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Google Charts API is an external resource, and you're limited to the capabilities of that API, whereas d3.js lets you do just about anything you'd want to do wi
by Zikes 12y ago
Google Charts API is an external resource, and you're limited to the capabilities of that API, whereas d3.js lets you do just about anything you'd want to do with SVG/Canvas & javascript including animations and interactions. The benefits of crossfilter or dc.js over plain d3.js is the layer of abstraction making it easier to use.
- peterchon 12y agoI never understood why the external resource is such a concern for devs - most of your application will be online with online access. Google is not making a call out to send data, but to retrieve what it needs to render the different chart formats, it saves time.
- pp19dd 12y agoWell, it's all fun and games with various APIs and remotely-hosted solutions, until those solutions start breaking and changing. For example, for awhile the news world loved making apps (simple infographics, interactives, etc) that used tabletop.js, which in turn pulled data from a google doc (spreadsheet, etc, which made it easier for text changes: programmers could program and editors could edit.) Then, bugs surfaced after google altered login procedures. What should have been a simple JSONP call was replaced with a broken login page being returned instead of JSONP, that is: only if you hadn't logged into your google account for awhile. People who've never logged in or were logged into a google service were fine. Then they started throttling connections - per computer, per account, random without announcing it, etc. Debugging these things was frustrating. So, in other words, a convenient feature becomes a liability very quickly.