6 ms·

Show HN: Tableau-like Data Visualization library (free), powered by WebAssembly

33 points by pallavn 6y ago

pallavn 6y ago
Hi everyone, A while ago, we had released a Tableau-like data visualization library in JavaScript (original post at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18193264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18193264). We got the feedback that it was performing slow because of client-side data operations and rendering. As such, we have released a new version, where all data related operations are now powered by WebAssembly, along with a full design upgrade. It’s at https://muzejs.org https://muzejs.org - we would love to get your feedback. Like before, it’s a data-first library with its own DataModel, built using Grammar of Graphics approach. Unlike traditional charting libraries, which use a chart-first configuration, Muze allows relational algebra operations on DataModel (in browser). Also, the visualizations are fully extendible through compositions, layers and programmatic hooks - so you’re not restricted by the out-of-box visualizations or default interactions provided by the library. We’ve also built a visual data exploration tool using this (though currently using the JS version, and not WebAssembly; to be upgraded soon), which is at https://explore.charts.com https://explore.charts.com We intend to make these libraries (and UI kits/bindings) available for developers to embed within their SaaS/internal applications and create Tableau-like interfaces within their application (of which we’ll monetize enterprise-features modules). Would love to get your feedback. Also, what is the next library/module that we should build next to make Muze more useful for you? Thanks for taking a look! P.S. We’re working on making our documentation better! Website: https://muzejs.org https://muzejs.org Visual Data Exploration Tool: https://explore.charts.com https://explore.charts.com Github: https://github.com/chartshq https://github.com/chartshq
depomoty 6y ago
This looks super cool! I like the fact that, like you said, the focus is on the data and not on preparing the chart configuration stuff. I can definitely use this in my project where I had to write to write an algorithm to parse the data to a valid configuration for ChartJS. I bookmarked this and definitely gonna try it soon. Will let you guys know. My project is also open-source if you wanna check it out https://chartbrew.com https://chartbrew.com
- pallavn 6y ago
  Glad you liked it. Look forward to you using it. Reach out to us a eng [at] muzejs.org if you need any help.
justinclift 6y ago
The licensing for this is confusing. :( eg: https://muzejs.org/muze-wa/eula https://muzejs.org/muze-wa/eula Reverse engineering: You may not reverse engineer or disassemble the Software. However, there's a GitHub repo for it, as if it's pretending to be OSS: https://github.com/chartshq/muze https://github.com/chartshq/muze https://github.com/chartshq/muze/blob/master/LICENSE https://github.com/chartshq/muze/blob/master/LICENSE <-- same heavily restricted license as above
- pallavn 6y ago
  Hi, The JS version is open-source and MIT (https://github.com/chartshq/muze-deprecated https://github.com/chartshq/muze-deprecated) The WebAssembly version is free (but not open source, yet!)
  - bberenberg 6y ago
    Will it become open source?
    - pallavn 6y ago
      Yes, we'll make it open-source, but not right away. We're working on building some more modules (of which we'll monetize some of the enterprise ones, to bring sustainability into the project). Post that, we'll be releasing this as Open-source.
- samblr 6y ago
  Was wondering the same. Not sure what is the point of having .org website here. >> The Software is protected by copyright, including without limitation by Copyright Law and international treaty provision
  - pallavn 6y ago
    We started with the JavaScript version of Muze, which is open-source (MIT). Hence the .org. For the WASM version also, we'll open-source (just not right now - waiting to build a few more modules, to monetize the enterprise ones, to bring sustainability into the project).
bastijn 6y ago
On my iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 13.5.1, chrome 84.0.4147.71 the "health index of each country" is crashing my tab. Otherwise, thanks for sharing. Bookmarked just in case.
- pallavn 6y ago
  Thanks for the reporting this. We are working on it. It seems that this issue exist for a particular chrome version. We'll fix it soon.
antman 6y ago
For Tableau like functionality crossfiltering and drill dowm should be first class features, is that part of the current functionality or is there some exampke?
- pallavn 6y ago
  Hi, Yes, these are available by default. - Cross filtering: https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/crossfiltering-with-dynamic-layer-addition https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/crossfiltering-with-dynam... - Drill-down with custom drill path: https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/drilldown https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/drilldown - Drill into grid: https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/show-datagrid-on-doubleclick https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/show-datagrid-on-doublecl...
macklemoreshair 6y ago
This seems interesting but I’m not sure how to use it....? We have a react app that could really use a plug and play kind of viz library. Is the idea that I could feed my data into this and it would automatically configure viz based on the dataset it sees?
- pallavn 6y ago
  Yes, that's the idea. You include Muze, provide the data, and it automatically renders the visualization and interactions. P.S. We're coming up with a react binding for Muze in next 4-5 weeks.
  - pallavn 6y ago
    Here's an example of using Muze with React: https://codepen.io/chartshq/pen/jOqELZR https://codepen.io/chartshq/pen/jOqELZR
xgenecloud 6y ago
This is amazing. Congrats on shipping it Pallav!
hgoury 6y ago
It makes me think of Voyager [1][2], based on Vega and Vega-lite, that leverage a grammar of graphics. A neat trick you can do in Julia is use it interactively to generate plot specs [3]. Sadly, looking at the github repo it seems to be unmaintened, so I am glad to see Muze in that space. [1] https://github.com/vega/voyager https://github.com/vega/voyager [2] https://idl.cs.washington.edu/papers/voyager2/ https://idl.cs.washington.edu/papers/voyager2/ [3] https://youtu.be/IJqnx9ShRlM https://youtu.be/IJqnx9ShRlM
- pallavn 6y ago
  Indeed. Vega has been one of our inspirations. Though, we took a more business use-case focussed approach for the visualizations, and also more focus on performance.
  - sterlinm 6y ago
    I'm a big fan of vega/altair but the biggest limitation is that it can't scale to larger datasets. It might be interesting if you made some side by side comparisons of implementing examples from the vega gallery using Muze. An Altair like wrapper for python users would be nice too, of course. https://vega.github.io/vega-lite/examples/#interactive https://vega.github.io/vega-lite/examples/#interactive

