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I want to visualize a Neo4j database in a graphical application. (I'm doing this primarily as a learning exercise).
I want it to behave almost identically to the visualization in Neo4j's WebAdmin: When the graphic appears, I want to see the nodes moving around as they settle into their final locations, and I want the user to be able to click and drag node icons around the screen and have them stick where they are dropped, with the rest of the graph adjusting to account for the change.
I have two questions.
What are the technical terms for the three requirements crudely described in the paragraph above?
I'm a Java programmer with no experience in JavaScript, but I'm thinking that, with this project, it's time to get some - sigma.js in particular seems very powerful and relatively simple. However, ultimately this needs to be done within a Java Swing application, and while I know there are various containers I can use to embed JS/HTML content into Swing, still it seems that a pure Java solution would be ideal, and I'm curious about any frameworks that might make this possible. I'm looking into Gephi now, but it doesn't seem anywhere near as powerful or as simple to use as sigma.js. Am I wrong in this assumption?
To summarize the second question: Which would be the better investment of my time: Learning sigma.js and the various JS frameworks (which will require me to get comfortable with JS in general), or learning to use Gephi in Java? (assuming I have a general and long-term interest in graph visualization)
Java visualization
Gephi does provide a toolkit for Java and Python which doesn't contains the UI modules, so unless you want to use Gephi itself to visualise your network you cannot embed its UI in your Java/Swing application as long as I know.
The toolkit contains all the algorithms and plugin infrastructure so if you want to use some of their analysis tool embedded in your app you can use that, otherwise I don't think it's your case.
There are other Java options if you want for graph visualisation here: Java graph library for dynamic visualisation
About Gephi and sigmaJS
IMHO Gephi is far more powerful than sigma.js: it has full SNA tools, multiple layouts, a data editor, exporters, plugin-systems...
One important factor is also the size of the dataset you want to visualise: while sigmaJS can handle up to 500 nodes in the view, Gephi can layout easily 50000 nodes with GPU support as well.
Gephi is a scientific tool made for people that don't want to code to visualise a network and it does it's job. SigmaJS is one of many JS solutions to visualise graphs on a web page.
You can always export to sigmaJS from Gephi with a plugin.
What's better?
At the end of the story I guess the tool you are going to use will depends on:
do you have to visualise a big dataset? -> Java solutions will win for big ones
do you need to distribute it easily? -> Web app / SigmaJS wins for distributed
do you want to have a full integration with your app? -> Java wins
The best one I've found is Keylines, but its not cheap.
Gephi is OK, but the last time I looked it did not support Neo4j 2.0
If your a programmer Neo4j is open source, so you can fork the repository on Git and use that (you will have to check the licencing model before you commercialise any product though)
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Would anyone recommend a particular JavaScript charting library - specifically one that doesn't use flash at all?
There is a growing number of Open Source and commercial solutions for pure JavaScript charting that do not require Flash. In this response I will only present Open Source options.
There are 2 main classes of JavaScript solutions for graphics that do not require Flash:
Canvas-based, rendered in IE using ExplorerCanvas that in turns relies on VML
SVG on standard-based browsers, rendered as VML in IE
There are pros and cons of both approaches but for a charting library I would recommend the later because it is well integrated with DOM, allowing to manipulate charts elements with the DOM, and most importantly setting DOM events. By contrast Canvas charting libraries must reinvent the DOM wheel to manage events. So unless you intend to build static graphs with no event handling, SVG/VML solutions should be better.
For SVG/VML solutions there are many options, including:
Dojox Charting, good if you use the Dojo toolkit already
Raphael-based solutions
Raphael is a very active, well maintained, and mature, open-source graphic library with very good cross-browser support including IE 6 to 8, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Chrome, and Konqueror. Raphael does not depend on any JavaScript framework and therefore can be used with Prototype, jQuery, Dojo, Mootools, etc...
