= GChart

== DESCRIPTION
  
GChart exposes the Google Chart API (http://code.google.com/apis/chart) via
a friendly Ruby interface. It can generate the URL for a given chart
(for webpage use), or download the generated PNG (for offline use).

== PROBLEMS/TODO

* Add support fills (area or background), grid lines, shape markers, range markers 
* Support shorthand colors and color names
* Make venn data specification friendlier

There are lots of missing features. Until they're implemented, you can directly specify
query parameters using the :extras key, e.g.,

  # provides a legend for each data set
  g = GChart.line(:data => [[1, 2], [3, 4]], :extras => { "chdl" => "First|Second"})

== SYNOPSIS

  # line chart
  g = GChart.line(:data => [0, 10, 100])
  
  # bar chart
  g = GChart.bar(:data => [100, 1000, 10000])
  
  # pie chart (pie3d for a fancier look)
  g = GChart.pie(:data => [33, 33, 34])
  
  # venn diagram (asize, bsize, csize, ab%, bc%, ca%, abc%)
  g = GChart.venn(:data => [100, 80, 60, 30, 30, 30, 10])
  
  # scatter plot (x coords, y coords [, sizes])
  g = GChart.scatter(:data => [[1, 2, 3, 4, 5], [5, 4, 3, 2, 1], [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]])

  # map chart
  g = GChart.map(:area => 'usa', :data => {'NY'=>1,'VA'=>3,'CA'=>2})
  
  # meter
  g = GChart.meter(:data => 70, :label => "70%")
  
  # chart title
  g = GChart.line(:title => "Awesomeness over Time", :data => [0, 10, 100])

  # data set legend
  g = GChart.line(:data => [[1, 2], [3, 4]], :legend => ["Monkeys", "Ferrets"])

  # data set colors
  g = GChart.line(:data => [[0, 10, 100], [100, 10, 0]], :colors => ["ff0000", "0000ff"])
  
  g.to_url            # generate the chart's URL, or
  g.fetch             # get the bytes, or
  g.write("foo.png")  # write to a file (defaults to "chart.png")
  g.write(stream)     # write to anything that quacks like IO

== LICENSE

(The MIT License)

Copyright 2007-2008 John Barnette (jbarnette@rubyforge.org)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.