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)

Visualization API common Framework


As discussed in Chapter 2, Anatomy of a Visualization, Visualization API code is JavaScript-based and resides within HTML <script> tags. Unless otherwise noted, it is assumed that all the API code intended for a HTML framework is located within these tags.

Load API modules

For all Google API code, including the Visualization API, there are several general components required. These are:

  • Declaration of an API source URL

  • Request API objects using the Google Loader

Inside the first script tag, a few short lines of HTML indicate the location of the Google Visualization API library, hosted by Google. The second script tag invokes a call to google.load, which is the Google Loader. The Google Loader options indicate which API is to be loaded for the application, as well as what packages and options for the API should also be loaded. The google.load call in the following sample script indicates that Version 1 of the Visualization API is to be loaded. It also indicates...