Archive for the Business Intelligence

How to Name a Graph: Tips for Writing Great Chart Captions

April 5th, 2017 by AnyChart Team

Dashboard with Good Chart Captions: Tips on How to Name a GraphCharts are one of the best ways to display your data in a way that’s meaningful to readers, but if you don’t have great chart captions, your readers may interpret that meaningful information incorrectly.

Readers’ attention spans are waning by the second. In fact, humans now have a shorter attention span than goldfish (yes that cute, little fish you won from the carnival can pay attention better than the average person). This means that most people are scanning through your work. Without a clear, concise chart caption, your chances of getting your message across are slim.

Fear not! Here are some tips to help you come up with excellent chart captions, titles for graphs and dashboards.

Read more »

How to Integrate AnyChart JavaScript Charts in SAP Web UI

March 30th, 2017 by Sandor van der Neut

Charts in SAP: How to Integrate AnyChart JavaScript Charts in SAP Web UIWe as ‘mere’ humans are not very good at processing raw statistical data visually when it’s delivered to us in an unrefined form. We are, however, very good in detecting complex patterns when data is presented to us in a graph or a chart. It is therefore no wonder that as a developer you often get the requirement to represent data in a more comprehensible form. When you want to visualize data in the SAP Web UI in a more graphical way the standard possibilities available to you are rather limited. Luckily there are ways to overcome these limitations. When you combine SAP with the graphical power of AnyChart JS Charts a whole range of new possibilities will become available to you.

In this blog I will describe how you can integrate AnyChart in the SAP Web UI with relative ease, how you can feed AnyChart objects with SAP data using both a ‘pull’ and a ‘push’ mechanism and how you can respond in the SAP backend to the events triggered from user interaction with an AnyChart object.

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8 Dashboard Design Trends for 2017

March 28th, 2017 by AnyChart Team

Dashboard Design Trends: Top 8 in 2017With the explosion of data in the past few years, the relevance of understanding it better has grown to the highest extent. That is why expertise in interactive charting and dashboard design, as well as in the whole big Data Visualization and Data Science fields in general, has become so important nowadays. In fact, it is usually rather difficult to understand raw data as deeply and quickly as needed. Luckily, neat visual representation of information can be helpful in clarifying even very large amounts of data, discovering and exploring patterns in data, and then making (right) data-driven decisions.

Creating dashboards is a great way of transforming diverse relevant data into informative, insightful visualizations as the basis for further analysis. In order to obtain the highest possible efficiency, they should be insightful, featuring robust usability, and visually (and aesthetically) appealing.

Today we’ll talk about the most notable dashboard design trends. Understanding them is very important to each data professional who wants to further improve their skills by keeping up with the times and adhering to the best practices.

Read more »

Interactive Technical Support Dashboard Created with AnyChart JavaScript (HTML5) Charts

March 20th, 2017 by AnyChart Team

Interactive Technical Support Dashboard Created with AnyChart JavaScript (HTML5) ChartsTechnical Support Dashboard is a great tool to keep track of all the support and related activities in your company. It can be very helpful in both monitoring your support team’s performance and revealing issue patterns in customer requests for further use by product strategy and development officers. And when you already have data, all you need is to decide how to visualize it, preferably quickly, easily, and fully compatibly with your own corporate software.

Now that the Web has completely adhered to the HTML5 standard, JavaScript charting libraries are the best type of solution for interactive data visualization. They can deliver all necessary dashboarding features and make the whole process of creating a dashboard for your web app pretty straightforward. Of course, you should just choose a right JavaScript charting library first that will entirely comply with your specific data visualization objectives.

But let’s get back to the very gist. Today we are glad to present the Technical Support Dashboard created with the JavaScript charting library of AnyChart. It is our new sample, available under the Apache 2.0 license, and you can feel free to make good use of it in your own business intelligence solutions. In particular, such a dashboard will help you fully control the support and make right data-driven decisions based on your data.

