I just discovered this "Download Count" module, after I saw the comment from @WorldFallz in https://www.drupal.org/node/1450660. While reviewing the project page I saw the "Also, now that views support has been added, if anyone creates a nice view be sure to submit an export to the issue queue for consideration for inclusion as a default view!". And somewhere in the issue queue I saw something about graphs. My questions:

1) Where can I find any docu about the graphs the module is using / supporting? Or more general: where can I find more docu about using the module?

2) The project page contains some screenshots containing charts, how were those charts created (eg: using which module of library)?

3) It appears to me that Forena could do a great job for both reporting and charting about the MySQL tables the Download Count module seems to populate. I'm thinking of creating some reports and charts (using forena) about those data from the Download Count module. Does that makes sense (to try to come up with something to do so), our would that be an overlap with something I don't know about yet?

Comments

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented
Status: Active » Fixed

Hi Pierre-- sorry I didn't see this sooner. Regarding your questions (thanks for numbering them!):

  1. The 6.x version of the module relied exclusively on some very basic home grown statistics that used the jquery sparkline plugin for simple graphs. With the advent of views 7.x-3.x and views aggregation, this was no longer necessary. Though still supported, the module now relies primarily on views integration for statistics which can then be graphed with any of the available charting libraries that support views. Personally, I use the charts module (for all the reasons I described in one of my other replies to you).
  2. I should really update these. Those are from the d6 version using the above mentioned jquery sparkline plugin. When I get a chance I'll update the images to add views graphs created with the charts module.
  3. Sounds really good. As I mentioned in my other reply, I'm actually pretty excited about the possibilities of forena-- I just don't personally like svggraphs. But if there's a method of including precreated forena graphs (much like you can do with precreated default views), I'd be open to adding it.
Pierre.Vriens’s picture

Pierre.Vriens commented

World, no problem you needed some time to answer, thanks for doing so now.

Regarding nr 1: good to know your module is NOT using chart, but charts (so it is not in danger ...). Curiosity: have you seen my #2368793-26: Chart 2.0? And the related comments in it like #20? Even though I perceive those comments as compliments, I doubt doing as suggested. Mostly because of my perception of slow responses to charts issues (that perception grows as days go by ...). And even though charts seems a logical successor of chart, at this time I do not feel comfortable recommending +25k chart module users to move on to charts (exactly because of the slow responses). Instead I more and more feel like transforming chart to a plug and play module to have a site select from a set of supported charting libs.

Regarding nr 3: sure I understand you have a different view (oeps) as compared to me related to svggraph, which is fine to me. On the other hand, I like the license type of it as related to some of the other libs. License options to me are becoming like more and more important as a selection criterium for some charting lib to go for. Also, have you seen my issue #2364427: Renderer for Charts and Graphs APIs from some time ago? If you like it and want to support it, how about you create a charts-clone variation of it?

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

Curiosity: have you seen my #2368793-26: Chart 2.0? And the related comments in it like #20?

Yep... I did stumble across the "Chart 2.0" thread. And in all honesty, I tend to agree with the sentiment of others in that thread that contributing towards "Charts" is a better use of time then writing a brand new module in the 'Chart' namespace (which is what it sounds like to me that you want to do).

But I also agree with your assessment that the charts module issue queue is somewhat slow. However, that would be addressed by consolidating, collaborating, and leveraging more module maintainers rather than fragmenting work effort with yet another chart initiative.

I've just recently spent a significant amount of time testing out all the major charting options (chart, charts, charts_graphs with views_charts, views_dataviz, google_charts, visualization, forena, etc.) in order to decide upon which module I would depend for my reports. After quite some testing, I settled on charts for several reasons:

  1. it integrates with views
  2. it accommodates graphing series with the very simple method of adding a views displays
  3. it was the only module I was able to use to create ALL the graphs I needed at the time (and I ended up submitting a patch or 2 for it)
  4. it provides for complete chart customization with very simple php (basically just setting variables)
  5. supports high charts.

And I totally understand your concerns from a licensing perspective. I don't think anyone would argue the value of having more rendering options available with several different licensing options to choose from. The charts module already has a plugin architecture for rendering and comes with plugins for google charts as well as highcharts. I'm sure one could be created for svggraph (or any other renderer) as well.

Also, have you seen my issue #2364427: Charts and Graphs API renderer from some time ago? If you like it and want to support it, how about you create a charts-clone variation of it?

Yes... saw that one too. And I would be interested in seeing if I could create a highcharts plugin for forena. Unfortunately time is limited and volunteer time is the most limited of all. I already maintain 1/2 dozen or so contrib modules which will need significant work for the d8 upgrade in the very near future. I just don't anticipate having the kind of time it would take for this effort when Charts with Highcharts already serves the needs of my job. :-(

Pierre.Vriens’s picture

Pierre.Vriens commented
Title: Use forena to create reports / charts for Download Count? » Creating reports / charts for Download Count?

World, your feedback above is extremely valuable to me, thank you very much. Just in case you don't realise/notice: it resulted in a new issue I created ... #2377647: Offering to maintain Charts, in which I also added a link to your comment above (and which is also why I thought slightly adapting the issue title here would be appropriate).

Maybe you also want to read about some interesting (I think) forena comment in #2364427-5: Renderer for Charts and Graphs APIs (and my related #4 and #6 in it) ...

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed - issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.