Home > Store

Data Visualization Toolkit: Using JavaScript, Rails, and Postgres to Present Data and Geospatial Information

Register your product to gain access to bonus material or receive a coupon.

Data Visualization Toolkit: Using JavaScript, Rails, and Postgres to Present Data and Geospatial Information

Book

  • Sorry, this book is no longer in print.
Not for Sale

eBook

  • Your Price: $34.39
  • List Price: $42.99
  • Includes EPUB and PDF
  • About eBook Formats
  • This eBook includes the following formats, accessible from your Account page after purchase:

    ePub EPUB The open industry format known for its reflowable content and usability on supported mobile devices.

    Adobe Reader PDF The popular standard, used most often with the free Acrobat® Reader® software.

    This eBook requires no passwords or activation to read. We customize your eBook by discreetly watermarking it with your name, making it uniquely yours.

Description

  • Copyright 2017
  • Dimensions: 7" x 9-1/8"
  • Pages: 256
  • Edition: 1st
  • Book
  • ISBN-10: 0-13-446443-5
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-13-446443-5

Create Beautiful Visualizations that Free Your Data to Tell Powerful Truths

“The depth of Barrett Clark’s knowledge shines through in his writing: clear, concise, and confident. Barrett has been practicing all of this stuff in his day job for many years–Postgres, D3, GIS, all of it. The knowledge in this book is real-world and hard-earned!”

–From the Foreword by Obie Fernandez

Data Visualization Toolkit is your hands-on, practical, and holistic guide to the art of visualizing data. You’ll learn how to use Rails, jQuery, D3, Leaflet, PostgreSQL, and PostGIS together, creating beautiful visualizations and maps that give your data a voice and to make it “dance.”

Barrett Clark teaches through real-world problems and examples developed specifically to illuminate every technique you need to generate stunningly effective visualizations. You’ll move from the absolute basics toward deep dives, mastering diverse visualizations and discovering when to use each. Along the way, you’ll build three start-to-finish visualization applications, using actual real estate, weather, and travel datasets.

Clark addresses every component of data visualization: your data, database, application server, visualization libraries, and more. He explains data transformations; presents expert techniques in JavaScript, Ruby, and SQL; and illuminates key concepts associated with both descriptive statistics and geospatial data. Throughout, everything is aimed at one goal: to help you cut through the clutter and let your data tell all it can.

This guide will help you

  • Explore and understand the data visualization technology stack
  • Master the thought process and steps involved in importing data
  • Extract, transform, and load data in usable, reliable form
  • Handle spotty data, or data that doesn’t line up with what your chart expects
  • Use D3 to build pie and bar charts, scatter and box plots, and more
  • Work effectively with time-series data
  • Tweak Ruby and SQL to optimize performance with large datasets
  • Use raw SQL in Rails: window functions, subqueries, and common table expressions
  • Build chord diagrams and time-series aggregates
  • Use separate databases or schema for reporting databases
  • Integrate geographical data via geospatial SQL queries
  • Construct maps with Leaflet and Rails
  • Query geospatial data the “Rails way” and the “raw SQL way”

Extras

Author's Site

Please visit the author's site at datavisualizationtoolkit.com.

Sample Content

Online Sample Chapter

The Chord Diagram

Table of Contents

Foreword xv

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxiii

About the Author xxv

Part I: ActiveRecord and D3 1


Chapter 1: D3 and Rails 3

Your Toolbox—A Three-Ring Circus 3

Maryland Residential Sales App 5

Summary 17

Chapter 2: Transforming Data with ActiveRecord and D3 19

Pie Chart Revisited 19

Bar Chart 24

Scatter Plot 28

Scatter Plot Revisited 33

Box Plot 34

Summary 40

Chapter 3: Working with Time Series Data 41

Historic Daily Weather Data 41

Weather Rails App 42

Simple Line Graph 45

Tweak 1: Simple Multiline Graph 50

Tweak 2: Add Circle to Highlight the Maximum Temperature 51

Tweak 3: Add Circle to Highlight the Minimum Temperature 53

Tweak 4: Add Text to Display the Temperature Change 55

Tweak 5: Add a Line Between the Focus Circles 56

Summary 58

Chapter 4: Working with Large Datasets 59

Git and Large Files 59

The Cloud 60

Hotlinking 60

Benchmarking 62

Querying “Big Data” 65

When Benchmarks and Statistics Lie 68

Summary 69

Part II: Using SQL in Rails 71


Chapter 5: Window Functions, Subqueries, and Common Table Expression 73

Why Use SQL? 73

User-Defined Functions 75

How to Use SQL in Rails 78

Scatter Plot with Mortgage Payment 79

Window Functions 81

Using Subqueries 84

Common Table Expression 84

CTE and the Heatmap 86

Summary 90

Chapter 6: The Chord Diagram 93

The Matrix Is the Truth 93

Flight Departures Data 94

Departures App 95

Transforming the Data 101

Create the Views 104

Draw the Chord Diagram 106

Disjointed City Pairs 108

Summary 113

Chapter 7: Time Series Aggregates in Postgres 115

Finding Flight Segments 115

Graphing the Timeline 121

Summary 127

Chapter 8: Using a Separate Reporting Database 129

Transactional versus Reporting Databases 129

Working with Multiple Schemas in Rails 131

Creating Objects in the Reporting Schema 132

Summary 138

Part III: Geospatial Rails 139


Chapter 9: Working with Geospatial Data in Rails 141

GIS Primer 141

PostGIS 144

ActiveRecord and PostGIS 146

Using Geospatial Data in Rails 147

Working with Shapefiles 150

Summary 154

Chapter 10: Making Maps with Leaflet and Rails 155

Leaflet 155

Incorporating Leaflet into Rails to Visualize Weather Stations 157

Visualizing Airports 163

Visualizing Zip Codes 168

Summary 181

Chapter 11: Querying Geospatial Data 183

Finding Items within a Bounding Box 183

Writing a Bounding Box Query 184

Finding Items Near a Point 187

Calculating Distance 190

Summary 191

Afterword 193

Appendix A: Ruby and Rails Setup 195

Install Ruby 195

Finalize the Setup 199

Appendix B: Brief Postgres Overview 201

Installing Postgres 201

SQL Tools 202

Bulk Importing Data 202

The Query Plan 204

Appendix C: SQL Join Overview 207

Join Example Database Setup 207

Inner Join 207

Left Outer Join 208

Right Outer Join 208

Full Outer Join 209

Cross Join 209

Self Join 209

Index 211

Updates

Submit Errata

More Information

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020