Flash charting
Encyclopedia
A Flash chart is an animation that depicts a standard statistical chart
(e.g. bar chart, pie chartetc.) using Adobe Flash
. Flash charts are generated using a Flash charting tool and they can be incorporated in websites or in desktop applications. Flash charts can be viewed on all computers that have Adobe Flash player
installed on them. This makes Flash charts widely accessible as Adobe Flash player is installed on almost 99% of computers worldwide.
Flash charts offer a wide range of features which help in optimizing the data visualization
experience. Drill-down is a prominent feature of Flash charts which helps in building charts that are sensitive to mouse clicks. Using drill-down it is possible view additional data associated with each of the plots displayed on the chart. Flash charts also support tooltips, animation and offer many other types of interactive and aesthetic features. Flash charts are also capable of dynamic update. This means that the chart generator component can be linked to a dynamic data source. Dynamically updated charts are widely used on stock market websites to show current values of stocks. In most cases dynamic update is facilitated with the help of server side scripting languages like PHP
, ASP.NET
, ColdFusion
, JSP
etc.
came onto the scene. Flash Charting tools are now offered by numerous vendors and Flash based data visualization has become a thriving industry in itself.
Chart
A chart is a graphical representation of data, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart"...
(e.g. bar chart, pie chartetc.) using Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
. Flash charts are generated using a Flash charting tool and they can be incorporated in websites or in desktop applications. Flash charts can be viewed on all computers that have Adobe Flash player
Adobe Flash Player
The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing multimedia, Rich Internet Applications and streaming video and audio, on a computer web browser or on supported mobile devices. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other...
installed on them. This makes Flash charts widely accessible as Adobe Flash player is installed on almost 99% of computers worldwide.
Flash charts offer a wide range of features which help in optimizing the data visualization
Data visualization
Data visualization is the study of the visual representation of data, meaning "information that has been abstracted in some schematic form, including attributes or variables for the units of information"....
experience. Drill-down is a prominent feature of Flash charts which helps in building charts that are sensitive to mouse clicks. Using drill-down it is possible view additional data associated with each of the plots displayed on the chart. Flash charts also support tooltips, animation and offer many other types of interactive and aesthetic features. Flash charts are also capable of dynamic update. This means that the chart generator component can be linked to a dynamic data source. Dynamically updated charts are widely used on stock market websites to show current values of stocks. In most cases dynamic update is facilitated with the help of server side scripting languages like PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
, ASP.NET
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications and Web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages ...
, ColdFusion
ColdFusion
In computing, ColdFusion is the name of a commercial rapid application development platform invented by Jeremy and JJ Allaire in 1995. ColdFusion was originally designed to make it easier to connect simple HTML pages to a database, by version 2 it had...
, JSP
JavaServer Pages
JavaServer Pages is a Java technology that helps software developers serve dynamically generated web pages based on HTML, XML, or other document types...
etc.
History
The concept of Flash charting originated around 2002. Prior to that Adobe Flash (then Macromedia Flash) was primarily used for creation of animated “intros” for websites. It was even used for development of standalone gaming applications – however, it’s potential to be used for something as intense as charting was not realized until Flash charting products like FusionChartsFusionCharts
FusionCharts is a data visualization component for generating dynamic Flash charts that can be embedded in web and desktop applications. Built using ActionScript, FusionCharts is essentially a collection of SWF files that automatically generate charts based on data and configuration settings...
came onto the scene. Flash Charting tools are now offered by numerous vendors and Flash based data visualization has become a thriving industry in itself.
Types of Flash charting tools
Flash charting tools/software can be classified into following two types:- SWF Generation Tool: SWF Generation tools helps in creating an SWF file (Flash movie) that depicts an animated and interactive chart. Essentially, these tools provide an authoring environment through which a chart is configured and an SWF file is generated. Although these tools generate aesthetically-pleasing charts, they can only be used for creation of static charts (where data remains constant).
- Data Driven Flash Charting Tools: Data driven Flash charting tools are widely deployed in websites and web applications. Essentially, a data driven Flash charting tool comprises a collection of SWF files which are responsible for generating charts. The SWF files generate charts with the help of data and configuration provided through XMLXMLExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
or JSONJSONJSON , or JavaScript Object Notation, is a lightweight text-based open standard designed for human-readable data interchange. It is derived from the JavaScript scripting language for representing simple data structures and associative arrays, called objects...
. Data driven Flash charting tools support dynamic data and can be integrated with server-side technologies like ASP.NETASP.NETASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications and Web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages ...
, PHPPHPPHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
, ColdFusionColdFusionIn computing, ColdFusion is the name of a commercial rapid application development platform invented by Jeremy and JJ Allaire in 1995. ColdFusion was originally designed to make it easier to connect simple HTML pages to a database, by version 2 it had...
etc.
External links
- "Charts And Graphs: Modern Solutions" from Smashing MagazineSmashing MagazineSmashing Magazine is a website and blog that offers resources and advice to web developers and web designers.It was founded by Sven Lennartz and Vitaly Friedman in September 2006. Today Smashing Magazine is run by Smashing Media GmbH...