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I found a new graphing/charting tool that I am really digging. I'm letting Munin simmer for a while because it seems like its mostly geared towards being a network admin/reporting tool. I want graphs and I want to make them available on web pages. I'm not asking for much right?

If a browser based Flash solution is a possibility for you, check out XML/SWF Charts by Maani.US.

XML/SWF Charts is a small .SWF program that you feed an .XML file in to. A basic graph can be created with just a few tags in the .XML file to supply the data. Once you have the .XML file available at a URL, embed the charts.swf object in your web page and supply it with the URL to the .XML file. When the web page loads charts.swf will do its thing and generate your graph in the browser.

Check out the gallery here: http://www.maani.us/xml_charts/index.php?menu=Gallery

For my proof of concept I used a Perl/DBI program that ran a query and returned some data. Real basic boring CGI stuff. I updated the program to write out an .XML file to a directory on the web server, then instead of returning boring text I had it return a HTML page with the charts.swf object. I didn't even have XML::Parser available so I just slummed it and wrote out a .XML file using print statements.

Pros:
o Easy to incorporate into apps written using any web enabled language. If the language you are using can update an .XML file on a server and your browser can access the file then you are good to go.
o Lots of options for graph setup. Fonts, transitions, and shapes are all supported. There are lots of options for the legend and x,y ticks.
o Light footprint.

Cons:
o The graphics are dynamically generated by a Flash 6 .SWF program so they cannot stand alone like a .GIF, .JPG, or .PNG.

Check out the home page: http://www.maani.us/xml_charts/index.php

-- Dave