Charts

[cleanair4me]

Does PHP have some library for making Graphic Pie/Bar Charts that I can use in the standard PHP installation? It seems I have to write alot of lines of code to make a Graphics Pie chart working with a database. I do this alot for making reports.

 

[southbeach]

Yeah, you can use OFC (Open Flash Chart). It is a freely available PHP Class. Very easy to use and with great samples for you to follow.

Here is the home page

[URL unfurl="true"]http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-flash-chart/[/URL]

Good luck!


--
SouthBeach
The good thing about not knowing is the opportunity to learn - Yours truly, 2008.

 

[jpadie]

i would recommend jpGraph as well.

 

[cleanair4me]

I think this is the issue I have with PHP compared to what I am using with Cold Fusion. Cold Fusion standard installation comes with MVC Fusebox, Simple Graphic/Chart tags and seems to have alot less coding and easier debugging for my big web applications.

In my environment I cant download anything (free or paid) and can only use what is available in our standard PHP installation and what I already have with standard ColdFusion installation.

I know this is a PHP forum and you will be bias toward it but in my environment (with major download restrictions) it makes more sense to develop with ColdFusion? Please offer any guidance or advise if possible.

Thanks

 

[jpadie]

it sounds like you're comparing apples and oranges to me. they're both fruit, but that's about as far as it goes.

and your real beef seems to be that you cannot adapt your environment: that just sounds like you have an immature host.

but neither with jpgraph nor with flash charts do you need to 'download' anything, in the sense of installing. these packages are simply script libraries that you copy and paste into your webspace and then use like any other php script.

As for any web application, the complexity of the application mirrors the complexity of the API. JPGraph's API can get quite complex if you want to create complex graphs. but for simple graphs, i wouldn't have thought you could get something much cleaner. It only needs to be told the y values, x values and the type of graph you want to output. pretty straightforward, no?

 

[cleanair4me]

Thanks for your info and time. For MVC, I would have to download Cake Framework or is there any PHP MVC script library that I can copy and paste out there?

 

[jpadie]

MVC is a design pattern. there are a number of apps and frameworks for php that implement this pattern.

but any web framework is inherently going to be less flexible than coding from the ground up. and you have not told us what you are doing or aiming at so it is difficult to advise you what to go for.

If all you are wanting is to output charts then jpgraph is your friend. it is very powerful and very straightforward. if you are having trouble implementing or understanding jpgraph then perhaps the right approach would be to explain your goals and provide some sample data points and then we can show you how to achieve what you're wanting.