A native GWT chart library?

[plcoirier]

Hi,

I'm looking for a native GWT chart library. I would like to be able to
draw all different kinds of chart (line chart, bart chart, area chart,
pie chart...). I also would like a client solution.
I unfortunately can't use Google Visualization bc it's for an intranet
website and users may not have access to google servers. Flash
solutions aren't an option either :(

I saw gchart but I need pie charts that are completely filled.

Any other ideas of library?

Thanks for your help,
Pierre

[Thomas Broyer]

Huh! no flash?! Which browser(s) are you targetting?
If you only plan on supporting relatively modern browsers and/or IE,
then you could use SVG or canvas (for the formers) and VML for the
latter (I guess silverlight or java applets aren't an option either?).
There are a few GWT projects for charting based on canvas but they
don't seem maintained... (for example http://code.google.com/p/glotr/
)
You can eventually use the GWTCanvas widget from the GWT Incubator and
do the plotting/charting by yourself:
http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit-incubator/wiki/GWTCanvas

Unfortunately, Chronoscope doesn't meet your criterias as it doesn't
do pies (it's oriented towards time-based data...), otherwise, it's a
very well-thought-out project from one of the best GWT user/
contributor out there!
http://timepedia.org/chronoscope/

[Ben FS]

See the following page where I maintain a list of various charting
libraries (many are client-side), amidst a bunch of other toolkits.
You might want to do a Find for "chart".
http://code.google.com/p/macdadi/wiki/BenLinks

> I unfortunately can't use Google Visualization bc it's for an intranet
> website and users may not have access to google servers.

Eastwood (see page above for link and longer description) is an open-
source clone of the Google Chart API, which you can install on your
own server. So it works for an intranet.

> Flash
> solutions aren't an option either :(

Got potential iPhone users? I'm with you.

> I saw gchart but I need pie charts that are completely filled.

Sounds like you want a client-side charting library that is already
wrapped as a GWT module. There are a few such options (see page linked
above). I've used the GWT version of jmaki charting, which was okay,
but had some bugs with text rendering that made me switch to using
Google Chart API instead. Other options include flot, gflot, plotkit,
dojo. If you find one you like a lot, but that is not available as a
GWT module, you could probably make it into one without too much
trouble.

> Thanks for your help,
> Pierre

Good luck, and please let us know what you find and decide!

Ben.

[Flemming Boller]

Hi

I currently use the GWTCanvas, for creating pies. It works very well.

The code I can just copy paste from "swing/awt" code examples because the GWTCanvas
api is very much like the normal jdk canvas. And you can your self attach mouse listeners etc on the pie so it becomes interactive, with the rest of the page.

So for pies it is well suited.

However I have not "cracked" the nutt with respect to drawing  text in the canvas, last time I checked the versiondid not support drawString(...) method, so that was a no go.

/Flemming


ps: if you want I can attach the code.

[plcoirier]

Thanks all for your help.

Flemming, I'm actually looking for a library that can draw all types
of chart, but it can be interesting to see what you did for the pie.

Ben, I looked at the links you gave me, a lot of interesting things
but no client-site library that fits my need. gFlot looks good but I
need more that line chart and I'm wondering if jmaki is maintained. I
followed your advice and I looked at javascript library and dojo chart
looks really nice. You don't need flash and you can have a lot of
interaction with the user. I started looking how I could wrap the
library and it doesn't seem too hard.

So I think I'm gonna end up doing a wrapper for dojo chart.

> > don't seem maintained... (for examplehttp://code.google.com/p/glotr/

> > )
> > You can eventually use the GWTCanvas widget from the GWT Incubator and
> > do the plotting/charting by yourself:
> >http://code.google.com/p/google-web-toolkit-incubator/wiki/GWTCanvas
>
> > Unfortunately, Chronoscope doesn't meet your criterias as it doesn't
> > do pies (it's oriented towards time-based data...), otherwise, it's a
> > very well-thought-out project from one of the best GWT user/
> > contributor out there!

> >http://timepedia.org/chronoscope/- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Ben FS]

> Thanks all for your help.

You're welcome!

> Ben, I looked at the links you gave me, a lot of interesting things
> but no client-site library that fits my need.

For what it's worth, I too would really like a client-side library -
mainly so that I can do lots of quick, small updates without much
latency. The quality just wasn't adequate for the client-side
libraries that I tried, so I switched back to a server-side library.
In my case, so far there has been no noticeable increase in latency:
you may wish to reconsider your need for a client-side solution, and
at least try it with an easy server-side solution (aka Google Chart
API or Eastwood) and see what your results are. Maybe you've already
tried this, or have other good reasons for a client-side solution.

> So I think I'm gonna end up doing a wrapper for dojo chart.

Sounds like a great project, and one that would be useful to many
(including me). If you make progress on this, would you consider
establishing a Google Code project?

Best of luck,
Ben.

> > >http://timepedia.org/chronoscope/-Hide quoted text -
>
> > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

[Hasan Turksoy]

Hi,

Tatami project wraps the dojo framework in GWT... it's open source.

Regards,

Hasan...

[Rvanlaak]

The Google Chart API delivers an image instead of Flash. It's a server-
side, hosted, URL-based charting API. All input data is provided as
URL query parameters and the Google server responds with a chart
image. The charts are clean and the API is easy to use

This does mean it isn't going to be interactive, as Flash is.

http://code.google.com/intl/nl/apis/chart/

[sssmack]

Pierre,

Maybe use Walter's vector library here:
http://www.walterzorn.com/jsgraphics/jsgraphics_e.htm#download

Granted it is lower level - you'd probably have to build on it to make
graph classes - there may be some already made for it.

[plcoirier]

I'm actually looking for a client side library where you can have
interaction similar to flash (chart changing colors when the mouse
goes over it and stuff like that). And dojo seems to do the trick.
Here is a link with simple animation on graphs:
http://archive.dojotoolkit.org/nightly/dojotoolkit/dojox/charting/tests/test_event2d.html

Dojo chart seems to be really powerful.

So we're going to realize a simple wrapper of Dojo. Unfortunately it's
for my company so I won't be able to release the code :(

I tried to use tatami but it's not compatible with GWT1.6, hopefully
soon it will be so that everybody can enjoy a full wrapper for Dojo.

Pierre

> >http://code.google.com/intl/nl/apis/chart/- Hide quoted text -

[Aryan]

Check out GWT-RCharts hosted on http://code.google.com/p/gwt-rcharts/ and demo at http://gwt-rcharts.appspot.com/

[littleball]

highchart is good