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)

Programming concepts


This section presents a baseline of general programming concepts in an attempt to thwart the confusion of non-programmers while exploring the vast ocean of Google APIs. This brief introduction to programming is by no means a complete or authoritative source for the art that is application programming. Individuals often spend their lives learning the particularities of programming languages; others invest heavily in the improvement of the languages themselves. For the Google Visualization API, a more realistic approach is to provide universal concepts that are inherent in the Google API to developers that have little to no application programming experience. Readers with programming experience may wish to skip this section and go to the Visualization API common Framework section of this chapter.

Variables

Variables are locations in a program designated for storing information temporarily while an application runs. The application is able to access the variable and manipulate...