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Invoice payment timeline written in accessible java script instead of Flash. You could start with this: http://www.highcharts.com/
Campaign Monitor recently used this to replace their flash charting system. It rocks. Hell, if you go for it, I'll even code it up for you!
I'd also love to see range options rather than being stuck looking at the -2, +2 block we have at the moment.
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EMPLOYEE
5Well, this has certainly stirred up a lively debate then hasn't it?
Rest assured, our decision about the best technology to implement our charts isn't dictated by whatever is in fashion this week, but what will best serve our entire user base.
Like a lot of people on this thread, I'm of the opinion that Javascript based charts probably do offer better, longer-term, device compatibility especially where mobile is concerned.
We've started testing HighCharts graphs to see how they look and work. As you'd expect, you can do pretty much everything that's achievable through Flash-based charts. I say 'pretty much everything' because there are a couple of minor things which HighCharts doesn't do as well as our Flash based counterparts, namely around the bank balance timeline.
That said, they also allow to do other stuff that isn't currently possible, so there's advantages and disadvantages to each.
We're probably going to start introducing some new charts using HighCharts over the coming releases, and assess the impact of replacing the existing ones after that.
Whatever technology we choose it'll will obviously work for all our supported browsers (IE 7+, FF, Safari etc) and OS. We want to keep up with current best practice and investigate new technologies like HTML5, but this will never been done at the expense of people who aren't downloading the latest Safari nightlies :)
Sound fair? -
5oh, but what i really really want from your charts:
A combined bank account balance, rather than viewing one account at a time. -
4Ugly? ...what?
There's no association what-so-ever between the programming language and the visual appearance, that's down to front-end designers to create sharp CSS to render things nicely. I direct you to campaignmonitor.com, possibly one of the most attractive and usable implementations of highcharts to date. Also check out the highcharts demo area. Not designed to death, but even they work well.
Flash presents considerable problems for displaying data on various mobile platforms, principally, it doesn't work at all. As a mobile professional this presents a problem for me when I try to perform tasks on the move or review figures. I can't see my overview.
I guess it's down to a matter of taste, if you really think they look better, thats awesome, but speaking as a designer, fusion charts looks like it fell off the back of a 1993 powerpoint presentation, covered in awful 3D effects and gradients. Back to the 90s, evil Flash chart!
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Hi Christian
Funny you should mention that, we've been playing around with Highcharts recently.
We don't have a concrete plan right now but it's certainly something we're interested in.
OllyComment -
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1Hmmm - javascript charts generally = ugly. Nothing wrong with flash, as long as they provide more information - its the information that is useful. For an example of much better looking charts, take a look at FusionCharts (Im not connected to the Co in any way, other than having used the products and love the simplicity)...
http://www.fusioncharts.com/Gallery/C... -
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4Ugly? ...what?
There's no association what-so-ever between the programming language and the visual appearance, that's down to front-end designers to create sharp CSS to render things nicely. I direct you to campaignmonitor.com, possibly one of the most attractive and usable implementations of highcharts to date. Also check out the highcharts demo area. Not designed to death, but even they work well.
Flash presents considerable problems for displaying data on various mobile platforms, principally, it doesn't work at all. As a mobile professional this presents a problem for me when I try to perform tasks on the move or review figures. I can't see my overview.
I guess it's down to a matter of taste, if you really think they look better, thats awesome, but speaking as a designer, fusion charts looks like it fell off the back of a 1993 powerpoint presentation, covered in awful 3D effects and gradients. Back to the 90s, evil Flash chart!-
I'd certainly like to be able to see the charts on my iPad (although I must admit, it's no deal-breaker).
FreeAgent works incredibly well on the iPad screen (its almost as if it was made for it), except for the charts. I agree that the technology and the aesthetics are completely independent of eachother. + 1 to more universally accessible charts. -
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+1 for JS charts.