33 points by pallavn 6y ago

Hi everyone, A while ago, we had released a Tableau-like data visualization library in JavaScript (original post at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18193264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18193264). We got the feedback that it was performing slow because of client-side data operations and rendering. As such, we have released a new version, where all data related operations are now powered by WebAssembly, along with a full design upgrade. It’s at https://muzejs.org https://muzejs.org - we would love to get your feedback. Like before, it’s a data-first library with its own DataModel, built using Grammar of Graphics approach. Unlike traditional charting libraries, which use a chart-first configuration, Muze allows relational algebra operations on DataModel (in browser). Also, the visualizations are fully extendible through compositions, layers and programmatic hooks - so you’re not restricted by the out-of-box visualizations or default interactions provided by the library. We’ve also built a visual data exploration tool using this (though currently using the JS version, and not WebAssembly; to be upgraded soon), which is at https://explore.charts.com https://explore.charts.com We intend to make these libraries (and UI kits/bindings) available for developers to embed within their SaaS/internal applications and create Tableau-like interfaces within their application (of which we’ll monetize enterprise-features modules). Would love to get your feedback. Also, what is the next library/module that we should build next to make Muze more useful for you? Thanks for taking a look! P.S. We’re working on making our documentation better! Website: https://muzejs.org https://muzejs.org Visual Data Exploration Tool: https://explore.charts.com https://explore.charts.com Github: https://github.com/chartshq https://github.com/chartshq

depomoty 6y ago

This looks super cool! I like the fact that, like you said, the focus is on the data and not on preparing the chart configuration stuff. I can definitely use this in my project where I had to write to write an algorithm to parse the data to a valid configuration for ChartJS. I bookmarked this and definitely gonna try it soon. Will let you guys know. My project is also open-source if you wanna check it out https://chartbrew.com https://chartbrew.com

pallavn 6y ago
Glad you liked it. Look forward to you using it. Reach out to us a eng [at] muzejs.org if you need any help.

