PUBLIC MARKS with tag charts

Data visualization in HTML has long been tricky to achieve. Past solutions have involved non-standard plugins, proprietary behavior, and static images. But this has changed with the recent growth in support for the new HTML Canvas element, which provides a native drawing API that can be addressed with simple Javascript. This article is a proof of concept for visualizing HTML table data with the canvas element.

The Google Chart API lets you dynamically generate charts

Server-based solutions, implemented with Flash, JavaScript or pure CSS, offer a more flexible alternative. In fact, since Flash offers significant advantages over static data presentation with CSS and JavaScript, most solutions use it for dynamic data visualization. The data itself is often stored in XML-files which are loaded and updated via PHP or ASP. The price range varies enormously — depending on the flexibility and level of customization you’d like to have. However, if you don’t want to pay, you don’t have to — there are powerful free solutions as well.