Now let’s take a closer look at this cool (and helpful) interactive JavaScript (HTML5) dashboard.

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How to Choose the Right JavaScript Charting Component: 10 Factors You Have to Consider

March 5th, 2017 by AnyChart Team

Creating good data visualization is a huge investment of your time, but it’s also one of the most important things if you want to build a competitive, serious application. The best way to get consumers to see and feel your data is through pristine visualization, but choosing the best JavaScript charting library isn’t cut and dry. There are so many factors to consider when you’re thinking about JS charting.

Don’t fret! We’ve outlined some of the most important factors to consider when choosing a JS library. Here are 10 things you need to be thinking about right now.

AnyChart - JS Charts

Read more »

Introducing Chartopedia to Help You Choose the Right Chart Types for Your Data Visualization

January 18th, 2017 by AnyChart Team

Chartopedia: Choosing the Right Chart Types for your Data Visualization. By AnyChart JS ChartsChoosing the right chart types for data analysis and reporting solutions is always a challenge. In fact, there are so many data visualization options out there that it can be really complicated to determine which one to use in a certain situation. And you cannot afford to make a mistake here, because applying data to an inappropriate type of chart will very likely end up causing confusion and even wrong business decisions.

To help you cope with this issue better (and faster), we have developed an information resource named Chartopedia, and it is a pleasure for us to introduce it to you today.

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AnyChart JS Charts 2016 Year in Review: Look How Much Was Done!

December 26th, 2016 by AnyChart Team

This year has been so busy and fruitful for AnyChart JS Charts that now our team is extremely tired and feels incredibly happy at the same time. In fact, we went all out to make our JavaScript (HTML5) based charting libraries AnyChart, AnyStock, AnyGantt, and AnyMap even much more feature-rich, flexible, user-friendly, and faster with only one purpose – to bring you an unprecedented data visualization experience.

Looking back, we are proud of how MUCH was done in 2016! And now, we invite you to join us in quickly reviewing this year’s accomplishments that further strengthened AnyChart’s global leadership in interactive data visualization.

Without more ado, here is the list of new product and feature arrivals as well as major improvements to our JS charts solutions – a great chance to make sure you did not miss any important innovation.

AnyChart JS Charts logo

1. More Types of JS Charts.

JS graphs and diagrams

  • Treemap charts
  • Linear gauges – LED, tank, and thermometer
  • 3D area charts
  • 3D bar charts
  • 3D column charts

(AnyChart gallery)

Stock and financial JS charts

  • Candlestick charts
  • Spline charts
  • Step line charts
  • Area charts
  • Step area charts
  • Spline area charts
  • Marker charts
  • Range column charts
  • Range area charts
  • Range spline area charts

(AnyStock gallery)

JS Gantt charts

  • PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) charts
  • Resource charts (redesigned; beta)

(AnyGantt gallery)

JS maps

  • Dot (point) maps
  • Flow (connector) maps
  • Seat maps

(AnyMap gallery)

2. More Features in JS Charts.

All JS charts

JS graphs and diagrams

  • Chart themes/palettes (demo)
  • Exclude/include data points
  • Context menu
  • Save data as XSLX and CSV
  • Save chart configuration as XML and JSON
  • String tokens
  • Chart statistics
  • Standalone chart elements
  • Tooltip settings improvement

(AnyChart docs)

Stock and financial JS charts

  • Drawing tools and annotations (demo)
  • Technical indicators – MACD, RSI, SMA, EMA, ROC, Aroon, and custom
  • Data grouping
  • Markers on data points
  • Range selection UI
  • Legend interactivity
  • Y-scale comparison mode (changes and percentage changes)

(AnyStock docs)

JS Gantt charts

  • Calendar support
  • Smart timeline
  • Event markers for time intervals and important events
  • Timeline markers for multiple milestones

(AnyGantt docs)

JS maps

  • Drill down
  • Longitude/latitude API
  • Move/zoom API
  • Rich integration of keyboard and mouse controls
  • 13 map projections

(AnyMap docs)