justinclift 6y ago

The licensing for this is confusing. :( eg: https://muzejs.org/muze-wa/eula https://muzejs.org/muze-wa/eula Reverse engineering: You may not reverse engineer or disassemble the Software. However, there's a GitHub repo for it, as if it's pretending to be OSS: https://github.com/chartshq/muze https://github.com/chartshq/muze https://github.com/chartshq/muze/blob/master/LICENSE https://github.com/chartshq/muze/blob/master/LICENSE <-- same heavily restricted license as above

pallavn 6y ago
Hi, The JS version is open-source and MIT (https://github.com/chartshq/muze-deprecated https://github.com/chartshq/muze-deprecated) The WebAssembly version is free (but not open source, yet!)
- bberenberg 6y ago
  Will it become open source?
  - pallavn 6y ago
    Yes, we'll make it open-source, but not right away. We're working on building some more modules (of which we'll monetize some of the enterprise ones, to bring sustainability into the project). Post that, we'll be releasing this as Open-source.
samblr 6y ago
Was wondering the same. Not sure what is the point of having .org website here. >> The Software is protected by copyright, including without limitation by Copyright Law and international treaty provision
- pallavn 6y ago
  We started with the JavaScript version of Muze, which is open-source (MIT). Hence the .org. For the WASM version also, we'll open-source (just not right now - waiting to build a few more modules, to monetize the enterprise ones, to bring sustainability into the project).

bastijn 6y ago

On my iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 13.5.1, chrome 84.0.4147.71 the "health index of each country" is crashing my tab. Otherwise, thanks for sharing. Bookmarked just in case.

pallavn 6y ago
Thanks for the reporting this. We are working on it. It seems that this issue exist for a particular chrome version. We'll fix it soon.

antman 6y ago

For Tableau like functionality crossfiltering and drill dowm should be first class features, is that part of the current functionality or is there some exampke?

pallavn 6y ago
Hi, Yes, these are available by default. - Cross filtering: https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/crossfiltering-with-dynamic-layer-addition https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/crossfiltering-with-dynam... - Drill-down with custom drill path: https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/drilldown https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/drilldown - Drill into grid: https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/show-datagrid-on-doubleclick https://muzejs.org/demos/wa/latest/show-datagrid-on-doublecl...

macklemoreshair 6y ago

This seems interesting but I’m not sure how to use it....? We have a react app that could really use a plug and play kind of viz library. Is the idea that I could feed my data into this and it would automatically configure viz based on the dataset it sees?

pallavn 6y ago
Yes, that's the idea. You include Muze, provide the data, and it automatically renders the visualization and interactions. P.S. We're coming up with a react binding for Muze in next 4-5 weeks.
- pallavn 6y ago
  Here's an example of using Muze with React: https://codepen.io/chartshq/pen/jOqELZR https://codepen.io/chartshq/pen/jOqELZR

xgenecloud 6y ago

This is amazing. Congrats on shipping it Pallav!

hgoury 6y ago

It makes me think of Voyager [1][2], based on Vega and Vega-lite, that leverage a grammar of graphics. A neat trick you can do in Julia is use it interactively to generate plot specs [3]. Sadly, looking at the github repo it seems to be unmaintened, so I am glad to see Muze in that space. [1] https://github.com/vega/voyager https://github.com/vega/voyager [2] https://idl.cs.washington.edu/papers/voyager2/ https://idl.cs.washington.edu/papers/voyager2/ [3] https://youtu.be/IJqnx9ShRlM https://youtu.be/IJqnx9ShRlM

pallavn 6y ago
Indeed. Vega has been one of our inspirations. Though, we took a more business use-case focussed approach for the visualizations, and also more focus on performance.
- sterlinm 6y ago
  I'm a big fan of vega/altair but the biggest limitation is that it can't scale to larger datasets. It might be interesting if you made some side by side comparisons of implementing examples from the vega gallery using Muze. An Altair like wrapper for python users would be nice too, of course. https://vega.github.io/vega-lite/examples/#interactive https://vega.github.io/vega-lite/examples/#interactive