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D3.js VS Shiny.js

Compare D3.js VS Shiny.js and see what are their differences

D3.js logo D3.js

D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS.

Shiny.js logo Shiny.js

Shiny reflections for mobile websites 🌟
  • D3.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-11

D3 allows you to bind arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), and then apply data-driven transformations to the document. For example, you can use D3 to generate an HTML table from an array of numbers. Or, use the same data to create an interactive SVG bar chart with smooth transitions and interaction.

D3 is not a monolithic framework that seeks to provide every conceivable feature. Instead, D3 solves the crux of the problem: efficient manipulation of documents based on data. This avoids proprietary representation and affords extraordinary flexibility, exposing the full capabilities of web standards such as HTML, SVG, and CSS. With minimal overhead, D3 is extremely fast, supporting large datasets and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation. D3’s functional style allows code reuse through a diverse collection of official and community-developed modules.

  • Shiny.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-01-25

D3.js features and specs

  • Powerful Visualization
    D3.js allows for the creation of highly customized and interactive data visualizations, harnessing the full power of web standards like SVG, Canvas, and HTML.
  • Data Binding
    It offers robust support for data-driven transformations and binding, enabling intuitive connections between data sets and DOM elements.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    A large and active community contributes to tutorials, plugins, and tools, which can significantly simplify the development process.
  • Flexibility
    D3.js is highly flexible, providing low-level manipulation capabilities without being tied to any specific chart types or patterns.
  • Performance
    It is highly optimized for performance, allowing for efficient rendering of complex visualizations even with large data sets.

Possible disadvantages of D3.js

  • Steep Learning Curve
    D3.js has a steep learning curve due to its low-level nature and requires a solid understanding of JavaScript, DOM manipulation, and data concepts.
  • Complexity
    Creating complex visualizations can be time-consuming and require a significant amount of custom code, making it less approachable for quick, simple tasks.
  • Browser Compatibility
    Although widely supported, some D3.js features may have inconsistent behavior across different browsers, requiring additional testing and debugging.
  • Documentation
    While extensive, D3.js documentation can be challenging for beginners to navigate and understand, causing misunderstandings and slower development times.
  • Dependency Management
    The library itself is modular, but managing dependencies and integrating D3.js with other JavaScript frameworks or libraries can sometimes be problematic.

Shiny.js features and specs

  • Integration with Shiny
    Shiny.js is designed to seamlessly integrate with Shiny applications, allowing developers to easily incorporate JavaScript functionality into their Shiny projects without extensive JavaScript knowledge.
  • Interactivity Enhancement
    It provides numerous functions to enhance user interaction in Shiny apps, such as showing or hiding elements, enabling or disabling inputs, and more, leading to a more dynamic user experience.
  • Ease of Use
    Shiny.js offers a simple and intuitive syntax that simplifies the process of adding JavaScript functionality, making it accessible even to those with limited JavaScript experience.
  • Extensive Documentation
    Comprehensive documentation is available, which includes detailed examples and explanations, helping developers quickly understand and implement various features.

Possible disadvantages of Shiny.js

  • Limited to Shiny
    Shiny.js is specifically designed for Shiny applications, which means it may not be useful or applicable for projects outside the Shiny framework.
  • Potential Performance Impact
    Adding too many interactions or using complex JavaScript features through Shiny.js can potentially affect the performance of the application, especially with large datasets or numerous UI elements.
  • Learning Curve for Custom JavaScript
    While Shiny.js simplifies JavaScript integration, developers will still need to learn and understand JavaScript for more complex custom functionalities not covered by Shiny.js.
  • Dependency Management
    Relying on an additional package introduces dependencies, which require maintenance and awareness about updates and possible conflicts with other Shiny packages.

Analysis of D3.js

Overall verdict

  • Yes, D3.js is a highly regarded library for data visualization in the web development community.

