Should graph data be generated in the back end or front end?

Question

I've been having a discussion recently in the office, about whether to provide graph data prepared via our internal back-end api or to provided generic data and parse to graph format in the front-end. Here is the basic notes i've collected from my team:

Front End Pros:

• Data is transmitted from the backend in a generic format
• Because the data is in a generic form, any graph rendering front-end could be used. Provided a parser method is written

Front End Cons:

• Front-end will need to included a parser of some sort, to convert the generic data into actual graph data

Back End Pros:

• Data can be provided in the correct format negating the need for front-end parsing

Back End Cons

• Locks down which graph library we can use

It seems as though its an either/or scenario, but i wanted to ask the question to gain any other possible insights.

By back-end i mean REST API and by front-end i mean web-application (Javascript).

Answer 1

• expensive computations or any sort of computations for graph should happen on the back-end. Even if the back-end ends up consuming more memory or cpu, you can control that by scaling/autoscaling your back-end servers based on CPU, Response time , Memory, etc..
• If front-end does the computations and lets assume it has years and months of data points, processing happens on the client's browser app for which your app has no control too. This is especially the scenario for those who play multiple browser tabs or apps at the same time.
• Debugging or pin pointing the issue is easier if all computations are done on the back-end.