3. Easier JS charting.

  • Chart editor (demo)
  • Demos of business solutions including the following JavaScript (HTML5) dashboards:
    • Web Audience dashboard
    • Human Resources dashboard
    • Investment Portfolio dashboard
    • Sales dashboard
    • CIO dashboard
    • Site Speed Overview dashboard
    • States of the US dashboard
  • Migration tool – a small library for easier transit from AnyChart 5/6 to 7
  • 20+ technical integration templates and samples for easy JS/HTML5 data visualization with any popular technology stack:
    • ASP.NET – C# / C#, SignalR / VB.NET – MySQL integration template
    • Clojure – ClojureScript – PostgreSQL integration template
    • Go – (Revel) – MySQL integration template
    • iOS – Objective-C – SQLite integration template
    • Java Servlets – Maven, JDBC, JSP – MySQL integration template
    • Java Spring – Maven, Hibernate – MySQL integration template
    • Julia – MySQL integration template
    • NodeJS – (Express, Jade) / Socket.IO – MongoDB integration template
    • Perl – Catalyst – MySQL integration template
    • PHP – (Laravel / Slim / Symfony) – MySQL integration template
    • Python – Flask / Django – MySQL integration template
    • R – Shiny – MySQL integration template
    • Ruby on Rails – (Sinatra) – MySQL integration template
    • Scala – Akka / Play – MySQL integration template
    • Electron integration template

4. Faster JS Charts.

  • Performance improvement (speed test):
    • Less than 1s to render 250,000 data points
    • Less than 60ms to stream 500 points
  • Async rendering (docs)

5. New Products.

To sum up, 2016 was immensely intensive. But 2017 will be no less productive from the very beginning – we promise.

We wish you a peaceful, prosperous, and happy new year!

JS Charting Without Borders: 21 New Integration Templates for Popular Stacks

December 19th, 2016 by AnyChart Team

Making your data visualization life ever easier is what we at AnyChart are boundlessly passionate about. This time we focused on further simplifying the integration of our JS charting solutions into your web development environment.

So, prepare to replan your schedule! From now on, you will spend tangibly less time on charting. And please greet the 21 New Technical Integration Templates that we have just released! They will help you deploy HTML5 graphs, maps, stock charts, dashboards, and Gantt diagrams in your stack as easily (and rapidly!) as never before, no matter what programming languages, frameworks, and databases are used.

You can find the templates right here on our website, in the Technical Integrations section.

Technical integration templates and samples for using AnyChart JS charting libraries with various languages, frameworks, and databases even easier

Basically, our powerful JavaScript/HTML5 based solutions for interactive data visualization – AnyChart, AnyMap, AnyStock, and AnyGantt – are inherently compatible with all major technologies and platforms. Configuring each JS charting library is easy, and we are sure all of you are more than capable of making even rather complicated integrations prefectly done by yourself. But we keep on doing our best to bring you the ultimate simplicity and clarity so you could get along without additional research and other time-consuming activities.

The integration templates we’ve added cover the most popular languages, frameworks and libraries, and database programs. Below is the list of the newly available combinations.

Templates for easily integrating AnyChart JS charting libraries into your stack:

C# / VB.NET based ASP.NET and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
ASP.NET integration
  • ASP.NET, C# and MySQL
  • ASP.NET, C#, SignalR and MySQL
  • ASP.NET, VB.NET and MySQL
The Go programming language and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
Go integration
  • Go and MySQL
  • Go, Revel and MySQL
Java Spring / Java Servlets and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
Java integration
  • Java Spring, Maven, Hibernate and MySQL
  • Java Servlets, Maven, JDBC, JSP and MySQL
Julia and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
Julia integration
  • Julia and MySQL
NodeJS and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
NodeJS integration
  • NodeJS and MongoDB (using Socket.io)
  • NodeJS, Express, Jade and MongoDB
Perl and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
Perl integration
  • Perl, Catalyst Web Framework and MySQL
PHP and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
PHP integration
  • PHP, Laravel and MySQL
  • PHP, Slim and MySQL
  • PHP, Symfony and MySQL
Python and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
Python integration
  • Python, Flask and MySQL
  • Python, Django and MySQL
The R language and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
R integration
  • R, Shiny and MySQL
Ruby on Rails and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
Ruby on Rails integration
  • Ruby on Rails, Sinatra and MySQL
  • Ruby on Rails and MySQL
Scala and AnyChart JS Charts: integration templates
Scala integration
  • Scala, Akka and MySQL
  • Scala, Play and MySQL

