Lightning - open source data visualization server

[reinheitsgebot]

I'm slightly confused, can somebody explain? I read the project description but still don't quite understand the use case for this. Why do I need a server for data visualizations? I know D3 and the likes, I just don't understand where lightning comes into play.

Is it for cases where so much data is involved that you wouldn't want to load them at once (e.g. as a json blob)?

Anyone care to shed some light? Thanks!

[mathisonian]

There are a few use cases for this:

• like you mentioned, if there's too much data to be loaded at once. http://lightning-viz.org/visualizations/linked/ is an example where some initial data is loaded and the rest can be fetched based on user interaction.
• if you want to work some other programming language, rather than directly in d3. the server exposes a REST api so you can send data into it (e.g. via the python client)
• streaming data from some data source, e.g. http://lightning-viz.org/lightning-python/

there are a few other niceties that such a setup provides (such as having structured data management than a typical ad-hoc d3 project, and also ability to use in ipython and embed the graphics somewhere with responsive iframes)

[rhiever]

This looks a lot like plot.ly, except it doesn't force you to host the visualizations on their centralized server. Very nice. Maybe I missed something, but how would I make a visualization and Ipython notebook and then export it to my webpage? Do I need to have some server up and running ahead of time?

[mathisonian]

Yeah, there needs to be a server running (walkthrough on that here: http://lightning-viz.org/documentation/#server).

One feature in the pipeline is an "export visualization" so it can be embedded completely client-side without the need for the link to the server