Google Chart API

Google Chart API
Original author(s) Google
Initial release 2007
Stable release February 2010
Available in JavaScript
Website code.google.com/apis/chart/

The Google Chart API is a tool that lets people easily create a chart from some data and embed it in a web page. Google creates a PNG image of a chart from data and formatting parameters in an HTTP request. Many types of charts are supported, and by making the request into an image tag, people can simply include the chart in a web page.

Originally it was an internal tool to support rapid embedding of charts within Google's own applications (like Google Finance for example). Google figured it would be a useful tool to open up to web developers. It officially launched on December 6, 2007.

Currently, line, bar, pie, and radar charts, as well as Venn diagrams, scatter plots, sparklines, maps, google-o-meters, and QR codes are supported.

This API was deprecated in 2012[1] with guaranteed availability until April 2015. After that period, Google reserves the right to turn it off without notice, although as of April 2016, there are no plans to do so.[2] The alternative recommended by Google is Google Charts.[3]

Example

The following URL creates the pie chart below:
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?
chs=200x200
&chdlp=b
&chtt=Uberman
&chdl=Asleep|Awake
&chd=t:1,11,1,11,1,11,1,11,1,11,1,11
&cht=p
&chco=586F8E,7D858F,586F8E,7D858F,586F8E,7D858F,586F8E,7D858F,586F8E,7D858F,586F8E,7D858F

External Libraries

Instead of creating the URL request manually, there are many open source libraries available for most programming languages.

Platform Name Website
Java Google Chart API wrapper[4] https://code.google.com/p/googlechartwrapper/
Java charts4j[5] https://code.google.com/p/charts4j/
C#/.NET ngchart https://code.google.com/p/ngchart/
Ruby gchart http://rubyforge.org/projects/gchart
Python google-chartwrapper https://code.google.com/p/google-chartwrapper/
PHP gchartphp https://github.com/pacbard/gChartPhp

References

  1. ↑ Google Developers Blog
  2. ↑ Image Charts documentation, retrieved 6 April 2016
  3. ↑ Google Charts
  4. ↑ Google Chart API wrapper
  5. ↑ charts4j

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 07, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.