We hope you agree that this is a tremendous addition to the JS charting integration samples published earlier:

  • Clojure, ClojureScript and PostgreSQL,
  • iOS, Objective-C and SQLite,
  • NodeJS and MongoDB,
  • PHP and MySQL,
  • PHP, Slim and MySQL.

So, you are welcome to make use of our integration templates and samples for easier data visualization. All of them are released on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 License, rest in the AnyChart Integrations repository, and can be forked and changed in any way.

We are going to keep the collection growing further. Meanwhile, please send us your suggestions on what other particular integration you are interested to learn about first, and – as always! – that one will be prioritized; just contact our Support Team for that and name your stack.

To make your JS charting life even easier, we will release special AnyChart plugins for Angular, Ember, jQuery, Meteor, and React JavaScript frameworks in February 2017, with the 7.13.0 update. But this is a completely other remarkable story. Stay tuned. And thanks for being with us!

Web Analytics Dashboard – Made With JS Maps and Charts Powered by AnyChart

October 19th, 2016 by AnyChart Team

In today’s world of data, a well-designed web analytics dashboard is a must-have for everyone who is managing a website, a web app, or a number of various web projects. You get tons of statistics about traffic, and you should make them work and help you make right decisions.

How much traffic are you getting? Who are your visitors? Where are they coming from? And maybe even most important – is your marketing strategy working well? It gets much easier and takes significantly less time to answer all these questions when the data is visualized. Here comes an interactive analytics dashboard that allows you to have your data organized, see everything at-a-glance, and pay sufficient attention to all metrics that are important to you.

First-class dashboarding experience is one of the biggest advantages of our interactive data visualization solutions. JavaScript graphs, maps, and stock charts powered by AnyChart can be easily put on a single, effective, interactive HTML5 dashboard, making your traffic data analytics even more powerful and insightful. And here is another great example – Web Audience Dashboard, freshly made by the team of AnyChart for your inspiration.

Look at this:

Interactive HTML5 Web Analytics Dashboard Powered by AnyChart JS Charts
(large image / interactive version)

And now we definitely should take note of some composition and development features of this dashboard.

Read more »

HR Dashboard – Built With AnyChart JavaScript (HTML5) Charts Library

September 1st, 2016 by AnyChart Team

An HR dashboard is a powerful BI solution that can mightily facilitate making right, data-driven decisions about the workforce in your company – from recruiting and training courses to compensations and job promotions. Smart visualization of all relevant staff-related data, with all charts and graphs on a single page, allows your Human Resources Department to see various metrics at-a-glance. As a result, HR managers are given the power to easily identify trends, outliers, and relationships when it comes to reports and data analysis, and to make sure each decision is well-timed and will drive even more success for your enterprise.

After all, it is the employees that are the most valuable asset.

To inspire and show you how easy it gets to implement this approach with the help of AnyChart JS Charts library, we added an interactive JavaScript-based Human Resources Dashboard to the Business Solutions section of our website as a new HTML5 business dashboard sample with the full source code. It nicely visualizes various employee related data, including demographics, payrolls, performance measurements, and so on. Of course, you are welcome to fork this sample and use our HR Dashboard fully or partially to create your own solution.

Interactive HR Dashboard business solution for human resources analysis and management. Created with AnyChart JavaScript (HTML5) Charts library

Now let’s have a closer look at this interactive HTML5 dashboard, including its composition and some peculiar features. Read more »

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