2

I have a table that makes extensive use of the features in Google Charts' Table Chart, notably, sorting by selected column and color gradients.

I'd like to add a sparkline column. Can anyone suggest methods for doing so? Google Sparkline doesn't appear to be at all integrable.

The only method I've come up with (I haven't tried it) is to create a set of images and set them as the CSS background, one cell at a time. Blecch.

I also have a need to show something like a pie chart or stacked bar per row in a column - something that shows gross proportions of the parts of a whole, with three to five parts. Here also, the Google chart tools don't integrate into Table, AFAICT.

Answers that suggest a different library that doesn't include Google table are fine - as long as the level of effort isn't too much higher, and a similar level of documentation is available.

Ed Staub
  • 15,480
  • 3
  • 61
  • 91

2 Answers2

3

I agree with Larry K regarding remembering the requirement to store/access the set of numbers that represent the points on your sparkline.

In terms of inserting it to the table, consider the image line charts api. You can easily generate sparkline images once you have the relevant set of numbers for them, and can embed the image url into a table cell, allowing it to render by specifying the allowHtml option in the table chart.

So, just making a cell with <img src='google.com?params=2&whatever=3' /> should do the trick.

oli
  • 3,541
  • 1
  • 27
  • 34
1

You would write your own data formatter to display the sparkline rather than the contents of the cell.

The next issue is to access/store the array of numbers that you want to represent by a sparkline. -- Remember that a Sparkline represents a set of values, it does not represent a single column/value.

There are several ways to solve this problem--eg store the number set as a string; store a key that would be used to look up the number set; or the formatter could use other values in the same row to determine the number set.

Added On second thought, it is not clear if you have access to a generic formatter that can return arbitrary html as the format for the cell's data. I thought you did but perhaps not.

Larry K
  • 47,808
  • 15
  • 87
  • 140
  • Perhaps yes - see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7286368/how-to-write-a-custom-formatter-for-google-datatables-for-use-on-visualisation. I'm thinking that a custom formatter that uses the image line charts api, as @oli suggests, might do the trick. – Ed Staub Nov 19 '11 at 15:58