Forum OpenACS Q&A: Graphs and Charts in OpenACS

We are working on a project that will require siginificant graphing. We hope to create something integrated into list builder.

Right now we are trying to decide what graphing package to use and to understand how graphing is currently done in the toolkit.

I know Nima and Gustof have worked on this recently but I'm having trouble remembering and finding all the details.

We will try to create a wiki page so that we can get this information in one place rather then spread around threads and chats.

My guess is the Diagram package page the right place to do this. Is this what most people are currently using?

https://openacs.org/xowiki/pages/en/diagram

If anyone is currently working on charts and graphs it would appreciate an update either in this thread or on the wiki page.

Thanks

I looked at 3 charting tools, all of which are open source and based on
javascript. I'll try to list the pros and cons.

http://www.thumbstacks.com/chartlib/

PROS:
We have experience with this one as it is used on one of our internal projects.
Sufficient for simple graphing.
Lightweight and Easy enough to use.

CONS
Documentation is only adequate. Does not seem to have scatter plot support which we need.

http://www.lutanho.net/diagram/

PROS :
Nima has written a wrapper for this javascript library in the form of the
diagram pacakge.
Very well documented
There is an example of redrawing a chart dynamically after changing values of
a form.

CONS:
not sure if scatter plots are supported
the graphs don't seem to be as nice as the ones produced by tschartlib above and plotkit below

http://www.liquidx.net/plotkit/

PROS:
well documented
the graphs really look nice, almost like real graphics ,
has support for scatter plots via minor modification as stated
http://groups.google.com.ph/group/plotkit/browse_thread/thread/287e860365ad8eec/6b1dc142973710f5?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1&hl=en#6b1dc142973710f5

CONS :
relies on another ajax framework
no experience with using this package yet.

There is an XML format for reportlab that lets you access the reportlab api without writing python code. Its pretty easy to write an ADP that generates the correct XML.

What about using tclmagick, since imagemagick is already an installation requirement for some packages, and seems fairly standardized across platforms[1]?

http://tclmagick.sourceforge.net/

1. http://studio.imagemagick.org/script/api.php#tcl