Hi
Dne Thu, 2 Jun 2011 13:05:48 +0200 Tyron Madlener tyronx@gmail.com napsal(a):
After some testing and research I found out that:
- The pma_pchart classes, by default, slice the picture into 20
pieces, and that for every browser. It was implemented that way because IE8 limits data URIs to 32kb.
- Images generated by pChart are around 20-40 kb in size.
- IE7 does not support data URIs (=no pcharts for IE7 at all)
- Whereas Highcharts works in IE7 and IE8 (according to the website
also in IE6 but I didn't test that)
So from what I can see:
- Highcharts works in IE7; pChart does not
- Exporting images requires a server side export feature for
Highcharts (which is going to be developed anyway for OpenGIS); Exporting in pChart would require either non-sliced images and thus breaking IE8 support or alternatively a server side export feature as well.
- Highcharts is fast, interactive and animated, pChart is not (except
for tooltips)
- Highcharts allows realtime charts, pChart does not
- Highcharts requires ~90kb minified and 2 files, pChart with its
wrapper classes currently requires ~850kb and 18 files
- Highcharts is still being actively developed (last change march
2011), pCharts 1.x is not (last change september 2008)
- If pCharts were to be replaced by Highcharts, it would not require
12 wrapper classes. Rather just 1 that allows for easy extension with $.extend() and is client side. Highcharts is imo significantly easier to use than pCharts, mostly because coding in javascript has some clear advantages over php (OOP-wise). Since charting is used only in 3 places, it should be a matter of a few days to replace it.
- Compared with jQuery SVG: Highcharts is particularly made for
charting, thus giving a great look&feel and is very easy to use as a developer; jQuery SVG is not, thus looking inappropriate for charting and will result in less readable and more complicated code (or requires time-intensive coding of wrapper classes/plugins which can maybe partly remedy those disadvantages)
Hence my question, why haven't I been ordered to replace pChart with Highcharts already? ;-)
Thanks a lot for great analysis! I think it gives enough reasons to switch from pChart to Highcharts :-).