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Ggplot2 docs remade in D3.js

minimaxir 10y ago
I was recently looking into ggiraph (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggiraph/vignettes/ggiraph.html https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggiraph/vignettes/gg...) for converting ggplot2 to d3 since it keeps most of the same syntax as normal ggplot2 charts. However, looking at the output of these plot.ly charts may make me reconsider since they have good performance and the conversions appear extremely accurate (and the software is open-source). Well played. Unfortunately, the charts hit the same issue as every other JS library in that they are nigh unusable on mobile devices for nontrivial visualizations. Which is beginning to get annoying.
- jerryhuang100 10y ago
  totally agree. JS heavy lib just make the whole UX suffers, even it does look nice. maybe there's some html5 solution?
th0ma5 10y ago
Plot.ly by default will tie in their social services and copy all of your data to other people's computers. I raised this issue with the project maintainers and they stated that the wish of the parent company is for this to remain the default. So, just a warning to enterprise developers, you have to fiddle with this to turn that off, but without a clear policy statement or a reasonable fork of the project that addresses the privacy and security issues, I've been advocating against use of Plot.ly.
- nicklovescode 10y ago
  I'm using plotly. Do you have specific technical info here on how to turn it off and how it's sent to them? Do you have your contact with the project maintainers.
  - kbaker 10y ago
    Probably this: https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/issues/316 https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/issues/316 see the sendDataToCloud function here: https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/blob/f1701614e46d3bdf4fc7a2bfb16dc52d0092f4fe/src/plots/plots.js#L405 https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/blob/f1701614e46d3bdf4fc... There are instructions in the issue link on how to turn this behavior off.
    - th0ma5 10y ago
      Yes, this is the issue. I noticed just now they have since tagged this for discussion and also a possible change in version 2.0.
- bicubic 10y ago
  I like the work they're doing, but their 'as a service' model makes it a nonstarter for pretty much every project I've done; both at home and at work.
rambos 10y ago
Plot.ly is becoming a serious contender in the charting-libraries space. Their OS libraries are fantastic. https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/ https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/
cloudjacker 10y ago
My problem with D3 is that I can never just sit down and say: "This is what I'm going to make, its going to be the coolest visualization in the world, NY Times is going to hire me" It is really the most counterintuitive library I've ever had to deal with. How about you?
- kkennis 10y ago
  My D3 strategy - Find the type of visualization I want to make on http://bl.ocks.org/ http://bl.ocks.org/. Start with that code, understand the steps taken to build it, then tweak each step / the data source until I have what I want. Works fairly well and helps you learn the library, without having to roll everything from scratch.
- tomgp 10y ago
  There's a steep learning curve but a lot of that is to do with properly grasping the conceptual underpinnings of the library. It's not a charting library, thinking of it as a charting library and it'll make little sense. As someone who'd been making data-viz on the web for a good 8 years or so before D3 came along I had a pretty good understanding of the domain and was immediately impressed with how well D3 fitted in with the way I wanted to work. A lot of its parts were better implemented better thought out versions of ad-hoc tools I'd built up over the years. If you're really interested in making cool visualisations so the NY Times hires you then you have to put some work in to learning the tools and understanding the theory.
- minimaxir 10y ago
  If you are skilled with ggplot2, this use case appears to abstract away the pain of d3.

I was recently looking into ggiraph (https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggiraph/vignettes/ggiraph.html https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/ggiraph/vignettes/gg...) for converting ggplot2 to d3 since it keeps most of the same syntax as normal ggplot2 charts. However, looking at the output of these plot.ly charts may make me reconsider since they have good performance and the conversions appear extremely accurate (and the software is open-source). Well played. Unfortunately, the charts hit the same issue as every other JS library in that they are nigh unusable on mobile devices for nontrivial visualizations. Which is beginning to get annoying.

jerryhuang100 10y ago
totally agree. JS heavy lib just make the whole UX suffers, even it does look nice. maybe there's some html5 solution?

th0ma5 10y ago

Plot.ly by default will tie in their social services and copy all of your data to other people's computers. I raised this issue with the project maintainers and they stated that the wish of the parent company is for this to remain the default. So, just a warning to enterprise developers, you have to fiddle with this to turn that off, but without a clear policy statement or a reasonable fork of the project that addresses the privacy and security issues, I've been advocating against use of Plot.ly.

nicklovescode 10y ago
I'm using plotly. Do you have specific technical info here on how to turn it off and how it's sent to them? Do you have your contact with the project maintainers.
- kbaker 10y ago
  Probably this: https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/issues/316 https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/issues/316 see the sendDataToCloud function here: https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/blob/f1701614e46d3bdf4fc7a2bfb16dc52d0092f4fe/src/plots/plots.js#L405 https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/blob/f1701614e46d3bdf4fc... There are instructions in the issue link on how to turn this behavior off.
  - th0ma5 10y ago
    Yes, this is the issue. I noticed just now they have since tagged this for discussion and also a possible change in version 2.0.
bicubic 10y ago
I like the work they're doing, but their 'as a service' model makes it a nonstarter for pretty much every project I've done; both at home and at work.

rambos 10y ago

Plot.ly is becoming a serious contender in the charting-libraries space. Their OS libraries are fantastic. https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/ https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js/

cloudjacker 10y ago

My problem with D3 is that I can never just sit down and say: "This is what I'm going to make, its going to be the coolest visualization in the world, NY Times is going to hire me" It is really the most counterintuitive library I've ever had to deal with. How about you?

kkennis 10y ago
My D3 strategy - Find the type of visualization I want to make on http://bl.ocks.org/ http://bl.ocks.org/. Start with that code, understand the steps taken to build it, then tweak each step / the data source until I have what I want. Works fairly well and helps you learn the library, without having to roll everything from scratch.
tomgp 10y ago
There's a steep learning curve but a lot of that is to do with properly grasping the conceptual underpinnings of the library. It's not a charting library, thinking of it as a charting library and it'll make little sense. As someone who'd been making data-viz on the web for a good 8 years or so before D3 came along I had a pretty good understanding of the domain and was immediately impressed with how well D3 fitted in with the way I wanted to work. A lot of its parts were better implemented better thought out versions of ad-hoc tools I'd built up over the years. If you're really interested in making cool visualisations so the NY Times hires you then you have to put some work in to learning the tools and understanding the theory.
minimaxir 10y ago
If you are skilled with ggplot2, this use case appears to abstract away the pain of d3.