There are a number of charting libraries based on Raphael, including (but not limited to):
gRaphael, an extension of the Raphael graphic library
Ico, with an intuitive API based on a single function call to create complex charts
Disclosure: I am the developer of one of the Ico forks on github.
If you're using jQuery I've found flot to be very good - try out the examples to see if they suit your needs, but I've found them to do most of what I need for my current project.
Additionally ExtJS 4.0 has introduced a great set of charts - very powerful, and is designed to work with live data.
Check out http://www.highcharts.com !
Highcharts is a charting library written in pure JavaScript, offering an easy way of adding interactive charts to your web site or web application. Highcharts currently supports line, spline, area, areaspline, column, bar, pie and scatter chart types.
It maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but
Google's Chart API is pretty cool and easy to use.
There is another javascript library based on SVG. It is called Protovis and it comes from Stanford Visualization Group
It also allows making nice interactive graphics and visualizations.
http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ex/
Although it is only for modern web browsers
UPDATE: The protovis team has moved to another library called d3.js (Data Driven Documents) as they said:
"The Protovis team is now developing a new visualization library, D3.js, with improved support for animation and interaction. D3 builds on many of the concepts in Protovis"
The new library can now be found in:
http://mbostock.github.com/d3/
UPDATE 2:
"Rickshaw" is a JavaScript toolkit for creating interactive time series graphs. Based on d3.js that simplifies a lot the work with d3.js although is a little bit less powerful.
http://code.shutterstock.com/rickshaw/
I was recently looking for a javascript charting library and I evaluated a whole bunch before finally settling on jqplot which fit my requirements very well. As Jean Vincent's answer mentioned you are really choosing between canvas based and svg based solution.
To my mind the major pros and cons were as follows. The SVG based solutions like Raphael (and offshoots) are great if you want to construct highly dynamic/interactive charts. Or if you charting requirements are very much outside the norm (e.g. you want to create some sort of hybrid chart or you've come up with a new visualization that no-one else has thought of yet). The downside is the learning curve and the amount of code you will have to write. You won't be banging out charts in a few minutes, be prepared to invest some real learning time and then to write a goodly amount of code to produce a relatively simple chart.
If your charting requirements are reasonably standard, e.g. you want some line or bar graphs or perhaps a pie chart or two, with limited interactivity, then it is worth looking at canvas based solutions. There will be hardly any learning curve, you'll be able to get basic charts going within a few minutes, you won't need to write a lot of code, a few lines of basic javascript/jquery will be all you need. Of course you will only be able to produce the specific types of charts that the library supports, usually limited to various flavors of line, bar, pie. The interactivity choices will be extremely limited, that is to say non-existent for many of the libraries out there, although some limited hover effects are possible with the better ones.
I went with JQplot which is a canvas based solution since I only really needed some standard types of charts. From my research and playing around with the various choices I found it to be reasonably full-featured (if you're only after the standard charts) and extremely easy to use, so I would recommend it if your requirements are similar.
To summarize, simple and want charts now, then go with JQplot. Complex/different and not pressed for time then go with Raphael and friends.
jqPlot is great. If your requirements are fairly "normal" and you just want to draw some charts, you're probably overwhelmed by the quantity of js charting options. Assuming you don't want to do hours of research, just go with jqPlot as it's probably your best bet. It covers most use cases for most people well. Some of the alternatives are specialised on a certain type of chart or built with a certain use case in mind.
As some kind of late answer, try d3.js
http://mbostock.github.com/d3/
It's the continuation of protovis.
The big difference to flot is in the number of features supported.
Though flot may be simpler, d3.js is definitely more powerful.
