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


Beyond chart creation, the Google Visualization API provides methods for user interaction. Data presented in a chart may be configured to allow a user to manipulate views, ranges, and even styles of the chart itself. Visualizations may also be presented in various sequences, with transition animation to illustrate the change in data values. In this chapter, visualization customization is focused on pre-defined controls used as enhancements to fairly basic charts. Similarly, animation and editor capabilities are somewhat static with controls being added to enhance user experience. In the next chapter, advanced visualization customization and complex methods of chart creation are introduced. Topics are expanded to charts able to interactively display additional data dimensions. Additionally, the first steps to developing a custom visualization from scratch are introduced.