Google Charts: Python API comparison: pygooglechart, GChartWrapper, ...

Both Python API wrappers for Google Charts try to make the composition of the complex Google Charts URL's more easy, structured and safe. 

Google Charts work rather low level regarding ranges/scaling and coordinates, consistent grid/tics painting is a little inconsistent and difficult ...  The logic of usage is not as easy as for example in Gnuplot. The libraries add more or less comfort regarding this 'painful' issue.

pygooglechart 0.9

• supports scaling for all encoding modes (simple & extended compressed character encoding) data.  
• provides an auto-scaling option; 
• The whole module is contained in one file - for example easy to put/handle in CGI environments and fast loading. 
• Image file download function

GChartWrapper 0.9 

• is organized as multi-file package. More abstract implementation. 
• It does however have no intelligence so far for re-scaling the data other than the simple chds ('t' data mode only) scaling of Google Charts itself. 
• The project is hosted on Google Code.  
• Loads and executes a little slower. 
• The API names are shorter; and multiple setting/format calls can be chained on one line (The return value of most functions is the chart object itself).
• Some ready-made comfort functions for PIL and Django
• (The GChartWrapper example pages are currently down as of 2010-03; opening example HTML docs in the "extra" package does not work correctly in Firefox/Seamonkey: a miss-formated ad box overlays the example text/code )

Both libraries break in Python <= 2.3 because of some 'classmethod' decorators - problem can be solved with a few touches. GChartWrapper uses properties (Python 2.2).

Search