Flotr is another, pure Javascript chart-library based on Prototype and inspired by Flot
Try PlotKit
I'd recommend gRaphaël for pure JavaScript charting along with the pure JavaScript vector graphics library it's built on (Raphaël).
gRaphaël currently supports Firefox 3.0+, Safari 3.0+, Opera 9.5+ and Internet Explorer 6.0+.
a framework: http://www.simile-widgets.org/
a basic: http://www.filamentgroup.com/examples/charting_v2/index_2.php
good looking: http://www.highcharts.com/
Another is RGraph: Javascript charts and graph library:
http://www.rgraph.net
Canvas based so it's fast and there's roughly 20 different chart types. It's free for non-commercial use too!
My favourite (flot) has already been mentioned.
But be sure to investigate Ortho.
It is excellent for tree charts and timelines.
There is a lot of activity in the dojo charting library, and what is great I am using it inside an AIR application without problems too, pretty cool!
See for example there http://www.sitepen.com/blog/2008/05/27/dojo-charting-event-support-has-landed/
Check out Google Visualization API, which is kind of a generalization of the simpler Chart API
http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery.html
Has very cool interactive options including maps, gauges, and charts.
We just bought a license of TechOctave Charts Suite for our new startup. I highly recommend them. Licensing is simple. Charts look great! It was easy to get started and has a powerful API for when we need it. I was shocked by how clean and extensible the code is. Really happy with our choice.
Try the MIT simile timeline which could be made into a chart - http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/
or the final one, http://code.google.com/p/gchart/
Not a Javascript library but it may be a suitable alternative - check out Google Charts where you can generate charts by passing querystring data to their web service.
Take a look at Bluff. It's a JavaScript port of the Gruff graphing library for Ruby.
Protochart is all you need
Sencha acquired Raphael and now their charts are pure javascript as of version 4. Emprise and HighCharts mentioned above are my two favorites.
http://www.sencha.com/
For the more unusual charts: http://thejit.org/
I can recommend ArcadiaCharts. A brand-new professional charting library for JavaScript and GWT. Runs in all browsers without plugins. Easy and fast to use: creates great looking charts with just a few lines of code.
Free for non-commercial use.
Fusion charts has a new javascript/jquery library that looks promising.
In case what you need is bar chart only. I published some code I've been using in an old project. Someone told me the VML implementation is broken on recent versions of IE, but the SVG should work just fine. Might be getting back to the project and release some serverside renderers I already have and maybe WebGL rendering layer. There's a link: http://blog.conquex.com/?p=64
Probably not what the OP is looking for, but since this question has become a list of JS charting library options: jQuery Sparklines is really cool.
Check out ZingChart HTML5 Canvas, SVG, VML and Flash Charts. Very powerful and compatible library. I'm on the Zing team - mention us on twitter #zingchart or shoot any questions to support#zingchart.com.
We are going to be producing a RIA that will also be available using Adobe AIR for database management and manipulation with a php back end.
In an effort to speed up development we have decided on using YUI or EXT JS.
It appears that EXT JS out of the box will produce a better looking application than YUI but being essentially 100% JS I can foresee the application being much slower on any computers that aren't...say...up to date.
I am looking for any benchmarks comparing the two frameworks for UI & AJAX operations or any input about the speed of real world RIA applications using either framework.
Thanks for your help.
EDIT So is the general consensus that for a RIA where speed of use is a primary concern YUI is the better option? Or is it essentially, either will work?
EDIT EDIT We decided to go with YUI2 thanks for your help!
Don't fall into the trap of premature optimization. If only a small percentage of your users will be using "older" browsers, they will just have to deal with the slowness of any modern js framework - whether you choose YUI or Ext JS. Choose based on features and ease of development and applicability to your project.
When it comes to library size and speed of download to the browser - whichever library you choose, it can be customized to only include the components you need. And in production, you'll be minimizing and compressing it, so I think library size is really NOT a good measuring stick for making these types of decisions.
I posted a topic at the Ext JS forum years ago asking why the Ext Js doesn't come in packages and we are forced to use the kitchen-sink (almost). Their answer was "Ext JS is for RIAS".
