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FusionCharts Beginner's Guide: The Official Guide for FusionCharts Suite
FusionCharts Beginner's Guide: The Official Guide for FusionCharts Suite

FusionCharts Beginner's Guide: The Official Guide for FusionCharts Suite: Create interactive charts in JavaScript (HTML5) and Flash for your web and enterprise applications with this book and ebook

zł158.99 zł39.99
Book Apr 2012 252 pages 1st Edition
eBook
zł158.99 zł39.99
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eBook
zł158.99 zł39.99
Print
zł197.99
Subscription
Free Trial

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Product Details


Publication date : Apr 24, 2012
Length 252 pages
Edition : 1st Edition
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849691765
Vendor :
FusionCharts
Category :
Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

FusionCharts Beginner's Guide: The Official Guide for FusionCharts Suite

Chapter 1. Introducing FusionCharts

As web developers, we build applications that feed on data. We parse it, process it and report it. Our reports take the form of tables, grids, and diagrams such as charts, gauges, and maps. Parsing and processing are backend tasks that are unseen by the user. The actual reporting of data, however, is the bulk of the experience a user has with our application.

To make our reports interesting and insightful, it is important to provide a highly engaging and functional face to the data in context. While tables, grids, and basic charting are natively supported by most web scripting languages, creating advanced or interactive charts require the use of third-party components. FusionCharts Suite is one such suite of components that help you deliver a delightful experience by aiding the creation of animated and interactive charts, gauges, and maps.

Before we jump in and look at what FusionCharts can do for you, let us see where charts, gauges, and maps can be helpful. Google Analytics, a tool that most web developers swear by, is a beautiful example of effective data presentation. In case you do not know, it is a tool that records a ton of information such as visitor demographics, referrers, advertising, browser information, and so on. With so much data recorded, it is of utmost importance to present it in a compact, yet insightful way, as shown in the following screenshot:

Note how the Dashboard has a very clean and non-cluttered look, despite the large data set it represents. Extra information, which is not required in the main layout, is displayed as tool tips and annotations. Interactive features such as a clickable world map lets you explore the data the way you want to. The selection of chart types is also immaculate, with the line chart showing the trend of the most commonly used metric—the number of visitors to the site. Other relevant metrics such as Pageviews and Pages/Visit are communicated in large text along with sparklines providing a historical context. A world map is used to display where the traffic is coming from.

FusionCharts Suite helps you build similar dashboards with a lot more chart types and interactivity. Without further ado, let us proceed and set the goals for this chapter.

In this chapter, you will:

  • Learn how to set up FusionCharts

  • Build your first chart and configure basic parameters

  • Understand the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data format supported by FusionCharts and different ways to provide it to the chart

  • Learn how to build charts with multiple series and axes

  • Create advanced charts such as Combination charts

What is FusionCharts Suite?

FusionCharts Suite is a collection of four products, each of which help generate different types of charts, gauges, or maps in web applications. These data-visualization components are ideal for use within reports, dashboards, analytics, surveys, and monitors in web and enterprise applications. The visualizations are rendered using both Adobe Flash and JavaScript (HTML5), thereby making the experience seamless across PCs, Macs and a wide spectrum of devices including iPads and iPhones.

The four products in the suite are:

  • FusionCharts XT: This helps create the 45 most used chart types such as pie, column, bar, area, line, stacked, combination, and advanced ones such as Pareto and Marimekko.

  • FusionWidgets XT: This helps create Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and make real-time data in dashboards, monitors, and reports more insightful. It includes a wide variety of charts and gauges such as dial charts, linear gauges, Gantt charts, funnel charts, sparklines, data-streaming column, line, and area charts.

  • PowerCharts XT: This helps create charts for domain-specific usage such as those in network diagrams, performance analysis, profit-loss analysis, financial planning, stock price plotting, and hierarchical structures.

  • FusionMaps XT: This consists of over 550 geographical maps, including all countries, US states, and regions in Europe for plotting business data.

All the products are built on a common framework and offer similar ways to use and configure them. To start with, we will create charts using FusionCharts XT and later explore charts of other products in Chapter 8, Selecting the Right Visualization for your Data and Chapter 7, Creating Maps for your Applications. Without further ado, let us get started and build our first chart. For that, you will first need to download FusionCharts Suite.

What is FusionCharts Suite?


FusionCharts Suite is a collection of four products, each of which help generate different types of charts, gauges, or maps in web applications. These data-visualization components are ideal for use within reports, dashboards, analytics, surveys, and monitors in web and enterprise applications. The visualizations are rendered using both Adobe Flash and JavaScript (HTML5), thereby making the experience seamless across PCs, Macs and a wide spectrum of devices including iPads and iPhones.