EDIT:
+1 for anything other than Flash (doesn't have to be JS). -
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Maybe I'm going crazy here, but isn't this exactly what HTML5 Canvas was invented for? #imjustsaying
http://www.zingchart.com/flash-and-ht...
and
http://host.sonspring.com/canvas/- view 1 more comment
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I agree with John - he's a web designer too so he knows that it's more important to make sure bad internet explorer using customers can't see any graphs so that instead a couple ipad users can. They're hip so more important. Don't worry about 20% of old ie users, it's good accessible design to make sure they can't see anything to keep buzzword compliancy and up with fashion.
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What on earth is your problem? Ever heard of graceful degradation?
You can slate me all you want with words like "hip" and "buzz". If it wasn't for buzzwords and hipsters there would be no Twitter, there would be no Digg, there would be no DropBox. Hell, there would probably be no Google and there would definitely be no Apple. These people who have created buzz and embraced trends have built some of the greatest companies the world has ever seen. So just know that when you throw those words at me feet as an insult, I pick them up and wear them as badge of honour. Someone has to keep innovating and moving forwards, and clearly, it isn't you.
I hope that yourself and IE live a long and happy life together, continuing to support each other without fault or question. -
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1+1 for no flash, I use Freeagent on the iPad. -
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I’m
happy
Agreed, HighCharts is just as good as what you are using now, you could pretty much mimic look and feel as it exists now which is fine!
Would be nice to be able to view the charts when on an iPhone so feel free to keep looking into implementing a JS solution! -
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I would love to see the flash charts replaced with a javascript or html5 canvas implementation. -
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Another vote for JavaScript/Canvas/Anything but Flash! -
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your charts look fine, highcharts charts look fine too.
2 issues here:
Which is better, flash or javascript? (i think we all know who's gonna win long-term. currently, both are fine for your purposes. until i get an iPad...
Secondary is what looks better. it's not related to technology, both can draw lines. It's just about making sure the designer has read his Tufte... -
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5oh, but what i really really want from your charts:
A combined bank account balance, rather than viewing one account at a time.-
Yes please! I don't really need to know how much is in each account over time (as your charts currently show me) but what I really have to know is how much is in my bank (regardless of which account) over time.
Please add this! -
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+1 for JS charts. iPhone user here .. although charting is not what I would be looking for while browsing on my iPhone. -
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Javascript charts, please. Flash is heavy and unnecessary.
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Have seen plenty of awesome looking js based charts and generally have flash disabled (to save the life of my mac's fans), so this would great for me. -
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It's trendy to knock flash right now, and will get you loads more apple customers as Steve's told them all to hate it, so it's a good idea. I agree it's far better to use html5/canvas so that a large amount of customers won't be able to view in their older browsers, to keep the 1% of trendies happy instead- view 1 more comment
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Who cares about global technology adoption? What's important are the browser statistics of the users logging into FreeAgent, not the population of the Internet at large.
In any case, I expect JavaScript would have 99.7%+ adoption, so if I were writing charts, that's what I'd use. -
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Who cares about global technology adoption? :) What's important are the browser statistics of the users logging into FreeAgent, not the population of the Internet at large.
In any case, I expect JavaScript would have 99.7%+ adoption, so if I were writing charts, that's what I'd use. -
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All, can I make a suggestion - as clearly the reason for the need for Java based charts is becuase so many apple-boys have devices that dont support it (cos Steve says so (and does not want to pay a licence)), lets all agree that Java would be the logical way to go (I will even put aside my comment that the original java example suggested looks really old and sad).
Should we not now be thinking about what the charts should do - charts are just... charts, unless they serve a purpose.
I agree with one of the previous posts that the balance charts for one should have the option for a single account, or all accounts stacked - that would be useful.
But, exanding on this, charts I would love to see in FA include:
* Pie chart of payes over the month - i.e, how much money went where - with option to select month, qtr, year?!?
* Income pie chart by project/customer with the same options by month, qtr, year?
