Can an Apex Class or a Visualforce Page be the data source for a standard Salesforce dashboard component?

Question

In Salesforce, I create a dashboard and drag a pie chart component on to it. I can then drop almost any report onto the pie chart to serve as its data source. Is it possible to use a class or page to drive the Pie Chart instead of a report?

My attempts so far suggest not. I have an apex:page that is returning a very simple table of data. I can add my entire apex:page with its apex:pageblocktable to my dashboard as an embedded VisualForce Page and the table shows up fine. But it won't let me use the page as the data source for my Pie Chart. My controller class isn't even listed to try using it. Is there some way I can evolve my controller or page to make it a suitable data source for a Pie Chart or any other standard Salesforce dashboard component?

I'm starting to think the only option available to me is to make a page that renders the pie chart for itself (probably using flot) and embed that in the dashboard. I'm willing to go this route, but it sure would save me some time if I could use the standard dashboard components. Any help is appreciated.

If you're wondering why I don't just use a report, it's because I haven't found any that combine leads and contacts in one. I've followed this multi-object apex dummy class pattern to create a custom UnifiedLeadContact class with a handful of common properties from my leads and contacts. My controller runs two queries, one for leads and one for contacts, uses the results to populate a list of new UnifiedLeadContacts and returns it. That is working well to feed my table that functions similar to a lead or contact view but has both leads and contacts in it.

Answer 1

As far as I am aware there is no way to use the output of a VF page as the source of a chart.

But you can create a chart as part of your VF page.

If you have a look at http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/pages/Content/pages_charting_overview.htm

This will give you the basics on how to feed in the data to a chart ov