The four products in the suite are:

  • FusionCharts XT: This helps create the 45 most used chart types such as pie, column, bar, area, line, stacked, combination, and advanced ones such as Pareto and Marimekko.

  • FusionWidgets XT: This helps create Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and make real-time data in dashboards, monitors, and reports more insightful. It includes a wide variety of charts and gauges such as dial charts, linear gauges, Gantt charts, funnel charts, sparklines, data-streaming column, line, and area charts.

  • PowerCharts XT: This helps create charts for domain-specific usage such as those in network diagrams, performance analysis, profit-loss analysis, financial planning, stock price plotting, and hierarchical structures.

  • FusionMaps XT: This consists of over 550 geographical maps, including all countries, US states, and regions in Europe for plotting business data.

All the products are built on a common framework and offer similar ways to use and configure them. To start with, we will create charts using FusionCharts XT and later explore charts of other products in Chapter 8, Selecting the Right Visualization for your Data and Chapter 7, Creating Maps for your Applications. Without further ado, let us get started and build our first chart. For that, you will first need to download FusionCharts Suite.

Getting FusionCharts


FusionCharts allows you to download the trial version from its website http://www.fusioncharts.com. This trial does not have any feature restriction or an expiry date. The only caveat is that the charts in the evaluation version have FusionCharts printed on the chart, which can be removed by purchasing a license of FusionCharts and later just replacing the Shockwave (SWF) and JavaScript (JS) files, as we shall see later.

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Key benefits

  • Go from nothing to delightful reports and dashboards in your web applications in super quick time
  • Create your first chart in 15 minutes and customize it both aesthetically and functionally
  • Create a powerful reporting experience with advanced capabilities like drill-down and JavaScript integration
  • Integrate the charts with PHP, ASP.NET, Java or other server-side scripts pulling data from databases
  • Learn reporting best practices including right chart type selection and practical usability tips
  • A fast-paced yet comprehensive guide to FusionCharts Suite filled with examples and practical tips

Description

User experience can make or break any app these days, no matter whether it's a commercial product or an internal solution. While most web applications out there are boring and outdated when it comes to their charting, you can make yours both stunning and powerful using FusionCharts Suite. Once you have mastered it, you can give your users a delightful reporting experience in no time at all. FusionCharts Beginner's Guide is a practical, step-by-step guide to using FusionCharts Suite for creating delightful web reports and dashboards. Getting you started quickly, you will learn advanced reporting capabilities like drill-down and JavaScript integration, and charting best practices to make the most out of it. Filled with examples, real-life tips and challenges, this book is the firstofitstype in the visualization industry. The book teaches you to create delightful reports and dashboards for your web applications assuming no previous knowledge of FusionCharts Suite. It gets your first chart up in 15 minutes after which you can play around with different chart types and customize them. You will also learn how to create a powerful reporting experience using drill-down and advanced JavaScript capabilities. You will also connect your charts to server-side scripts pulling data from databases. Finally you round up the experience learning reporting best practices including right chart type selection and practical usability tips. By the end of the book, you will have a solid foundation in FusionCharts Suite and data visualization itself. You will be able to give your users a delightful reporting experience, from developers to management alike.

What you will learn

Create different charts like column, bar, line, pie, multi-series and combination, each of them in under 15 minutes Render the chart in Flash and JavaScript, and provide data in XML or JSON Customize the charts both aesthetically and functionally including background, font, chart limits, tooltips and use of multi-lingual characters Add advanced reporting capabilities like drill-down and JavaScript integration to give your users a powerful reporting experience Integrate the charts with PHP, ASP.NET, Java and any other server-side script pulling data from databases Create interactive maps to plot geographical data like revenue by regions, election results and office locations on interactive maps using FusionMaps Understand how to select the right chart for your data, and how to make them more usable with practical tips

What do you get with eBook?

Product feature icon Instant access to your Digital eBook purchase
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
Buy Now

Product Details


Publication date : Apr 24, 2012
Length 252 pages
Edition : 1st Edition
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781849691765
Vendor :
FusionCharts
Category :

Table of Contents

16 Chapters
FusionCharts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Credits Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
About the Authors Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
About the Reviewer Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
www.PacktPub.com Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
1. Preface Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
1. Introducing FusionCharts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Customizing your Chart Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. JavaScript Capabilities Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Enabling Drill-down on Charts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Exporting Charts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Integrating with Server-side Scripts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Creating Maps for your Applications Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Selecting the Right Visualization for your Data Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Increasing the Usability of your Charts Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Pop quiz Answers Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

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