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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!
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.
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!
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.
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
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
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?
Asked: 2012-11-06 11:11:37 +0800
Seen: 258 times
Last updated: Nov 13 '12