Matplotlib: interactive plot on a web server

Question

I'm currently using Open Flash Chart 2 on my django website, but I find it insufficiently customizable. (It's great when you want the usual barcharts, piecharts, but what about homemade shapes...). Although it's open source, I don't feel like diving in the Flex code.

I'm thinking a lot about matplotlib but the documentation is rather poor on web application developpment.

Does anybody uses matplotlib in his web app? I would appreciate links on those web sites to figure out what can be achieved. Thanks

Answer 1

If you're looking for flash-like interactivity in a web application, matplotlib probably isn't what you're looking for. It's fine for rendering a static image to serve out in a web app, though. (and is amazingly flexible)

However, there's been a lot of recent development on making matplotlib more oriented toward web interactivity. Take a look at the new HTML5/Canvas backend. http://code.google.com/p/mplh5canvas/ It's not quite finished yet, but it's worth playing around with, anyway.

Answer 2

You can use MPLD3 to export your existing matplotlib stuff to browser.
Matplotlib itself is very powerful, albeit, I agree the documentation is not very extensive.
I've learned it just by trying stuff out and finding examples on the net.
'matplotlib example X' where X is somewhat about what you are trying to plot find suprising amount of code on the net.