I don't know what this tells you but in terms of size Ext JS is "big enough". I would recommend it for intranet apps. If you are to use it for public sites use all optimization techniques available to achieve fast loading times, compression, etc.
I also used YUI for intranet applications and i can tell you that it was lighter since not all packages where required.
We used to work with a gwt wrapper for ExtJs (gwt-ext). We developed a lot of modules with that. At some point we experienced some slow performance, specially with grid when the data was huge. In addition some memory leak with IE. But after they changed their licence policy, we started looking to other options. Perhaps some of those problems are fixed now.
Any way, now we are developing with OpenLaszlo.
I hope it helps you
If you're thinking of using Ext JS be aware that the current version (4.0.XX) has been found to be significantly slower than version 3.4, see http://www.sencha.com/forum/showthread.php?140180.
I've used YUI. It's fast. The newest library is highly modularized, so you only load modules you need. Also you can refer libraries from publicly available hosting services provided by Yahoo; it offers CDN for free.
I've worked with YUI data tables (data grids) with over 4,000 records and it still performed at an acceptable level.
I am looking for a charts library to be displayed on a website. I will use intensively this library (for area, line and bar charts mainly), so I prefer to secure my choice before starting implementing.
The list of website chart libraries that I have initially considered are:
Plotkit
Emprise JS Charts
Sparkline
Protochart
gRaphael
Bluff
YUI Charts:
However after some researches on this forum and investigations on the web, I have reduced my candidate list to these two libraries:
Flot jQuery plugin
Google Visualization
Which one do you advise me to use and why (if you have worked with one or two of them, please tell me your feedback)?
How do they compare one to each other regarding ease of use, performance and features?
Thank you
EDIT: Based-Flash Chart libraries were not eligible with my constraints
I will try to answer my own question after some several tries and researches about these 2 visualization libraries, here are my own list of pros for each solution :
Flot Pros
jQuery plugin : if you are familiar with jQuery (or if your apps is integrated with jQuery), it seems natural to use Flot
Offline visualization : you can test or have it installed into an internal website. Google Visu can only work if you have acces to the google website !!
Customization : this is basically a JavaScript file so if you are good at JS coding, you can customize your charts as your convenience. Also the Flot plugin system allows you better modularity
Google Visualization Pros
Documentation : awesome ! Examples for each type of graphs are available in the Google site
Easy to use : Really. Easier than Flot (that requires to somehow customize the div container)
Powerful : you have many sorts of graphs and features (zooming, interactivity,...)
Java and Python API : it can helps a lot for constructing the Data Table (at least for me, I can use the Java API)
Bottom Line
If you are familiar with jQuery, go with Flot. If you need for some reasons to see your charts offline, go with Flot. If you want full control, go with Flot.
If you don't recognize yourself above, go with Google Visu. It's easy to learn and implement, very well documented and extremely powerful.
Not in your list, but I would recommend you have a look at Highcharts http://www.highcharts.com/
Highcharts is SVG, and as such, it is much more dynamic than Flot, you can restyle graphs with CSS, attach events, perform animations, etc...
It is also compatible with IE6 and it works server-side (thx to Batik)
I'm currently building a graph-intensive application, and chose Highcharts after lots of benchmarkings. I don't regret my choice.
The piwik project uses the Open Flash Chart (not on your list).
It's easy to use, has plenty of working examples very user friendly.
I am a user of Flot, and a big fan. I use it in a Grails application, and use stacked bar, line, and pie charts, including time-series and a bunch of interactive capabilities (i.e. turn off / on series with checkboxes, etc).
I found it to be a pleasure to work with overall, and feel the API is quite well developed (I saw that a bunch of other JS charting libraries adopted the API, so you'll even have some flexibility to move to another kit in the future). From looking at the google API just now for a minute, I think I like flot's better (although google may have ability to pass in a series as well, didn't see it from samples).
They just came out with a new version a few weeks ago (0.6), that supports plugins, which I expect will stimulate more innovation.
