NVD3 vs Highcharts

[steve]

I originally chose to use the NVD3/D3 charts in Cumulus MX rather than the more well-known Highcharts because of the less restrictive licences of NVD3 and D3. I was originally planning on making MX a commercial paid-for product, and because of this, had I used Highcharts, I would have had a to buy a developer's licence or possibly an OEM distribution licence. NVD3 and D3 are completely free for commercial use.

I am trying to fix the problem with the scales on the solar charts, and I'm hitting a few problems. I think that these problems will be solvable, but I also considered the possibility of giving up on NVD3 and moving to Highcharts. NVD3 is a collaborative open-source development, and in recent weeks it has not been clear who was the main driver of the development. Novus, the company who originally produced it, seemed to have given up on it, and a community-led fork had effectively taken over. Now it seems that Novus want to take it over again. Aside from this, some of the features do not work properly, although work is being done to address the problems and add new features. Highcharts, on the other hand, is a stable commercial product with lots of existing features.

So I contacted Highcharts to ask if I am entitled to use and distribute Highcharts under their free non-commercial licence, even though I ask for donations, and they have kindly said that I am.

Switching to Highcharts would mean a rewrite of the charts pages in the UI and web site, but I don't envisage this taking long. One advantage of using Highcharts is that a number of you are using them already, so I have local expertise to draw on.

So, the question is, should I switch or should I stick with NVD3? Please indicate your choice in the poll, and comment if you wish.

[water01]

Personally think that Highcharts is more graphically pleasing and gives you many options for saving the graphs in different formats.

To help use it I bought a book called Learning Highcharts http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Highch ... 1849519080 and the API reference is very good http://api.highcharts.com/highcharts

[mcrossley]

I don't mind one way or the other, I guess there is more 'experience' out here with Highcharts so if people want to customise the standard supplied pages it may be a bit easier for them to do so with Highcharts.

Highcharts aren't without their issues though, I have found a couple of times that charts I produced broke when they upgraded the released version, I have switched one of my pages to a 'fixed' version as I cannot get it to work properly with the latest release. I guess you will be bundling for the console pages so that wouldn't be a problem, but it is something to consider for the web pages - bundle, fixed or latest version from the Highcarts server.

[Smithee]

Highcharts would be great if possible as its easier to edit - i went with Highcharts on my page running the beta as i wanted the graph to update itself every minute.

http://weather.casa.ucl.ac.uk/hourgraph.htm

I voted

Andy

[malkie]

I voted 'I don't mind' but now I have seen the new charts it's a big from me, they load much faster, both on the web and on the Local Interface from my Pi.

Good job Steve.

Edit: The zoom Control (top left corner of the graph) doesn't work on IE11 (Windows 8.1).

[Nykita]

Great work on the charts page.. I especially love the adjustable time line feature at the bottom...

[duke]

Just wanted to say how much I prefer the look of Highcharts over the NVD3/D3 charts. Also, much quicker to load on a web page.

Thanks.

[BCJKiwi]

The zoom Control (top left corner of the graph) doesn't work on IE11 (Windows 8.1).

Running ie11 on win8.1, Found you have to double-click the dark items 6, 12 etc. "zoom" is just text. The grey item e.g. all, is the currently selected item.
changed the info text at the top of my page to;

Double-click a 'Zoom' option to change the time line. Mouse over the chart to see values at that time.
Remove a data set from the chart by clicking the entry on the chart legend below the chart.

[malkie]

The zoom Control (top left corner of the graph) doesn't work on IE11 (Windows 8.1).

Running ie11 on win8.1, Found you have to double-click the dark items 6, 12 etc. "zoom" is just text. The grey item e.g. all, is the currently selected item.

That works, well spotted, strange that in Chrome a single click is enough........

[quattrohead]

Could it be a simple selectable option ?
So many browser options both desktop and mobile with various plugins galore, I think a selectable option on the chart screen would keep everyone happy....except you Steve in the short term

[steve]

An option to select NVD3 or Highcharts, you mean? No, definitely not. It's Highcharts only now as standard. Anyone who wants to use NVD3 or anything else will have to do it for themselves.