Flashy (flash) graphs...

[Saftnase]

Hai all,

i stumbled into open-flash-chart a couple of months ago.
now i use it on my website to display charts for copper price to our customers.
what i really like is the tooltip function when you highlight a datarow to see the exact value of the datapoint.

[topkoa]

So..

Niels,

In your opinion- do you think it would be prudent to submit at a later date to the dev team an official request for some flash-type graphs? Barring of course the progress of gnash and of course after the release of the next release cycle? (when some of the more pressing fixes/improvements have been dealt with)

[Niels]

Niels,

In your opinion- do you think it would be prudent to submit at a later date to the dev team an official request for some flash-type graphs? Barring of course the progress of gnash and of course after the release of the next release cycle? (when some of the more pressing fixes/improvements have been dealt with)

If you feel this is a good feature, you should suggest it, regardless of my nasty opinions. Go for it! But please bear in mind that Flash is at best problematic on Open Source.

[richlv]

Niels,

In your opinion- do you think it would be prudent to submit at a later date to the dev team an official request for some flash-type graphs? Barring of course the progress of gnash and of course after the release of the next release cycle? (when some of the more pressing fixes/improvements have been dealt with)

i would say 'no'
as mentioned, flash is at best problematic - the closed source plugin sucks (crashes, grey plugin areas, memleaks...), and opensource replacements can only play catchup as the spec is completely controlled by a single company.

as for better graphs, they will be shinier in next version (try dragging with the mouse over the graph area at http://lukss.lv/stuff/transp/charts.html - it is only a snapshot so it wouldn't change anything, but you should get the idea).

as mentioned, pie graphs might be coming in the next version, though i haven't yet seen/tried them.

so, if you have ideas for graph improvement, those should go this way, without closed components

[topkoa]

I just found this peoject on Freshmeat...

Has anyone seen this project?

It looks like it has some interesting functionality without flash.

http://oat.openlinksw.com/index.html?about

[Niels]

Has anyone seen this project?

It looks like it has some interesting functionality without flash.

http://oat.openlinksw.com/index.html?about

That looks quite nice although not everything works in my Konqueror. A better interface in Zabbix would certainly be nice, but a foreign toolkit like this needs to be very stable and well tested before Zabbix can start depending on it.

I may use OAT for another project I'm doing -- thanks!

[richlv]

Has anyone seen this project?

It looks like it has some interesting functionality without flash.

http://oat.openlinksw.com/index.html?about

it does look interesting, but feasibility of it will have to be evaluated by developers.
unfortunately, timeline (which is involved in one of our wishes ) didn't work for me.

[topkoa]

Clarification...

Just so everyone knows, my goal in bringing up these projects is not to blindly infuse some foreign code into the Zabbix system verbatim. I am posting them more for an illustration for some types of functionality I would like to see in the future.

Please do not think I am asking for some whole 3rd party project to be grafted onto Zabbix..

I like some of the features that are available elsewhere that could be implemented to make the graphing of Zabbix a little more robust.

[noxis]

They are some cool graphs, but I don't think they would fit into Zabbix that well. IMO are they too cartoony in order to be used professionally in a technicians tool like Zabbix. I would rather have some precise graphs like the one in Zabbix now.

Also, they doesn't seem too fitting for having many values per graph, like one value per minute in a one hour graph, that would simply be too compact.

I wouldn't call the Zabbix graphs precise, having come from a RRD environment they look very rough and basic in comparison. I'd say the Zabbix graphs are an area where major improvements are needed considering its one of the central roles of the system.

[Tenzer]

I wouldn't call the Zabbix graphs precise, having come from a RRD environment they look very rough and basic in comparison. I'd say the Zabbix graphs are an area where major improvements are needed considering its one of the central roles of the system.

Yes, Zabbix's graphs are more rough than RRD graphs, and that is also what it takes in order to have a precise graph imo. RRD graphs tend to be more "blurred" than other graphing systems:

http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/gallery/index.en.html

You can compare that to RTG graphs which are the most precise I know of:

http://rtg.sourceforge.net/examples/index.html

[gpostaire]

Did someone integrate this library ?
Because i will soon try to.

[topkoa]

Did someone integrate this library ?
Because i will soon try to.

I don't think anyone has attempted to integrate these into Zabbix- at least not publicly- I would imagine you are certainly welcome to make a 3rd party patch as Zabbix is Open Source after all...

Keep in mind that I had originally posted this thread with the hopes of duplicating the functionality in some degree by the official development team and there was some well-founded concern with the reliances of Flash(tm) within Zabbix if this were the case due to its Flash(tm)'s closed-source nature. (Which I find interesting since the "clock" feature in the Screen sections is a stand-alone .SWF file last I checked.. heh but I wont get nit-picky )

However, if you have any successes integrating it I would be very interested in seeing your results....

[Niels]

Keep in mind that I had originally posted this thread with the hopes of duplicating the functionality in some degree by the official development team and there was some well-founded concern with the reliances of Flash(tm) within Zabbix if this were the case due to its Flash(tm)'s closed-source nature. (Which I find interesting since the "clock" feature in the Screen sections is a stand-alone .SWF file last I checked.. heh but I wont get nit-picky )

Hey, that's true! Zabbix claims to be an "Open Source Solution", but this element certainly isn't. Should I open a bugreport?

[nibb]

I would also like to see this nice stats added but as an option. I agree they are to colorfull for admins. But they are very nice if you need to give someone access that will just look at stats, like account manager, ceo, clients. The admin could still use the default ones.

As for flash not being open source that is a joke right?

The flash plugin is just to display the stats, its no inside Zabbix nor it works with it. Its runs on client side, so why would that intefere with Open Source? Its like everything on the user side is open source. How many use Windows OS, or paid browsers if there is one. Also the hardware on my PC is also not open source, like AMD, Intel. Still it runs on my side, not on or with Zabbix, so a Flash plugin acts as the same way. If someone doesnt have the plugin he doesnt see anything. Also the plugin is just for visualization just like Acer LCD is which also isnt open source.

The script that generates the stats is open source so there is no problem with that. I would understand if the flash plugin runs on the server, if that is the case then I retract myself.

[nelsonab]

The OSS point is more of a philosophy, however there is some validity. What if they maker of the software decides to change their licencing from something that's developer and community friendly to one that's more revenue oriented? Not a fun place to be.

I can see the value of flashy fancy graphs, but I don't think that should be a focus for a while. I feel that Zabbix's "not so pretty" look is it's advantage, that means people are focused on making the damm thing work!

However with that said you can create some customized frontends with openchart or Jasper Reports and then let the pointy hair people see them. :-)