On January 15, 2015, ZoomCharts Co-Founder and CTO Viesturs Zariņš presented at DevClub.lv - a community of Latvian IT specialists that gather monthly and host free talks, presentations, and events to allow the local IT community to share knowledge, network, and communicate. Zariņš discussed the unique challenges faced in developing JavaScript SDK. Here is a brief overview of his PowerPoint presentation on ZoomCharts, the world’s most interactive data visualization software that will support all your data presentation needs with incredible speed. What is ZoomCharts? What defines ZoomCharts advanced data visualization software? It is NOT another HTML5 charts library. It is: - Interactive - Fast - Touch enabled - Supports big data A long time ago DOS 6.2 allowed for: - 320x240x8bpp - Direct access to pixels on screen - Assembler for performance Today, the Web has finally caught up in the graphics department. Now, we have access to: - Multiple browsers and rendering technologies - Multiple resolutions - Performance that varies by browser and device Development setup: - We write in JavaScript - Commit to GitHub - Build system in JavaScript - Debug in Chrome - Run automated tests - Like WebStorm (and Vim) Graphics: Canvas (fast) SVG (slow) WebGL (>50%) Interactive animations: Zoom in and out of the graph, drag and drop data, all with your mouse or trackpad. Graceful degradation: High FPS (frames per second) lets you scale graphics with low image degradation. Third party libraries: - Raphael - Hammer.js - Leaflet - Moment.js Challenges: - Responsive design: layouts can shift and look nice on desktop screens vs. not so nice on vertical, mobile screens - Big screen resolutions: uses devicePixelRatio for sharp rendering, but no hardware acceleration beyond 2048x2048 - Safari compatibility: with 100% CPU, input events are blocked and browser locks up; strange code offers fixes - HTML on canvas: DOM is slow; basic HTML markup must be parsed and rendered manually; text caching helps Support: - Process: TrialSupportBuy - 1 day issue resolution - #1 Tell me what I did wrong - #2 Can you do… Testing: - Automated tests on every GIT push Automatically: - Compare images - Record performance - View errors in console Interactive testing: - Next step: record and playback BrowserStack: - Interactive mode - Automated: Selenium API Debugging: Chrome Developer tools (F12) - Debugging - Profiling - Timeline Remote debugging available: https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/remote-debugging Future: - More charts - Extension API - Memory allocation tracking - WebGL We are looking for statically-typed language: - Error checking - Performance - Superior minification - Easy to write and read - Easy to call from JS Building Custom build script: - Compile - Minify - Extract documentatio

3. NOT another HTML5 charts library
● Interactive
● Fast
● Touch
● Big Data
What is ZoomCharts

4. DOS 6.2
● 320x240x8bpp
● Direct access to pixels on screen
● Assembler for Performance
Web has finally caught up in the graphics department
● Multiple browsers & rendering technologies
● Multiple resolutions
● Performance varies by browser & device
A long time ago

5. Graphics
Challenges
Quality assurance
Overview

6. ● We write in Coffeescript
● Commit to GITHub
● Build system in Javascript
● Debug in Chrome
● Run automated tests
● Like WebStorm (and Vim)
Development setup

7. Canvas
(fast)
SVG
(slow)
Graphics
WebGL
(<50%)

8. Canvas

9. Interactive animations

10. Graceful degradation

11. ● Raphael
● Hammer.js
● Leaflet
● Moment.js
Third party libraries

12. ● Responsive design
● Big screen resolutions
● Safari
● HTML on canvas
Challenges

13. Nice layout Not so nice
Responsive design

14. Big Screen Resolution
Use devicePixelRatio for sharp rendering
No hardware acceleration beyond 2048x2048

15. ● 100% cpu → input events blocked
● Weird browser lockups
● Dumb code fixes stuff:
width = r1 - r0
if r0 + r1 == -2
r0 = 0
r1 = 0
context.beginPath()
Safari

16. HTML on canvas
● DOM is SLOW
● Parse basic HTML markup and render manually
● Text caching helps

17. ● Trial → support → buy
● 1 day issue resolution
● #1Tell me what I did wrong
● #2 Can you do ...
Support

18. Automated tests on every GIT push
Testing

19. Automatically:
● Compare images
● Record performance
● Errors in console
Testing

20. ● Next step –
record and playback
Interactive testing

21. ● Interactive
mode
● Automated
– Selenium API
BrowserStack

22. Chrome Dev tools (F12)
● Debugging
● Profiling
● Timeline
Debugging

23. Debugger

24. Debugger
if (bad_stuff){
debugger;
}

25. Profiler

26. Profiler

27. Timeline

28. Remote debugging
https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/remote-debugging

29. ● More charts
● Extension API
● Memory allocation tracking
● WebGL
Future

30. We are looking for a statically typed language:
● Error checking
● Performance
● Superior minification
● Easy to write and read
● Easy to call from JS
Future

32.  
Feedback

33. Sponsors of XXVI DevClub.lv

34. Custom build script
● Compile
● Minify
● Extract documentation
● Embed customer data
Building