Presenting Graphical Information on the Web

4. Review of Commercial Java Graph Products

InetSoft, Inc.
Evaluation: * * Graphing widgets as part of a basic widget collection. Graph types are limited (bars, stacked bars, pies) but are easy to use and support is friendly. Some browser compatibility problems.
JClass Chart
Evaluation: * * * * Some of their examples are awful, but most of the ChartJunk can easily be turned off. Some good use of interactivity (e.g., dwell for data values) and some very bad use of interactivity (e.g., rotate and add depth to pie charts). A good variety of business and scientific graph types. Flexibility makes the API somewhat daunting.
Examples
Evaluation: * * * Good variety of graph types; very powerful statistical tools built in. Not much use of interactivity except for drill down.
NetCharts
Examples
Evaluation: * * * * * My current favorite. Probably the greatest variety of graph types and the most ways to implment them (e.g., applets controlled by param statements, applets updated by Javascript or other applets, classes for use in applications and one's own applets). Their examples have way too much ChartJunk but it can all be turned off. Strong use of interactivity. Very friendly support, good API, and nice documentation.

Evaluation: * * * Best collection of scientific graph types. Very nice use of 3rd dimension when appropriate. Big disadvantage is that it requires use of server running proprietary PV-WAVE, which does most of the work. Solid documentation but programming is not easy, even though much of the work is done by server. Friendly Boulder folks. Their work on JNI, a Java Numerica Language Library, deserves everyone's support! Try the following example: