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

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

#51

Post by whouweling » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 6:52 PM UTC

qbproger wrote: post #3

Flot is worth a shot. There may be a python library to generate is server side. When I looked into it, I kept going back and forth between javascript charts vs images. I ended up going with images because I didn't really need dynamic charts. There were also features missing from many. IIRC, Flot couldn't add a title to the x/y axis at the time I was looking at it.

I especially like the time series mode where flot assigns very meaningful time labels on the x axis when you zoom in and out. (based on unix timestamps * 1000, so easy to retrieve from a database)

You can load data from python quite easily using an jquery ajax call and json.dumps() in the view on the server side.

In general it surprises me how well the client side graph libraries scale if you load a lot of data into them.

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

#52

Post by bradleyland » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 6:57 PM UTC

piranha wrote: post #40

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

I can't thank you enough for that link, so I'll just say it simply. Thank you!

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

#53

Post by shawndumas » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 7:03 PM UTC

I have used Visifire[1] -- it's very good and easy but it's silverlight.

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[1]: http://www.visifire.com/

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

#54

Post by Jlambert » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 7:03 PM UTC

agbegin wrote: post #32

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)

The pricing model leaves a little to be desired. If I build an app that others use, i have to contact you? Really?

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

#55

Post by HackyGeeky » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 7:34 PM UTC

In my django app. I use dygraph and it works on all browsers.

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

#56

Post by rexreed » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 7:44 PM UTC

martingordon wrote: post #26

rexreed wrote: post #8

We use the Google Charts API - it's free and very good. But I haven't seen many others comment about it. Is there a problem with using that?

The only problem I've run into is an issue with URLs being too long when trying to chart large amounts of data.

Google Visualizations API is also very good and (I think) avoids the problem of sending data to Google, and if locally cached, shouldn't require access to Google servers. That said, if you're running an online app, you should have access to the Google Servers, especially if you're already using their copy of jQuery for performance reasons.

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

#57

Post by trizk » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 7:45 PM UTC

I have long found this gentleman's libraries to be visually appealing, easy to integrate and generally top notch:

http://www.maani.us/charts/index.php

However, they are XML configured flash.

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

#58

Post by mfalcon » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 8:05 PM UTC

kilian wrote: post #50

I'm the author of Grafico, A Raphaël (js based SVG/VML) charting library with a focus on proper charts (per Stephen Few/Tufte) Check it out here: http://grafico.kilianvalkhof.com/ and this page has a lot of examples: http://grafico.kilianvalkhof.com/documentation/index.html It doesn't have pie charts, because pie charts are a tremendously bad way to visualise data. I have barcharts with negatives though :)

Thanks for sharing your library, I'll try it for a little project of mine.

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

#59

Post by kilian » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 8:07 PM UTC

mfalcon wrote: post #58

kilian wrote: post #50

I'm the author of Grafico, A Raphaël (js based SVG/VML) charting library with a focus on proper charts (per Stephen Few/Tufte) Check it out here: http://grafico.kilianvalkhof.com/ and this page has a lot of examples: http://grafico.kilianvalkhof.com/documentation/index.html It doesn't have pie charts, because pie charts are a tremendously bad way to visualise data. I have barcharts with negatives though :)

Thanks for sharing your library, I'll try it for a little project of mine.

Cool, let me know how it works out! Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions. (see my profile)

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

#60

Post by mprovost » Fri, Oct 29, 2010, 8:33 PM UTC

rexreed wrote: post #56

martingordon wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only problem I've run into is an issue with URLs being too long when trying to chart large amounts of data.

Google Visualizations API is also very good and (I think) avoids the problem of sending data to Google, and if locally cached, shouldn't require access to Google servers. That said, if you're running an online app, you should have access to the Google Servers, especially if you're already using their copy of jQuery for performance reasons.

Most of the visualizations don't send any data to Google. It tells you on the bottom of the page for each chart type under Data Policy, eg http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gall...