OStatic

ProtoChart Adds Another Prototype-Compatible Charting Library

The days in which it was considered acceptable for Web sites to have little or no JavaScript are long gone. Now, in the modern age of "Ajax," it is increasingly necessary for programmers to know and use JavaScript in a variety of ways. To help them, developers may use a number of JavaScript libraries that solve commonly faced problems, including cross-platform compatibility issues. One of the most popular JavaScript libraries is Prototype, which is included with the Ruby on Rails framework but is used alongside many other languages and frameworks.

Prototype makes it easy for developers to work with HTML forms, asynchronous "Ajax" requests, and create and manipulate HTML elements. However, Prototype is a bare-bones library, providing none of the widgets or special effects that are included in many competing open-source JavaScript libraries, such as Dojo and YUI. The Script.aculo.us library, which works along with Prototype to create visual effects and GUI elements, is certainly helpful. But even Script.aculo.us does not provide any truly reusable widgets.

It should not come as a surprise, then, to find that developers have stepped in to fill this void, creating a number of libraries that sit on top of Prototype and/or Script.aculo.us. There is no central repository for Prototype widgets, but several useful open-source collections are at Livepipe.net, Scripteka.com, and Prototype UI. Each of these libraries only solves some of the problems that a given developer will experience, which probably means that most programmers will need to keep their eyes open for new libraries that do more of what they need.

Several days ago, the Ajaxian blog announced yet another entry into the world of Prototype-compatible libraries: ProtoChart, an open-source library that makes it relatively simple to create a variety of charts on the client side, rather than manufacturing them on the server side and then sending them to the browser via HTTP. ProtoChart supports line, area, bar, and pie charts, among others, and is controlled by JavaScript.

Other JavaScript charting libraries Flotr, the similarly named Flot, and PlotKit, which uses the MochiKit JavaScript library. A commenter on Ajaxian also pointed to Timepedia also pointed to this charting widget, which displays a sliding portion of a larger graph, making it possible to look at individual portions of a large and complicated data set.

Now, it's not quite safe to say that ProtoChart is an open-source project, because while the authors have announced that the source code will be released within the coming day, they have not yet done so. However, it would appear as though the splintering that has occurred within the JavaScript world is continuing in the world of JavaScript-compatible widgets. It remains to be seen whether there will be any consolidation within the world of open-source JavaScript libraries, handling compatibility issues appropriately for multiple JavaScript libraries.

• javascript
• prototype
• graphing

Share Your Comments