Book Image

Google Visualization API Essentials

By : Traci Lynn Ruthkoski
Book Image

Google Visualization API Essentials

By: Traci Lynn Ruthkoski

Overview of this book

There's a lot of data in our world, and visual representations are often the best method of making sense of it all. Yet, it should not take an army of programmers and analysts to create visualizations in order to make data useful. The Google Visualization API is accessible to novice and advanced programmers alike, making data useful to more people."Google Visualization API Essentials" will show you how to create interactive data displays with very little code. The API, combined with Google Spreadsheets and Fusion Tables, is a complete system, from data management to analytical displays. Not only is it simple to learn, but the Google Visualization API can also be viewed as a first step to learning additional Google APIs."Google Visualization API Essentials" uses both methodology overviews and hands-on examples with real data to introduce chart and graph creation on the Google platform. Topics are presented from various aspects, including Google Spreadsheets and Fusion Tables, and Graphic User Interfaces. An overview of the various API development environments available to developers is also covered. Basic and advanced charts, data source connectivity, style formatting, and publishing options are also explored in depth."Google Visualization API Essentials" brings the arsenal of Google Visualizations into the web developer toolkit.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)

Summary


In general, learning the structure of the Google API environment is just as valuable as viewing specific examples of code. With the knowledge of how an API application fits within other Google Applications and also HTML, a developer is able to capitalize on the integrated nature of Google products. Furthermore, familiarity with the general Google API structure benefits not only Visualization API application work, but also any other Google API use.

This chapter presented the basic information required to code a simple visualization with the Google API, in particular the Visualization API. Limitations of chart creation that have not yet been addressed are more eloquent data retrieval, interactive abilities, and customized formatting of the charts themselves. So far, relatively little code has been required to create visualizations presentations. This trend continues as the style formatting issue is addressed in the next chapter.