Non clunky, client-side graphs

Question

Right now, on a website, I have a Java applet that displays graphs with several different views and options available. Depending on what the user selects, there are tons of different graphing options. Unfortunately, Java applets are very clunky. I'm looking for another method to implement graphs (similar to the kind Yahoo Finance uses). I was thinking of using Flot and preprocessing every graph to be displayed (I want to conserve Server resources).

Answer 1

You could try google visualizations API, it's easy to use, very powerful...

Answer 2

Cam,

Try jQuery graph plugins... they are gorgeous and are very light weight. http://www.reynoldsftw.com/2009/02/6-jquery-chart-plugins-reviewed/

Good luck!

Answer 3

Check out gRaphael an SVG (VML in IE) graphing library. Really fast to load since it's pure javascript.

Answer 4

Protovis http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ looks like it might suit your needs. It's simple enough to get started with but very capable.

Answer 5

I've found two somewhat separate graphing needs:

• show me detailed graph data with lots of options for exploring that data... zoom, pan, etc
• show me realtime graph ticker with ajax updates

Few polished tools seem to do both well. To deal with both, I've been using flot with some of it's plugins.

Here are examples from several sources that likely show close to what you are asking for:

• flot - http://people.iola.dk/olau/flot/examples/visitors.html
• protovis - http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ex/zoom.html
• dygraph - http://danvk.org/dygraphs/
• chronoscope - http://timepedia.org/chronoscope/

Answer 6

I have been looking into the same topic and narrowed it down to these promising frameworks (As a newbie on the site, I am only allowed to post one hyperlink, but guess you are able to figure it out):

• Google chart tools (image/interactive charts)
• Flot (a bit simple for my use)
• Dygraph (lots of possibilities)
• CartographerJS (geolocated graphs)
• Highcharts (looks very good)
• InfoVis (trees and more)
• ProtoVis vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ (lots of advanced possibilities)
• MooWheel (relations)

For a lower level implementation:

• Processing (js)
• Raphäel

These seems a bit limited for my use:

• simile-widgets . org /timeplot/
• g.raphaeljs
• milkchart on google code
• jqplot