Data Visualization with D3 4.x Cookbook - Second Edition

Nick Zhu

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781786469960
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Informatik
• Subtopic: Datenvisualisierung

Discover over 65 recipes to help you create breathtaking data visualizations using the latest features of D3About This Book• Learn about D3 4.0 from the inside out and master its new features• Utilize D3 packages to generate graphs, manipulate data, and create beautiful presentations• Solve real-world visualization problems with the help of practical recipesWho This Book Is ForIf you are a developer familiar with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and you wish to get the most out of D3, then this book is for you. This book can serve as a desktop quick-reference guide for experienced data visualization developers. You'll also find this book useful if you're a D3 user who wants to take advantage of the new features introduced in D3 4.0. You should have previous experience with D3.What You Will Learn• Get a solid understanding of the D3 fundamentals and idioms• Use D3 to load, manipulate, and map data to any kind of visual representation on the web• Create data-driven dynamic visualizations that update as the data does• Leverage the various modules provided by D3 to create sophisticated, dynamic, and interactive charts and graphics• Create data-driven transitions and animations within your visualizations• Understand and leverage more advanced concepts such as force, touch, and Geo data visualizationsIn DetailThis book gives you all the guidance you need to start creating modern data visualizations with D3 4.x that take advantage of the latest capabilities of JavaScript.The book starts with the basic D3 structure and building blocks and quickly moves on to writing idiomatic D3-style JavaScript code. You will learn how to work with selection to target certain visual elements on the page, then you will see techniques to represent data both in programming constructs and its visual metaphor. You will learn how map values in your data domain to the visual domain using scales, and use the various shape functions supported by D3 to create SVG shapes in visualizations.Moving on, you'll see how to use and customize various D3 axes and master transition to add bells and whistles to otherwise dry visualizations. You'll also learn to work with charts, hierarchy, graphs, and build interactive visualizations. Next you'll work with Force, which is one of the most awe-inspiring techniques you can add to your visualizations, and you'll implement a fully functional Choropleth map (a special purpose colored map) in D3.Finally, you'll learn to unit test data visualization code and test-driven development in a visualization project so you know how to produce high-quality D3 code.Style and approachThis step-by-step guide to mastering data visualizations with D3 will help you create amazing data visualizations with professional efficiency and precision. It is a solution-based guide in which you learn through practical recipes, illustrations, and code samples.

Data Visualization with D3 4.x Cookbook - Second Edition

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Data Visualization with D3 4.x Cookbook - Second Edition

Copyright © 2017 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author(s), nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

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First published: October 2013

Second edition: February 2017

Production reference: 1220217

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham

B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78646-825-3

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author Nick Zhu	Copy Editor Dhanya Baburaj
Reviewer Scott Becker	Project Coordinator Ritika Manoj
Commissioning Editor Wilson Dsouza	Proofreader Safis Editing
Acquisition Editor Shweta Pant	Indexer Mariammal Chettiyar
Content Development Editor Arun Nadar	Graphics Jason Monteiro
Technical Editor Sachit Bedi	Production Coordinator Deepika Naik

About the Author

Nick Zhu is a professional programmer and data engineer with more than a decade experience in software development, big data, and machine learning. Currently, he is one of the founders and CTO of Yroo.com - meta search engine for online shopping. He is also the creator of dc.js—a popular multidimensional charting library built on D3.

About the Reviewer

Scott Becker is a partner at Olio Apps, a software consulting company in Portland Oregon. He has built numerous systems including a marketplace for geospatial datasets, HIPAA compliant video services for the medical industry, and visualizations of breaches in data security products. He is currently building a next generation time tracking system atwww.shoutbase.com. He has also produced a video course on data visualization with D3.js available at deveo.tv.

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Preface

D3.js is a JavaScript library designed to display digital data in dynamic graphical form. It helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS. D3 allows great control over the final visual result, and it is the hottest and most powerful web-based data visualization technology on the market today.

D3 v4 is the latest release of the D3 library. This second edition cookbook has been completely updated to cover and leverage the D3 v4 API, modular data structure, as well as revamped force implemented. It is designed to provide you with all the guidance you need to get to grips with data visualization with D3. With this book, you will create breathtaking data visualization with professional efficiency and precision with the help of practical recipes, illustrations, and code samples.

This cookbook starts off by touching upon data visualization and D3 basics before gradually taking you through a number of practical recipes covering a wide range of topics you need to know about D3.

You will learn the fundamental concepts of data visualization, functional JavaScript, and D3 fundamentals, including element selection, data binding, animation, and SVG generation. You will also learn how to leverage more advanced techniques such as interpolators, custom tweening, timers, queueing, hierarchy, force manipulation, and so on. This book also provides a number of pre-built chart recipes with ready-to-go sample code to help you bootstrap quickly.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with D3.js, is designed to get you up and running with D3.js, covering fundamental aspects, such as what D3.js is, and how to set up a typical D3.js data visualization environment.

Chapter 2, Be Selective, covers one of the most fundamental tasks you need to perform with any data visualization project using D3: selection. Selection helps you target certain visual elements on the page.

Chapter 3, Dealing with Data, explores the most essential question in any data visualization project: how to represent data in both programming constructs and its visual metaphor.

Chapter 4, Tipping the Scales, covers the one key task that you need to perform over and over again as a data visualization developer, that is, mapping values in your data domain to visual domain, which is the focus of this chapter.

Chapter 5, Playing with Axes, explores the usage of the axes component and some related techniques commonly used in the visualization based on the Cartesian coordinates system.

Chapter 6, Transition with Style, deals with a saying that is arguably one of the most important cornerstones of data visualization, "a picture is worth a thousand words." This chapter covers transition and animation support provided by the D3 library.

Chapter 7, Getting into Shape, deals with Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG), which is a mature World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard wi...