What are the best Javascript/Flash frameworks to render graphs or charts from data?

Question

Ideally I'd like to do as little preparation data work on the server as possible. The less I have to do to prep the data from the database to make a given chart, the happier I am and the more view I can make in the time.

Some of the things I'd like to chart are, for example:

• The distribution of a series of response times
• The number of occurrences per category (basic bar chart)

I'm sure there are others I haven't thought of yet.

Anything that helps me get from a series such as:

[1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 3, 1] or more likely something like [1.2, 3.2, 3.1, 1.1, 4.3, 3.4] where it isn't just a case of counting the frequency of the item

to an actual distribution would be great.

Thanks.

EDIT: To clarify I guess I'm asking for more than just charting APIs, a search on Yahoo or Stack Overflow already finds answers to that. I'm looking for something that can help me turn data into visualizations with the least effort. So with the series above, something that could map it directly into some standard distributions such as a Gaussian distribution.

Answer 1

I've used flot (http://code.google.com/p/flot/) with some good results. It's pure javascript, doesn't require flash. It uses an html canvas to draw the charts from javascripts. Works on msie with a plugin. Some examples: http://people.iola.dk/olau/flot/examples/

Answer 2

I use JS Charts(http://www.jscharts.com/), which is a javascipt based one, looked simple and easy enough for me to use. They even have support for xml data in addition to js. It is free and they have got some exmaples here

Works on IE and Chrome fine, so ideally shoudl work on Firefox also

On the Flash side, there is Open Flash Chart (http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart/) , they have got some helper classes for major languages.

Edit: based on the additional information in question i guess Google Visualization API (http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/) might work out for you.

Answer 3

I've used flotr(http://code.google.com/p/flotr/) before, which is heavily inspired by the above mentioned flot, but instead of jquery it uses prototype. It works the same way as flot as in it is pure javascript.

Answer 4

Take a look at amCharts. It's a Flash based library. You can pass data to it in XML or CSV format (or in case you use ASP.NET there's a control wrapper which supports data-binding).

Answer 5

I like Google Charts API. It is brain-dead simple to use. You generate your data in the URL for an image, and the Google server spits back the GIF with the chart in it. You don't need JavaScript or Flash.

Answer 6

I haven't used it extensively yet, but after some initial fiddling around i was quite impressed with Open Flash Chart (which i just noticed was already mentioned by Dinesh above)

Answer 7

My reports done with Fusion Charts always seem to impress. Fairly easy to work with and lots of charting options. Flash is the technology, so no real platform troubles for web display.

Answer 8

jQuery Sparklines

Answer 9

Try the Google visualization API.

http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/

Answer 10

JS Charts does not support area charts

Answer 11

On http://www.drasticdata.nl there are some interesting flash based graph and treemap utilities. The hierarchical bar chart or the dynamic treemap might be of interest for your task.