* the ability to expand on the monthly income graph to show more months, details per qtr, details per year- view 2 more comments
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Jaffa. This is getting a little out of hand. John was stating that both the notion of what platform is used to achieve the goal, and the addition of other functional specifications to the chart system are not relevant to my idea. It's a pointless discussion. The dev team at FA are more than capable of figuring out what platforms to use to improve their system. If you want to raise these other ideas on the functionality, it's best for you to start your own thread so each idea/point can be monitored on its own merits and responded to by FA separately. John, like me, is a progressive web developer. We like to innovate, it keeps the industry moving forward. There is no harm in that at all. Reducing yourself to needlessly insulting him is both very disappointing and completely unprofessional. Please, save your judgments for a forum that welcomes this kind of behaviour and focus here on comments that add value to FAs decision making process.
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The flash charts seem to crash all the while for me. So I'd obviously rather have JS/CSS/canvas/images than the ones at the moment :-D
Obviously you have to make the replacement work cross browser or detect if it's IE and display the old charts for them. -
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EMPLOYEE
5Well, this has certainly stirred up a lively debate then hasn't it?
Rest assured, our decision about the best technology to implement our charts isn't dictated by whatever is in fashion this week, but what will best serve our entire user base.
Like a lot of people on this thread, I'm of the opinion that Javascript based charts probably do offer better, longer-term, device compatibility especially where mobile is concerned.
We've started testing HighCharts graphs to see how they look and work. As you'd expect, you can do pretty much everything that's achievable through Flash-based charts. I say 'pretty much everything' because there are a couple of minor things which HighCharts doesn't do as well as our Flash based counterparts, namely around the bank balance timeline.
That said, they also allow to do other stuff that isn't currently possible, so there's advantages and disadvantages to each.
We're probably going to start introducing some new charts using HighCharts over the coming releases, and assess the impact of replacing the existing ones after that.
Whatever technology we choose it'll will obviously work for all our supported browsers (IE 7+, FF, Safari etc) and OS. We want to keep up with current best practice and investigate new technologies like HTML5, but this will never been done at the expense of people who aren't downloading the latest Safari nightlies :)
Sound fair? -
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I’m
still waiting
1Any news on the non-Flash charts?
I use FreeAgent on iPad more often than desktop these days. -
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I'd like to see the charts show scheduled invoices in the graph too - we have a lot of recurring ones set up for hosting and SEO, which make up a a big % (about 50%) of our monthly income, and they don't show until they're posted, if they showed in a different colour you could then see your total estimated billing -
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I don't have Flash installed on any of my machines as it's a stability and resource nightmare which renders all of your current charts completely inaccessible. Definitely a +1 for a javascript solution from me. -
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I am currently reviewing Free Agent and thinking about switching and on the whole it looks great. However, the lack of charts (especially around time tracking) is a disappointment.
I am agnostic between the different types of charts people are discussing (and if I can't see it on an I-Pad so be it). But something is needed to give the ability to specify charts across a number of areas. This is especially so with the time reporting: something here would be a huge asset - particularly something that allows me to see immediately where my team are spending their time, and if they are spending too much on particular clients or projects.
Tim -
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I’m
frustrated
1So over a year since I first asked about this, I think it's about time for a bump. Heck, I'll implement this for you for FREE in exchange for free FA membership!!
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Seconded. Again.
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This is something we're working on right now as part of our interface redesign.
Hopefully we'll have more news on this front soon.-
Interface redesign?!?! Oh mans... I'll check back after the Olympics.... ;o)
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Har har! Actually you can see the progress coming along on the blog
http://www.freeagentcentral.com/centr... -
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I’m
bored and considering other products.
One full year later, still no accessible charts and having joked about checking back after the Olympics for the interface redesign, laughed off with a 'har har', here we are cruising towards the Olympics.
What gives? A year? seriously, someone needs to pull their finger out.-
Hi Christian,
Yes, the redesign has taken a while, but we're in the final stages of beta testing this now, and all the charts will be replaced with JS equivalents.
If you're interested in the beta testing program send me an email at beta@freeagent.com with details of your FreeAgent email and subdomain, and I can get you set up.
Cheers
Roan -
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I’m
confused
1 year ago and this still hasn't been updated. Still no charts on the iPad :-( boo
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Hi Bobby,
As I mentioned above JS driven charts will be part of the new interface redesign, which will be with you soon.
And we've optimised the interface for iPad use.
Kind regards
Roan -
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EMPLOYEE
CHAMP
