It may come as a surprise to learn that using Google Visualization (Chart) Tools requires very little prior knowledge. One of the most satisfying aspects of working with this set of tools is the ease of leveraging a cloud platform. In other words, there is no requirement for high performance personal hardware and software setup that requires constant care and feeding on a laptop or desktop. While not ideal, it is even possible to develop projects from a tablet interface. In addition, with the interactive nature of the environment, real-time programming capability is a big plus during development.
In this chapter, the following topics are covered:
- Knowledge prerequisites
- Interacting with Google Visualization Tools
With Google Visualization Tools, a developer with knowledge of HTML5 and some JavaScript can utilize approximately 90 percent of the functionality of the Application Programming Interface (API). Some methods of creating visualizations do not even require writing code at all, but instead rely on the Graphic User Interface (GUI) of common Google Drive (previously known as Google Docs) tools. The remaining 10 percent of the functionality comes from the ability to interface with custom data sources. Google often makes its Java Libraries, in this case the Data Source Libraries, available for developers to use. A developer requiring such a capability can build custom data source connectors to a database on a web server. However, data connectors provided in the Visualization API, including communications through a SQL-like query language and jQuery, are generally adequate for most visualization projects.
To work in depth with the Visualization APIs, the following programming skills are highly recommended:
- HTML5
- JavaScript
- Java (specific uses only)
In short, the Visualization API requires very little beyond a text editor and Internet access to create visualizations. However, additional tools make development much easier. Suggested tools or services when working with the Visualization API are as follows:
- A service or web server to host HTML pages
- A Google account with Google Drive activated (https://drive.google.com/start)
A Google account is required for the purposes of this book. Without a Google account, many of the tutorials and examples will not work properly.