I need to create a graph as shown in the image below. I have the values for the upper limit, lower limit and the average for each question. Can anyone suggest a plugin in Ruby on Rails to create such a graph shown in the image?
Edit:
I am finding it difficult to find something which does clear the area from the X-axis(Question axis) to the lower limit. Can anyone help me with this?
Google has a URL based chart API that and it looks like some of the chart types available will match what you are looking for:
Chart Gallery:
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/gallery/chart_gall.html
Getting Started Guide:
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/docs/making_charts.html
Do you mind if the output is in flash?
PullMonkey is a pretty nice plugin if it's not a problem to you http://pullmonkey.com/projects/open_flash_chart
I am looking for a quite specific tool for generating charts, within Ruby on Rails application. I have done a research and couldn't find a solution that suits me.
Maybe you've bumped upon it and could just point me to it with a link? :)
My requirements for a solution are:
it has to feature basic chart types
like Pie, Bar, Stacked Bar, Line.
it has to have basic configuration of
a chart like legend, axis
description.
it has to be able to generate and save chart into image file without
actually rendering it in a browser
being a Ruby library would be nice,
but it is not obligatory
not being Gruff Graphing Library, I
am looking for something more up to
date, with less issues.
If you are aware about something, please post a link - it'll take you just a few seconds.
I think, that it is what you're looking for.
http://highcharts.com/
https://github.com/loudpixel/highcharts-rails
I've made a number of useful charts with the Google Chart API. There are a few gems: googlecharts, gchartrb. I haven't used them but they look like a good first cut.
As to not displaying it you can just make the call and save the result. No need to render, just make the call, get the URL, and fetch the file.
The only one that has satisfied all these conditions:
I have been able to make it works without need of install weird dependencies
Not has an HTML context requirement (all JS libraries)
Not depends on GCharts (net traffic dependency)
Exports to static graphic format
is gerbilcharts
Chartkick!!!
It's super nice. =)
It's been a long time since I asked this question and I see new people coming and posting new answers, which his great. This small post of mine turned out to be a small compendium of available libraries.
I decided to add my two cents. Nowadays whenever I am dealing with charts I usually use Highcharts. Highcharts is a very pleasant library by itself, but additionally there is incredible gem highcharts_on_rails which facilitates creating charts using DSL written in Ruby.
If you found this question and you're looking for options, consider highcharts_on_rails.
This might be able to do what you want:
Gruff
You can use rchart for plotting various chart.
I am using openflashchart
http://pullmonkey.com/projects/open_flash_chart2/
you can save generated json data in database and render when needed
I have need to produce LINE, BAR, and PIE charts in Rails. I have found several that do all these. However the one caveat is that I can never find a solution that does all as well as XY-SCATTER. I've looked at Gruff,Scruffy,Gnuplot, etc. and none of them do "everything". Can anyone recommend a local (i.e. doesn't require network connectivity) library that can accommodate? GoogleCharts isn't an option as some of this will occur on closed networks.
Best.
If you don't mind commercial solutions, take a look at ChartDirector.
Open Flash Chart Plugin for Ruby on Rails - Graphs
FusionCharts is pretty good if you don't have a problem with Flash.
Have you checked Google charts? I'm not a web developer myself but it seems that, although not implemented in Rails, you can call the chart API and display the generated image.
Looking at the available chart types, it can give you all the types you want.
Edit: A search turned up this google-chart-on-rails wrapper.
I'd like to add some pie, bar and scatter charts to my Ruby on Rails web application. I want want them to be atractive, easy to add and not introduce much overhead.
What charting solution would you recommend?
What are its drawbacks (requires Javascript, Flash, expensive, etc)?
Google Charts is an excellent choice if you don't want to use Flash. It's pretty easy to use on its own, but for Rails, it's even easier with the gchartrb gem. An example:
GoogleChart::PieChart.new('320x200', "Things I Like To Eat", false) do |pc|
pc.data "Broccoli", 30
pc.data "Pizza", 20
pc.data "PB&J", 40
pc.data "Turnips", 10
puts pc.to_url
end
If you don't need images, and can settle on requiring JavaScript, you could try a client-side solution like the jQuery plugin flot.
I am a fan of Gruff Graphs, but Google Charts is also good if you don't mind relying on an external server.
It requires flash and isn't free (though inexpensive): amcharts.
I've used it successfully and like it. I evaluated a number of options a while back and chose it. At the time, however, Google Charts wasn't as mature as it seems to be now. I would consider that first if I were to re-evaluate now.
There's also Scruffy. I took a look at the code recently and it seemed easy to modify/extend. It produces svg and (by conversion) png.
Have you tried the Google Charts API? - web service APIs don't really come much simpler. It's free to use, simple to implement, and the charts don't look too shoddy.
Open Flash Chart II is a free option that gives very nice output. It does, as you'd expect, require Flash.
Fusion Charts is even nicer, but is $499. In researching this, I found a cut-down free version that might serve your needs.
I 2nd the vote for flot. The latest version lets you do some animations and actions that I previously thought would only be possible via Flash. The documentation is fantastic. It simple to write by hand, but for simple cases it gets even easier with a Rails plugin called flotilla. You should check out the examples page for a better idea of what it's capable of. The zooming and hover capabilities are especially impressive.
The new Google Visualization appears to produce charts that are of more varied type, better looking and interactive than Google Graphs.
http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/
Morris.js is nice and open source. I would like to choose it comparing to highcharts. There is a new great video tutorial from Railscasts
I've just found ZiYa produces some really sexy charts and is Rails specific.
The downsides are it uses Flash and if you don't want the sites to link to XML/SWF page it costs $50 per site.
[I've not decided on it yet, but wanted to throw it out there in case people want to vote it up]
I've used Fusion Charts extensively from within a Java web application, but it should work the same way from Rails since you're just embedding a Flash via HTML or JavaScript and passing it XML data. It's a slick package and their support has always been very responsive.
You should take a look at Dmitry Baranovskiy's Javascript library called Raphaël.
Google charts is very nice, but it's not a rails only solution. You simple use the programming language of your choice to dynamically produce urls that contain the data and google returns you back a nice image with your chart.
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/
In the old days, I decided to roll my own (using RVG/RMagick), mainly because Gruff didn't have everything I wanted. The downside was that finding and eliminating all the bugs in graphing code is a pain. These days Gruff is my choice as it's really gone forward in terms of customization and flexibility.
The standard Gruff templates/color choices suck though, so you'll need to get your hands dirty for best results.
Regarding amcharts, there's a "free" version with a very few restrictions that generates Flash charts including the 'chart by amCharts.com' mention.
And there's a nice plugin, ambling, that provides you with some helper methods to easily add charts to your views. Please note that amCharts.com reference documentation is still a must to tailor the chart to your requirements.
GoogleCharts and Gruff charts are great, but sometimes they lack some features that I need for more scientific plotting. There is a gem for gnuplot which may be helpful for some of these situations.
http://rgplot.rubyforge.org/
I have started using protovis to generate SVG charts with javascript. My basic approach in rails is to have a controller that returns the data to be charted as JSON, and scoop it up with a bit of javascript and protovis.
Only downside, is that full IE support (Since it is based on SVG) is currently unavailable straight out of the box... However, current patches go a fair way to providing IE support, details of which can be found here.
I personally prefer JavaScript-based charts over Flash. If that's ok, also check out High Charts. A Rails plugin is also available.
The gchartrb gem is no longer maintained, it seems. The author points to these gems:
googlecharts
gchart (seems abandoned as well)
We do this by shelling out to gnuplot to generate the charts as PNGs server-side. It's a bit old-school and the charts aren't interactive but it works and is cacheable.
(The other reason we do this is so we can put exactly the same chart in the PDF version of the report).
This isn't specifically RoR however, it is pretty slick port of Gruff to javascript: http://bluff.jcoglan.com/
ChartDirector. Ugly API, but good, server-side image results. Self contained binary.
FWIW, I'm not a fan of using Google Charts when fit & finish is important. I find that the variables for sizing, in particular, are unpredictable - the chart does its own thing.
I haven't yet played with Gruff/Bluff/etc., but for a higher-profile project I won't use Google Charts.
If you want quite sexy charts, easy to generate, and you can enable Flash, then you should definitely have a look at maani.us xml/swf charts.
Some XML builder behind it and you're ready to go.
FusionCharts is a very good charting product. Works well with RoR. Their support and forums are good. The free version of this product has limited number of charts and features, but no watermark.
I just started using googlecharts for my rails 3 project. It is nice and clean, and seems to be the only google visualization api based gem which is alive. Others are inactive and mostly use the old google charts api (released somewhere in 2007-2008).
https://github.com/mattetti/googlecharts
D3 has become my preferred way add great looking charts to web apps. You have to do a little mroe work that some other frameworks, but the appearance and control outweighs that.
I primarily use SVG, which means no IE8, but that is becoming less of an issue.
HighChart - A charting library written in pure JavaScript
Gems like highchart-rails, lazy-high-chart makes the integration with rails easier
gem 'chart' makes it easy to add ChartJS and NVD3 charts to rails.