Google Charts

Google Charts data visualization software provides businesses with a gallery of simple, as well as complex, ready-to-use charts to visualize data on their websites.

Overview

Google Charts data visualization software provides more than 30 types of charts for data visualization. Although it serves a wide range of users, it serves developers the most.

So, a chart creator would select one that gives their website the desired functions, look, and feel. Due to the interactive nature of these charts, businesses rely on them to produce engaging experiences on their websites. 

This software uses HTML5/SVG technology that makes it compatible across browsers and devices. So, website owners no longer have to bother about visitors messing with plugins. Anyone with a web browser can see their charts.

Google Charts data visualization software uses the same source to populate all the charts with data, which makes it easy to switch between charts. This is particularly important if you haven’t decided what chart to use and want to experiment a bit. The software helps website owners in the sorting, modification, and filtering of data that comes directly from their web pages or databases. 

It’s also compatible with other data providers that follow the same protocol (e.g., query languages like SQL). These data providers include Google Fusion Tables, Google Spreadsheets, and third-party providers like SalesForce. Google Charts allows a website to become a data provider for others should the owner implement such protocols.

Product details

Google Charts helps in data preparation. Every chart begins with data, and for Google Charts, it must be wrapped in JavaScript. The software presents data in a two-dimensional table with rows and columns. It offers several methods to create tables and allows you to compare the techniques. Plus, it allows the addition, removal, or modification of data after it’s been added.

Albeit, each chart type has a specific format, it must follow to work. It can be as simple as a data presentation for pie and bar chart that uses two columns. Here, the first column represents the slice or the bar, while the second column represents their values. Besides, some charts may have different and more complex tables. Instead of populating the tables manually, the software allows a creator to query compatible data sources. However, Google Charts doesn’t validate data tables as that would cause a delay.

Google Charts allows creators to customize all the charts. Using the default charts is sufficient for many website owners. Albeit, the software makes it easy to alter the title,  line thickness, colors, background, and other parts of the chart.

Each of the chart documentation has a list of customizable options that match the types of visualization. It allows creators to alter the chart’s size either by going to the chart options or in the HTML of the container. Not specifying the size can give the creators a distorted chart.

Moreover, choosing the chart option method makes it easy to manipulate a chart (you can copy, paste, save, serialize, and restore JavaScript). It also resizes the chart consistently. However, with HTML, the chart may take some time to render, and the page layout won’t jump around when loaded.  

Google Charts helps creators draw the charts. Drawing a chart requires that creators load packages of the specified chart. So, the data and option must be ready before the drawing takes place. The creator’s page must have an element of HTML to hold the chart in place. Google Charts allow creators to draw multiple charts on a web page. In this case, you’ll load all the packages that your charts require.

Google Charts offers several techniques for instantiating and drawing charts on a web page. Depending on the method, creators can have total control over each step of the drawing process. Some of the methods preload the appropriate chart libraries so that sending queries is easy for the creators. These types also require fewer codes and help creators to handle the callback. Plus, they allow data submission in various ways.

Google Charts enables website owners to print charts directly from a browser or JavaScript. The software allows chart creators to do almost anything to their charts, including granting access to a PNG image of the chart.

Google Charts allows creators to manipulate the charts to respond to events. Beyond drawing the charts, website owners want to know when their visitors click, or they generally want to interact with the charts. Listening to the charts allows the creator to observe some events that they may otherwise miss. These events may include ready, select, error, onmouseover, and onmouseout.

Listening is vital to site owners because they want to know when the charts are ready to respond to methods (especially if they are going to request something from the charts). They want to know when their visitors click on the charts. “Error” helps them know when the chart didn’t render, likely due to a table formatting issue. Then, they know when a user mouses over or off the chart. 

Google Charts integrates tightly with Google Spreadsheets. When you place Google Chart in Google Spreadsheet, you can extract data from the spreadsheet. When site owners make changes to the underlying spreadsheet, the chart changes as well. Albeit, one can create Google Charts from a separate spreadsheet by querying it to retrieve data.

Google Chart can be animated smoothly. A creator can animate the charts from the beginning after the chart data and options are set. Once the animation duration is chosen, it will start with the values at the baseline animate until the final state. The software also allows the animation of an already rendered chart. However, the modification that a chart may support varies from the next. Some of these modifications may include changes to values on the table, addition or removal of rows or columns, or changes to chart options.

Google Charts allows the combination of multiple charts on a dashboard and gives creators controls for manipulating the data they want to show. So they can organize and manage multiple charts as long as they share the same underlying data. Plus, they don’t have to work hard at wiring and coordinating different charts that are part of a dashboard. To interact with the data and charts on the dashboard, creators have access to widgets like range sliders, category pickers, auto-completers, and so on.

Recap

Google charts give access to about 30 chart types, so creators have many options to choose from. Chart creators can load the chart library, prepare or customize data, and draw simple or multiple charts — the platform offers guides on ways to draw charts by using simple and advanced methods. So creators can interact with the charts by setting events, creating animations, using controls on a dashboard, and more. You’ll learn how to connect your database, ingest chart data from Google Sheets, and other sources.