So I think part of this depends on other technologies you are planning to use. It seems like Visualization is integrated with GWT, so if you are thinking of using that, Visualization is the way to go. On the other hand, if you are thinking of using JQuery for AJAX, then Flot might be a more natural fit.
When I was making my decision to use this, it seems like Google didn't have interactive visualizations, only google charts (images), which is one of the reasons I went with Flot.
There is jqPlot (http://www.jqplot.com/), an open source project which looks good. Based on jQuery as well. I will give jqPlot a try, jQuery flot seems to be inactive.
Not in your list, but very impressive: ExtJS 4.0 charts
I am going to start a new application which mainly consist NavigationPane, Grid, Toolbar. Layout should look like this demo page http://www.gwt-ext.com/demo/
I am quite confused which one to use in terms of writing less code, more performant, etc..
Could someone tell the pros and cons of all these technologies.
All the while I coded in javascript, so that way ExtJs seems to be the easy one for me to code. But I am curios to try GWT Ext, Is it true that it could do a lot just by writing few lines of java code.
For eg: To achieve the layout ( given in above gwt ext demo url), which one should I opt ExtJs or GWT Ext.
I read SmartGWT is relatively slower than GwtEXT. Does it have any advantage over GWT EXT. I am also looking for hibernate based data modules ( as my application is going to have many database calls). Anyone of SmartGWT or GWTExt has support for such modules. I came to know that smartgwt doesn't offer all of smartclient enterprise version functionalities, that we are allowed only a few of smartclient features. Will it be an issue?
Your response is highly appreciated.
The GWT-Ext main page now says
"GWT-Ext is no longer under active development and has been superseded by Smart GWT. Assistance will be provided to existing users of GWT-Ext looking to migrate to Smart GWT."
so why would anyone use it?
To write the least code, use SmartGWT Pro. It provides a wizard that allows you to just pick from a list of Hibernate entities you've created, and instantly you have the ability to perform all CRUD operations on that entity, no code required. Then you can add business logic.
The wizard:
http://www.smartclient.com/smartgwtee/showcase/#tools_hibernate_wizard
The link about is just screenshots, but there are several Hibernate samples in the showcase. See especially the Master-Detail Batch Load and Save sample.
As far as performance, real-world performance of most enterprise apps is dictated by how often the application has to contact the server. In this area SmartGWT has a large lead because of features like Adaptive Filtering (see the Featured area in the SmartGWT showcase).
Almost all reports we receive of SmartGWT being "slow" are due to having Firebug enabled. Disable Firebug and performance is fine, so normal end users will never perceive slowness.
About 6 months ago, we studied whether we would use ExtJS or GWT-Ext for an internal application. We wanted the back-end to be J2EE standard frameworks (struts, spring, hibernate for persistence, etc.). We ended up choosing ExtJS because it seemed to us that GWT was not stable enough (too many changes in the API that is still recent), and Ext-GWT was always lagging behind in development.
application which mainly consist NavigationPane, Grid, Toolbar.
Well, this tells us a lot about your app, doesn't it :)
I think it comes down to how good you are at either Java or JavaScript. They are quite a different languages you know :) But if you are well-versed at both but only used Ext JS, then picking up Ext GWT (or GWT Ext, if you meant that), shouldn't be such a great deal. And if that application you are planning is going to be as simple and small as your description of it, then it's probably a perfect opportunity to try out something new.
I use GWT-Ext and it is quite good especially if you don't mind tweaking things with JSNI to customize the already existing Ext widgets it is incredibly powerful. Unfortunately development is stagnant, so my future projects will probably be either in SmartGWT or Ext-GWT. SmartGWT is written by Sanjiv Jivan (same guy who wrote GWT-Ext) and it has most of the widgets we need. I must say most of the skins are quite dated except the Enterprise skin which looks good, but you can always roll your own skin.