Eye-catching graphics with the Google Charts API
Chart Your Heart Out
The Google Chart API is simple to use and easy to integrate into web applications. As shown here, you can use the API immediately – just embed a static link in your web page and let the browser request and render a chart each time the page is drawn.
To speed page rendering, you can request and cache the chart image on your own server, recreating the chart only when the underlying data changes. In addition to providing better efficiency, this technique better protects your raw data. A visitor to your site cannot "View Source" and copy the URL.
Of course, you can also mix the Google Chart API with AJAX techniques to modify charts on the fly in response to user input. Chart Maker [6] is a basic but effective demonstration of dynamic charting; others have used the Google Chart API to implement a loan calculator and executive dashboards.
Of course, Google Chart is often slower than charting tools that run on the desktop, such as Apple Numbers or Microsoft Excel. These latter applications use native drawing engines and do not require an Internet round-trip to transmit data and download a large graphic image. However, Google Chart is a free application that is available from anywhere. If you are serious about using Google Chart in a production setting, pre-flighting and caching can greatly improve response time.
Infos
- The pChart graphing framework for PHP: http://pchart.sourceforge.net/
- The Google Charts API documentation: http://code.google.com/apis/chart/
- BeeTagg: http://www.beetagg.com/
- Google's free Zebra Crossing barcode reader library: http://code.google.com/p/zxing/
- A guide to encoding data in QR codes: http://code.google.com/p/zxing/wiki/BarcodeContents
- A simple Google Chart generator: http://almaer.com/chartmaker/
- The JFreeChart charting library: http://www.jfree.org/jfreechart/
« Previous 1 2
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Latest Cinnamon Desktop Releases with a Bold New Look
Just in time for the holidays, the developer of the Cinnamon desktop has shipped a new release to help spice up your eggnog with new features and a new look.
-
Armbian 24.11 Released with Expanded Hardware Support
If you've been waiting for Armbian to support OrangePi 5 Max and Radxa ROCK 5B+, the wait is over.
-
SUSE Renames Several Products for Better Name Recognition
SUSE has been a very powerful player in the European market, but it knows it must branch out to gain serious traction. Will a name change do the trick?
-
ESET Discovers New Linux Malware
WolfsBane is an all-in-one malware that has hit the Linux operating system and includes a dropper, a launcher, and a backdoor.
-
New Linux Kernel Patch Allows Forcing a CPU Mitigation
Even when CPU mitigations can consume precious CPU cycles, it might not be a bad idea to allow users to enable them, even if your machine isn't vulnerable.
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5 Released
Notify your friends, loved ones, and colleagues that the latest version of RHEL is available with plenty of enhancements.
-
Linux Sees Massive Performance Increase from a Single Line of Code
With one line of code, Intel was able to increase the performance of the Linux kernel by 4,000 percent.
-
Fedora KDE Approved as an Official Spin
If you prefer the Plasma desktop environment and the Fedora distribution, you're in luck because there's now an official spin that is listed on the same level as the Fedora Workstation edition.
-
New Steam Client Ups the Ante for Linux
The latest release from Steam has some pretty cool tricks up its sleeve.
-
Gnome OS Transitioning Toward a General-Purpose Distro
If you're looking for the perfectly vanilla take on the Gnome desktop, Gnome OS might be for you.