360Flex - Tom Gonzalez - Advanced Data Visualization
Posted on May 19, 2009
Tom starts by announcing the alpha release of an open source data visualization framework called Axiis (code at http://code.google.com/p/axiis/) licensed under MIT. This session will be about using this framework. The impetus behind this framework was what they felt was the limitations of the existing Flex charting components. Axiis is more than a set of charting components though. Axiis about describing repetitive visual and information patterns.
There is a concept in Axiis called a reference repeater which describes the pattern that the visualization will follow. You then bind some data to the reference repeater and finally draw a picture. One of the goals of Axiis was, like Degrafa, to allow you to describe code via MXML markup. It was also built to be modular so that you can mix and match components and improve reuse.
The Axiis library includes DataSet which has routines for formatting massaging data automatically. It also has column bar and stacks, line/area series group, wedge stack, plots, axis, scale, states and more. This is an alpha but the core is working, however there are bugs and the library needs more testing. They are looking to add contributors to the project.
Looking forward, Tom and Mike are working optimizing performance for large datasets. They also plan to add tweening and animation into the library (and the audience was impressed by an example he showed of this in use). They would like to add transitions and more visualizations. The hope is to be at beta 1.0 ready for his presentation at CFUnited in August.
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