Why this product is good

  • Flexibility: D3.js provides incredible flexibility in creating complex and interactive visualizations with web standards (SVG, HTML, and CSS).
  • Customization: It allows for high levels of customization, which lets developers create unique and detailed visualizations tailored to their specific needs.
  • Community and Ecosystem: D3.js has a large, active community and a rich ecosystem of plugins and extensions conducive to learning and integration.
  • Data Binding: Offers powerful ways to manipulate documents based on data; the data-driven approach simplifies dynamic interaction creation.
  • Performance: Efficiently manipulates DOM elements and performs well with large datasets if used correctly.

Recommended for

  • Data Scientists and Analysts looking to create custom, interactive visualizations.
  • Web Developers who need to incorporate complex data visualizations into applications.
  • Educators and Researchers presenting data in an engaging way.
  • Anyone needing to build bespoke visualizations that are not possible with off-the-shelf solutions.

D3.js videos

Data Visualization with D3.js - Full Tutorial Course

More videos:

  • Review - Let's learn D3.js - D3 for data visualization (full course)

Shiny.js videos

No Shiny.js videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to D3.js and Shiny.js)
Charting Libraries
97 97%
3% 3
Development
0 0%
100% 100
Data Visualization
100 100%
0% 0
Tool
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare D3.js and Shiny.js

D3.js Reviews

6 JavaScript Charting Libraries for Powerful Data Visualizations in 2023
Depending on your requirements, the best JavaScript library is D3.js, as it’s by far the most customizable. However, it’s also really complex and difficult to master. Plus, it’s not as compatible with TypeScript as it is with JavaScript, which can be off-putting for some developers. If you’d prefer a less complex library that you can use with TypeScript, ECharts, and...
Source: embeddable.com
15 JavaScript Libraries for Creating Beautiful Charts
When we think of charting today, D3.js is the first name that comes up. Being an open source project, D3.js definitely brings many powerful features that were missing in most of the existing libraries. Features like dynamic properties, Enter and Exit, powerful transitions, and syntax familiarity with jQuery make it one the best JavaScript libraries for charting. Charts in...
Top 20 Javascript Libraries
D3 stands for Data-Driven Documents. With D3, you can apply data-driven transformations to DOM objects. The keyword with D3 is ‘data-driven,’ which means documents are manipulated depending on the data received. Data can be received in any format and bound with DOM objects. D3 is very fast and supports dynamic behavior for animation and interactions. There are plenty of...
Source: hackr.io
20+ JavaScript libraries to draw your own diagrams (2022 edition)
D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Right now, I would say is the most popular library of its kind.
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Another open source tool, D3.js is a JavaScript library for creating custom data visualizations in a web browser. Commonly known as D3, which stands for Data-Driven Documents, it uses web standards, such as HTML, Scalable Vector Graphics and CSS, instead of its own graphical vocabulary. D3's developers describe it as a dynamic and flexible tool that requires a minimum amount...

Shiny.js Reviews

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, D3.js seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 167 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

D3.js mentions (167)

  • IO Devices and Latency
    Do you mean something for data visualization, or tricks condensing large data sets with cursors? https://d3js.org/ Best of luck =3. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • 2024 Nuxt3 Annual Ecosystem Summary🚀
    Document address: D3.js Official Document. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    D3.js: One of the most popular JavaScript visualization libraries. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • What are npm Peer Dependencies and how to use them?
    A Dependency is an npm package that our code depends on in order to be able to run. Some popular packages that can be added as dependencies are lodash, D3, and chartjs. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Introducing RacingBars 📊
    RacingBars is an open-source, light-weight (~45kb gzipped), easy-to-use, and feature-rich javascript library for bar chart race, based on D3.js. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
View more

Shiny.js mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Shiny.js yet. Tracking of Shiny.js recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing D3.js and Shiny.js, you can also consider the following products

Chart.js - Easy, object oriented client side graphs for designers and developers.

Anime.js - Lightweight JavaScript animation library

Plotly - Low-Code Data Apps

Pixi.js - Fast lightweight 2D library that works across all devices

Highcharts - A charting library written in pure JavaScript, offering an easy way of adding interactive charts to your web site or web application

Glottologist - JavaScript translation framework