Google Chart API Released

December 6, 2007

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Google released a chart generator service they are calling the

Prompt

http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=<br />p3&chd=t:90,49&chs=350x150&chl=Foo|Bar

... and Google returns a PNG graphic containing the chart. For instance, above URL results in the following image:

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<p>Splitting up the image URL parameters, you can see what it's made up of:</p>
<div class=

Prompt

cht=p3

the chart type, in this case, a pie chart

Prompt

chd=t:90,49

the chart values, text-encoded, and separated by a comma

Prompt

chs=350x150

the custom chart size, 350x150 pixels

Prompt

chl=Foo|Bar

the different labels for the pie chart sections, separate via the pipe character

I'm not linking live to Google but caching this image on my server instead, just in case, as Google limits your requests to this API to 50,000 per day. Even with that limit, you can grab the image and do the caching on your own server automatically (by copying the binary), which would mean 50,000 requests will be good enough for many use cases.

This service is really neat all in all. The

Here are couple of more examples of what can be done with the Chart API (cached again, but click them to see a live parametrized version):