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Best Charts engine for WebApp in ZK

asked 2012-11-06 11:11:37 +0800

spreffy gravatar image spreffy
3

updated 2012-11-06 11:17:39 +0800

Hi,
I need to get charts in my web application built with ZK.

There are many open-source charting engine (ex: ZK lib for charts, JasperReport, JFreeChart, ...), but I don't know what is the best.

My needs are:
- open-source;
- fast execution;
- avoid the transformation of the charts in image;
- ease to use;
- ease to integration with Java.

Thanks so much!

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answered 2012-11-07 12:15:51 +0800

Steva77 gravatar image Steva77 flag of Italy
1014 3
http://www.research.softe...

I was supposed to investigate how to integrate amcharts.com in zk but still got no time... have a look at the javascript-based charts anyway.
In any case consider how many data you have to manage, i.e. sometimes images are better if you have to visualize long trends etc.

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answered 2012-11-07 13:14:12 +0800

guiye gravatar image guiye
28 1

hi, I was searching a chart engine too and found this: http://zhighcharts.appspot.com/demo.zul is a highcharts+zk integration... really cool

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answered 2012-11-07 15:23:36 +0800

Steva77 gravatar image Steva77 flag of Italy
1014 3
http://www.research.softe...

OMG! Great link indeed! thanks guiye!
I do think ZK guys should point somehow to this source!
The only problem I see is that there is no reference to licenses nor to used/included third part libraries... but, let me say once more, AMAZING!

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answered 2012-11-07 16:12:02 +0800

gekkio gravatar image gekkio flag of Finland
899 1
http://gekkio.fi/blog

Interesting, I didn't know there was another Highcharts integration library available. I'm doing some finishing touches on my library that uses a slightly different approach, and I'm going to release it this month. The biggest benefit of my approach is that there's a server-side API for setting chart options, so you don't need to do any magic JSON string handling.

Licenses are:

Highcharts: NOT free for commercial use. The license is pretty cheap though.
ZHighcharts (integration library mentioned by guiye): GPL 2.0 (based on their pom.xml license section)
Jawwa Highcharts (my library): Apache 2.0

So, if you want to use Highcharts with ZK for commercial use, you will always need a Highcharts license. If you use ZHighcharts, your app must also be GPL-licensed open source. If you use my library, your app doesn't need to be open source.

I would love to integrate some free open source library with ZK, but Highcharts is really one of the best ones, and there's nothing as good available as open source.

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answered 2012-11-09 08:46:44 +0800

Steva77 gravatar image Steva77 flag of Italy
1014 3
http://www.research.softe...

Gekkio, thanks for the precious information!
Your server-side approach is definitively interesting - eager to see your next steps.
Where can I grab screenshots of your library to see its potential?
Are you naming them "Jawwa Highcharts" beacuse of Highcharts inspiration or what?
be well
S

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answered 2012-11-09 17:33:20 +0800

gekkio gravatar image gekkio flag of Finland
899 1
http://gekkio.fi/blog

My library just integrates Highcharts with ZK, so that's why the name is like that. That also means that you will need a valid Highcharts license even though my library itself is Apache 2.0 -licensed.

The point of my library is to mostly give a nice server-side API, because Highcharts is client-side JS only. On the server side you can set up the chart options using a Java API, and the data itself is manipulated using standard java.util.List methods. Highcharts API is almost completely wrapped, so most Highcharts examples can be done with my library. I also provide a fallback mechanism so that you can provide raw JSON if some feature isn't supported directly in my library.

ZHighcharts is in many ways similar, but there are some important differences:
- GPL vs Apache 2.0 -license (remember, you still need a valid Highcharts license too)
- ZHighcharts implements org.zkoss.zul.ChartModel, my library implements java.util.List
- ZHighcharts options are set using raw JSON strings, my library has a Java API

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answered 2012-11-12 10:53:39 +0800

Steva77 gravatar image Steva77 flag of Italy
1014 3
http://www.research.softe...

Ok gekkio,
thanks again once more - HighCharts integration - one way or the other - deserves attention!
I think I will be back soon, as we are searching for that kind of visualization features.
And congratulations for the excellent technical work.
One more question, as I can not grab the difference on the fly:
>>> ZHighcharts implements org.zkoss.zul.ChartModel, my library implements java.util.List
Does this mean yours is somehow more flexible/generic - less coupled with ZK?

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answered 2012-11-13 02:19:38 +0800

rdgrimes gravatar image rdgrimes
735 7

Very nice. I'm definitely getting a couple licenses of HighCharts. Thanks for the link.

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Asked: 2012-11-06 11:11:37 +0800

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Last updated: Nov 13 '12

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