookupRows("Graph Data",_SubscriberKey),1)
Set @url = "http://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=300x225&chxr=0,0,10&chxt=y&chds=0,10&chd=t:"
Set @url = Concat(@url,Field(@row,"cases_1"))
Set @url = Concat(@url,",",Field(@row,"cases_2"))
Set @url = Concat(@url,",",Field(@row,"cases_3"))
Set @url = Concat(@url,",",Field(@row,"cases_4"))
Set @url = Concat(@url,",",Field(@row,"cases_5"))
Set @url = Concat(@url,"&cht=bvg&chl=")
Set @url = Concat(@url,Field(@row,"month_1"))
Set @url = Concat(@url,"%7C",Field(@row,"month_2"))
Set @url = Concat(@url,"%7C",Field(@row,"month_3"))
Set @url = Concat(@url,"%7C",Field(@row,"month_4"))
Set @url = Concat(@url,"%7C",Field(@row,"month_5"))
]%%

The Email Message

In addition to the AMPscript shown above, the email message includes an HTML div section that takes the Google Chart and places it inside the email message:

<div style="text-align: center; ">
<img vspace="0" hspace="0" border="0" src="%%=v(@url)=%%" title="googlechart" alt="CRMpiechart" /><br />
</div>

The Final Product

The sample email below shows the information taken from the data extension and rendered into an image via the Google Chart API: