Hi,
I am searching for plugins/gems which help me chart data.
I’d like to start with something simple like a 2-D chart which shows a
straight lines connecting points.
The points would come from a series of x,y values.
After that I’d like to build some bar-charts from x,y values.
-JRS
I’d check this out. I’ve never used it but it looks fancy!
http://nubyonrails.com/pages/gruff
On Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 5:04 AM, Jessica S.
<[email protected]
2009/7/11 Jessica S. [email protected]:
Hi,
I am searching for plugins/gems which help me chart data.I’d like to start with something simple like a 2-D chart which shows a
straight lines connecting points.The points would come from a series of x,y values.
After that I’d like to build some bar-charts from x,y values.
Google charts, with the googlecharts plugin is very quick and easy but
you may have reasons not to use google.
Colin
Hm, honestly you could try picking up Flex – the charting in flex is
really robust and it isn’t hard at all to learn. Stop at your local
bookstore for a few hours on a sunday afternoon and you’ll have some
pretty charts come up in no time. You can pass variables into flex too
from your rails code. From rails you can pass xml that can be parsed
by actionscript and implemented as a datasource for charts. This all
assumes of course that you’re okay with flash.
On Jul 11, 2:04 am, Jessica S. [email protected]
If Flash is okay, FusionChart Free is a good solution. <http://
JavaScript charts for web & mobile | FusionCharts>.
I find it to be easier to setup and more interactive than Gruff, which
generates static image on the server side, and more visually appealing
than Google charts. Best of all, it’s free.
You may also consider drawing your own graphs using SVG; a good
solution for simple charts that doesn’t require Flash. SVG is
essentially JavaScript + vector drawing; it’s now well supported on
modern browsers. Google will get you started on that.
On Jul 11, 2:04 am, Jessica S. [email protected]
Right-click the chart and you’ll find Fusion Charts!
Cheers, Sazima
I have found a site whose charts I would like to emulate. The cahrts
come up with a kind of smooth, animated look to them. If I go to:
and click “thry the demo,” a flash presentation of it comes up. I am
wondering if anyone knows what off-the-shelf package they are using
for this. It;s the best looking charts I;ve seen. -Janna B
is a well put together gem that wraps around
http://www.maani.us/xml_charts/index.php
I’ve been using this stuff for a couple of years and it works very
well. Start with the basic features and take on the fancy stuff
incrementally.
-cpr
On Jul 11, 2:04 am, Jessica S. [email protected]
Open Flash charts…?
But frankly, it really appears to me that fusion charts is the best
looking. Am I mistaken? Do you guys see a better open source solution?
-Janna B
There’s Scruffy, http://scruffy.rubyforge.org/ , of course. I don’t
see the animations and gradients and such, though. They’re all
possible in SVG, but unfortunately, I can’t say it’s as easy as the
Flash-based stuff.
It seems that programmer graphics tend to have a “There, I fixed it”
look to them.(http://thereifixedit.com/) Or, at least mine do.
Ron
I use (and like) FusionCharts, but I am only developing internal
applications so I can control/require what is on my users desktops.
If you have a graphing requirement for the mobile browser version
(which you may not even have - don’t know what your application is),
then the Flash requirement will be an issue. If you only need to
provide graphs for a desktop version, then I don’t think requiring
Flash is a major issue.
Eric
On Jul 13, 8:58 am, Marnen Laibow-Koser <rails-mailing-l…@andreas-
I personally use fusion charts but only because my site “requires” flash
in order to use the interactive media in my subscription model. So, as
Marnen suggested, if you don’t require flash on your site, you might not
want to use fusion charts.
If you do happen to use fusion charts, and your site does not have a
flash requirement, make sure you have another way of providing data to
your users.
Janna Brossard wrote:
But frankly, it really appears to me that fusion charts is the best
looking. Am I mistaken? Do you guys see a better open source solution?
I would urge you not to use Fusion Charts. For simple images like
charts, there is no need to require your users to install Flash (which
is not possible on most mobile browsers, for example). I suggest
something that uses simple images like Google Charts or Gruff; the
SIMILE project may also have some useful stuff.
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]
-Janna B
E. Litwin wrote:
[…]
If you have a graphing requirement for the mobile browser version
(which you may not even have - don’t know what your application is),
then the Flash requirement will be an issue.
I think you missed my point. First of all, I was using mobile browsers
only as an example – there are other environments where Flash isn’t
usable, enough that one should not rely on Flash for crucial app
features in most cases.
Anyway, with the current state of mobile phone browsers, most sites
don’t need a separate mobile version, so your remark about that is kind
of irrelevant. Mobile browsers can be expected to deal with standard
HTML and images without needing their own version of the site. (In
fact, HTML is generally at its best when it’s browser- and
device-agnostic.)
Where this falls down, though, is with Flash. Most mobile browsers
simply can’t display Flash content. That would be OK if the content
really required Flash, but graphs are simple images of the sort that
shouldn’t require Flash. There is simply no excuse for shutting out
non-Flash users solely because it made development slightly easier.
If you only need to
provide graphs for a desktop version, then I don’t think requiring
Flash is a major issue.
But you are wrong, since on a properly designed site, the “desktop
version” is also the mobile version. (Even on sites that have a
separate mobile version, I generally don’t use it on my phone, since
it’s usually too crippled.). Anyway, one can’t expect all desktop users
to have Flash, as I mentioned above (internal deployment is a different
story, of course).
I might give different advice if the content were more than straight
images, but that’s not the case here.
Eric
Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]
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