D3.js in Action: Data visualization with JavaScript

by Elijah Meeks

SummaryD3.js in Action, Second Edition is completely revised and updated for D3 v4 and ES6. It's a practical tutorial for creating interactive graphics and data-driven applications using D3. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.About the TechnologyVisualizing complex data is hard. Visualizing complex data on the web is darn near impossible without D3.js. D3 is a JavaScript library that provides a simple but powerful data visualization API over HTML, CSS, and SVG. Start with a structure, dataset, or algorithm; mix in D3; and you can programmatically generate static, animated, or interactive images that scale to any screen or browser. It's easy, and after a little practice, you'll be blown away by how beautiful your results can be!About the BookD3.js in Action, Second Edition is a completely updated revision of Manning's bestselling guide to data visualization with D3. You'll explore dozens of real-world examples, including force and network diagrams, workflow illustrations, geospatial constructions, and more. Along the way, you'll pick up best practices for building interactive graphics, animations, and live data representations. You'll also step through a fully interactive application created with D3 and React. What's InsideUpdated for D3 v4 and ES6Reusable layouts and componentsGeospatial data visualizationsMixed-mode renderingAbout the ReaderSuitable for web developers with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript skills. No specialized data science skills required.About the AuthorElijah Meeks is a senior data visualization engineer at Netflix.Table of ContentsPART 1 - D3.JS FUNDAMENTALSAn introduction to D3.js Information visualization data flow Data-driven design and interaction Chart components Layouts PART 2 - COMPLEX DATA VISUALIZATIONHierarchical visualization Network visualization Geospatial information visualization PART 3 - ADVANCED TECHNIQUES Interactive applications with React and D3 Writing layouts and components Mixed mode rendering

Genres: Programming, Technology, Computer Science, Software, Nonfiction, Design

375 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2015

About the author

I'm currently a senior data visualization engineer at Netflix, where I have the chance to create visual representations of big data. I started doing data visualization and analysis in graduate school where I used GIS to study the effects of environmental change on historical states. Before coming to Netflix, I worked at Stanford creating interactive scholarly works in the field of digital humanities, which broadly speaking is the application of new analytical and interactive techniques to the study of history, literature and philosophy.

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book provides quite a few nice examples and is surely worth a closer look. However, compared to "Interactive Data Visualization for the Web" by Scott Murray and "D3 Cookbook" by Nick Zhu the writing style and the code are a bit disappointing.

[msimunovic · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book contains a series of recipies for different visualization strategies. This is probably OK if you already have experience with D3 and you are looking step by step guidelines. In that regard this book lives up to its promises and "in Action" attribute in its title.

However, the code is already outdated. In version 5, data loading is different (citing official release notes "D3 now uses Promises instead of asynchronous callbacks to load data") so you might experience issues when trying out supplied code examples with recent library versions.
That said, this is not a good book for a first encounter with D3. If you want to understand the philosophy behind the library design you should probably look elsewhere.

[Rangitha Kuruppu · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's more of a series of D3.js tutorials than an exact description of the D3.js library. Each chapter covers an aspect of D3.js or of data visualisation and introduces you to some popular and interesting visualisation techniques along the way.

Although only a few assumptions are made about the technical background of the reader, I felt that this book's best suited for JavaScript developers without a background in visualisation. The writing's pretty verbose and the author does a fair bit of hand-holding but it's nevertheless bearable.

I'd say this one's ideal as a broad first introduction to data visualisation than just as a primer on D3.js.

[SandraViz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back then this is was a great book introducing the web visualization world, I’m currently reading (working through) the third version which is adapted well to the current state of framework embedded data viz

[Xinhai · Rating 3 out of 5]

need update

[Eric Xia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did the first three chapters before switching to Observable. Observable "just works", the data loading here is a pain.

[TN · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a very, very useful book! I found the a lot of practical ideas how to deal with D3. Providing links to the actual working code was handy. A highly recommended reading!

[Parinya Chavanasuvarngull · Rating 5 out of 5]

เล่มนี้ ผมนี่ ชัดเจนเลย.. แนะนำ