

Ask HN: Which PHP chart solution do you use? - NathanKP

I am searching for an efficient, free chart building solution for my current PHP based startup project.  I have explored a number of different options, from image based charts to flash.<p>However, before I actually start coding I thought I would throw out the question to find out which PHP charting libraries other programmers are using.<p>Please tell me which PHP libraries you have used or would recommend.
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pierrefar
There are quite a few.

BUT:

When I looked into this a few months ago, I found that PHP generation of
graphs is expensive. It was cheaper to send just the data to the browser and
let a Flash control or jQuery do the graphing. This removes a big bottleneck.

I settled on a for-pay mapping Flash control and an open source Flash graphs
control. Both accept data in sensible XML and so it wasn't hard to talk to
them.

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NathanKP
Okay, that was one of my worries, that PHP generation of the graphs would
overload my server. However, I haven't yet found a good looking flash based
graph generator. Open Flash Chart looks like it might be an option, but I
don't really like the way their charts look.

I would love to find something that looks and acts like the charts that Google
Analytics uses.

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dryicerx
I too would recommend you use client side. For client side, you can use

<http://code.google.com/p/flot/>

<http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/> < what google analytics uses

<http://www.simile-widgets.org/>

<http://www.danvk.org/dygraphs/>

<http://highcharts.com/> < looks awesome

<http://www.maani.us/>

<http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart/>

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NathanKP
Thank you for the list. I will look through the options.

Has anyone tried the jQuery chart plugin?

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japanesejay
ive used pCharts for strictly php. <http://pchart.sourceforge.net/> It doesnt
do real time updating since it spits out an image. Im sure theres a slick way
to do it but for what i was using it was quite minimal

Open Flash Charts is slick. i dig it. <http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-
chart/> I switched from pCharts to OFC for a project i was using. I like it
much better.

I tried google charts but i find it lacking. It is real hard to control and
just not quite polished for what i was looking for. That and (i think) it
requires an internet connection to dial out to google. Its potentially a
problem if you're actually building thats not a webapp.

Also someone announced a js based charting engine here on ycombinator about a
few weeks back. I thought it was real slick... i wish i had it book marked.

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NathanKP
Thanks for the response. I have now settled on the jQuery based charting
plugin. It seems fairly lightweight and has the advantage of being client
side. It also looks good. I have customized the CSS so that it looks fairly
similar to Google Analytics.

