Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use?

#31

Post by dirtyaura » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 4:34 PM UTC

I recently used Django to implemented sales reporting and analysis service for sales organization of a few hundred people.

For charts, I've used flot and it's been so far adequate for my needs (timeseries and some bar charts). I personally prefer more Tufte-like charts than the default flot style, but the customer has been delighted of flot's style.

By the way, forget pie charts, they are a bad idea. Use e.g. a simple bar chart instead.

To quote Tufte: “The only worse design than a pie chart is several of them, for then the viewer is asked to compare quantities in spatial disarray both within and between pieces.”

Re: Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use?

#32

Post by agbegin » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 4:40 PM UTC

Have you checked out ZingChart? Transparency: I'm on the team.

Zing renders both Flash and HTML5 Canvas charts. Compatible and customizable + interactive API.

For your consideration: http://www.zingchart.com http://www.zingchart.com/flash-and-html5-canvas/

Shoot me questions at abegin@zingchart.com or http://www.twitter.com/zingchart (Andrew)

Re: Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use?

#33

Post by ulf » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 4:51 PM UTC

As an encore, does anybody know about a library that lets you modify charts in realtime? I would like to have basic pie charts, where I could resize partitions, add and remove.

Re: Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use?

#34

Post by wpeterson » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 4:53 PM UTC

briandoll wrote: post #2

At New Relic, we use HighCharts ( http://highcharts.com/ ). We constantly get questions from our customers about which library we use, because they like the way they look and function. Highly recommended.

+1 for High Charts. We're using these for some of our newer, light-weight charting options at PatientsLikeMe.

Great bang for the buck as your go-to first charting solution until you need something custom.

Re: Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use?

#35

Post by bhiggins » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 4:59 PM UTC

I've only surveyed what's out there a little, but I am impressed with Protovis's demos and apparent flexibility: http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/

Re: Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use?

#36

Post by frist44 » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 4:59 PM UTC

We use jqplot

Re: Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use?

#37

Post by dlokshin » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 5:03 PM UTC

ulf wrote: post #33

As an encore, does anybody know about a library that lets you modify charts in realtime? I would like to have basic pie charts, where I could resize partitions, add and remove.

You should be able to do this with Raphael. (http://g.raphaeljs.com)

Re: Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use?

#38

Post by trefn » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 5:04 PM UTC

briandoll wrote: post #2

At New Relic, we use HighCharts ( http://highcharts.com/ ). We constantly get questions from our customers about which library we use, because they like the way they look and function. Highly recommended.

also in use at Mixpanel.

Re: Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use?

#39

Post by mgrouchy » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 5:09 PM UTC

briandoll wrote: post #2

At New Relic, we use HighCharts ( http://highcharts.com/ ). We constantly get questions from our customers about which library we use, because they like the way they look and function. Highly recommended.

We use it as well. No problems to date. Its pretty great.

Re: Ask HN: What charts javascript library to use?

#40

Post by piranha » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 5:23 PM UTC

bradleyland wrote: post #20

We use Flot currently, but we're looking at purchasing a license for Emprise. Specifically, they offer candlestick charts, which are difficult to find elsewhere, yet absolutely critical in expressing the volatility of series data. http://www.ejschart.com/ IMO, candlestick charts are way underutilized. Take application response time graphs for example. Most reporting suites rely on moving averages. If your application…

Protovis can do candlestick charts: http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ex/candlestick.html