Visualizing RHQ Metrics Data
On the issue of chart types... More specifically, how do we want visually depict our
metric data?
We are nearing the end of implementing the RHQ chart replacement (using
http://d3js.org)
and want to get our chart types dialed in with input from our community before they are
completely finished.
This isn’t a new issue, here is a link to previous design discussion:
https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/RHQ/Design-NewChartingLib
Future Chart Types under consideration:
1) Line/Area chart - shows progression over time, needs to be supplemented with high/low
and OOB data (but all these lines become an area graph and easy visual deciphering is
lost)
2) Bar chart - familiar, easy to understand, needs high/low and OOB to convey complete
information, not entirely accurate as lower bar near axis depicts values that were never
part of the metric range
3) Candlesticks - accurately shows the range but not when values trended or fluctuated
during that time slice; users might need training to understand. OOB data would need to be
supplemented with high/low peak OOB data
4) Box Charts with whiskers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_plot; nice looking,
sophisticated, but might be confusing to users. We could replace the quartiles with
high/low data and whiskers with OOB data
Today, there is several ways of representing various time series metrics throughout RHQ.
We are trying to consolidate these into a couple standardized charts. For reference to
current RHQ Graph types please see attachments
There has been many opinions on this issue and we wanted further feedback from the
community on their thoughts. So please, reply back with your thoughts...