Data visualization is both a science and an art. If you work with data, one of the greatest challenges you may encounter is picking the right way to shape and present your data in a readable form. A proper visualization flawlessly delivers the meaning of the conducted data analysis.
Since there?s a countless diversity of data visualization tools in the market, no wonder that it may take a lot of time before you find a perfect one.
To save your time for accomplishing more sophisticated tasks, I?m going to present to you my top of JavaScript libraries that greatly simplify working with data. The selection is split into the following categories:
- Pivot tables
- Charts
The logic behind such a choice is maximally intuitive and simple ? with these tools, you can do a comprehensive analysis by looking at your data from multiple angles.
Let?s start!
Charts
Toast UI Chart
This open-source JavaScript charting library is a true discovery of this year. I can?t but admit that the charts look marvelous. Colors, style, smoothness of animations ? everything is perfect. I?m sure the charts have all the potential to be a decoration for any data visualization project.
With Toast UI Chart, you can create both simple and complex visualizations. The available API will assist in implementing your custom logic. The charts can be exported as .jpg and .png images.
Another great thing is that you can use the library for commercial, educational, and personal purposes for free.
If you are a React or VueJS developer, you may like wrappers for these frameworks.
Google Charts
It?s hard to find someone who never heard about Google Charts. This is a classical charting service developed and maintained by Google.
Being used worldwide, in various web projects ? from small to large-sized ones, it fascinates with a rich assortment of charts for all tastes and purposes as well as with plenty of configuration options for developers. To create your custom charts, it?s enough to have a basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Besides, you can learn by doing ? try playing with these editable examples on the website.
When it comes to customizing charts, Material Design is my favorite theme. However, note that it?s available not for every chart type but Material versions are planned to be provided.
Google Charts is a great tool for enriching your application or web project with visualizations. It can be freely used for commercial purposes.
But you should be aware that its Google Charts API is available only online ? you can?t use it without an internet connection.
D3.js
Without any exaggeration, D3.js is the primary data visualization library in the JavaScript world. And there?s a reason behind that. Whatever idea comes to your mind, you can bring it to life with D3. I do not doubt that the myriads of samples contributed by enthusiastic developers will inspire and help you.
Despite infinite possibilities this open-source library provides, it has a steep learning curve. Since it?s quite low-level, if you?re a beginner, it may take time to build even simple visualizations, not to mention sophisticated ones. But I hope it won?t be a stumbling block for you. D3.js is the best choice if you have a lot of custom logic in your data presentation that no other charting libraries can offer out-of-the-box. Even New York Times uses it. Why not try it in your project as well?
Pivot tables
WebDataRocks
WebDataRocks is a web-based pivot table that can be used in any project, whether it?s free or commercial, without any cost. Built with a pure JavaScript, it smoothly integrates with all popular front-end frameworks.
End-users can benefit from its variety of aggregation functions that let summarize data without a hitch. It?s also possible to construct new formulas based on the existing aggregations and track your custom metrics or KPIs.
The resulting reports are interactive, meaning you can drag-and-drop fields right on the grid and prepare a new report in minutes. With this feature, you can easily change the focus of your analysis anytime. Moreover, you can view your reports on any device ? PC, mobile or tablet.
Another thing I like is its simple and laconic design. To customize the Look and Feel of the reporting tool, you can apply pre-defined themes, custom number and conditional formatting. With a little bit of code, it?s also possible to substitute numbers of the cells with icons.
One more advantage is that it takes minimal time to set the tool up for work. Due to this, you can save a lot of time for advanced reporting and analysis. To get started, just walk through the basic steps of the Quickstart.
Combining the pivot table with third-party charts is not a problem as well ? you can integrate it with Google Charts, Highcharts, or any other charting library.
All these features make WebDataRocks a perfect tool for efficient report delivery. Besides, as a developer, you have a lot of options for controlling the component?s behavior and appearance.
Here?s an example of how you can use it for sales analysis.
PivotTable.js
One of the most popular open-source pivot grids on the web. It?s well-known for its embedded heat map visualization, statistical aggregations, and drag-and-drop functionality.
Pivottable.js offers a lot of customization capabilities. However, there?s often a need to use third-party plugins to achieve this or that kind of missing functionality, for example, exporting to Excel or PDF. So, it requires more time and effort to tailor the reporting tool according to your project?s requirements. Yet, you can export the grid to TSV out-of-the-box.
To experience all the functionality the tool provides, I recommend playing with demos and integrating this library into your project. Note that if you need to integrate it with React, there?s a separate version of the web pivot table.
If you need to integrate the pivot with charting libraries, there are renderers for D3, C3, Plotly and Google Charts available.
You are free to use it in both open-source and commercial projects.
Dashboards with charts and pivot tables
To communicate your results in the best possible way, you can tie everything together on one dashboard. I strongly recommend sticking to this powerful approach to working with these libraries.
To provide you with an understanding of how these libraries can be used together, let me show you some demos:
- WebDataRocks Pivot with Google Charts
- WebDataRocks Pivot with Highcharts
- WebDataRocks Pivot with FusionCharts
- PivotTable.js with D3.js
- PivotTable.js with C3.js
- PivotTable.js with Google Charts
Summary
I do hope that now you are ready to make an informed decision on choosing the tool for enhancing your app with reporting and data visualization functionality.
