Web Charts

Semantic Web Interest Group,


Hello. I’m not sure which other W3C mailing lists, if any, might also be interested in these ideas but, as they involve Semantic Web technologies, I'm writing here, today, to share some ideas pertaining to charts-related markup which could be utilized from HTML.

Starting simply, we might consider that charts have: (1) data, (2) scripting logic with which to produce document structure from that data, and (3) a means of styling the produced document structure for presentation and display.


<chart version="1.0">

  <data type="application/rdf+xml" >...</data>

  <script type="text/javascript" src="..." />

  <style type="text/css" src="..." />

</chart>

Next, we might consider that charts' data could be stored in remote resources.


<chart version="1.0">

  <data type="application/rdf+xml" src="..." />

  <script type="text/javascript" src="..." />

  <style type="text/css" src="..." />

</chart>

Next, towards more advanced scenarios, we might consider that charts might, instead of having static data provided, obtain dynamic data by querying service endpoints, e.g., using SPARQL.


<chart version="1.0">

  <query endpoint="..." type="application/sparql-query">...</query>

  <script type="text/javascript" src="..." />

  <style type="text/css" src="..." />

</chart>



We might also consider specifying some attributes for these query-related elements which pertain to the refreshing of data, e.g., for indicating whether a chart was user-refreshable (per context menus), whether it refreshed on a timer, and/or any other behaviors pertaining to its input data.


Any thoughts on these preliminary ideas pertaining to "Web charts"? Are these initial ideas possible with existing technologies, e.g., Web Components?



Best regards,

Adam Sobieski

http://www.phoster.com


P.S.: I thought of these ideas while updating the Wikianswers project proposal: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikianswers .