FAQs
If you have questions and you can’t find an answer here, please go to our Google group, check if someone has the same problem or open a new topic. If your problem is really that big or urgent, please contact us at hello@rawgraphs.org and we will look into it as soon as possible.
RAWGraphs works with tabular data (i.e. information which is possible to record or track in a spreadsheet). There are many ways you can upload your data in RAWGraphs:
- Dropping a plain text file containing delimiter-separated values such as .csv or .tsv. File extension does not matter, as long as you use one of these delimters: comma, semicolon, tab or colon.
- Copying and pasting your data from a spreadsheet (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, Apple Numbers...) or a text file. This is particularly helpful when you do not want to (or can not) export your data any time you change it or when you want to use only specific columns.
- Typing your data directly into the text area. While it is unlikely to use this option, it can be useful for editing your data.
See the sample datasets as examples of valid data formats.
We do not currently support JSON or XML format. Sorry about that.
There can be many reasons why RAWGraphs cannot parse your data. However, most of the time, the problem is related to a mismatch between the delimiters in your header (first row) and the other lines. In general, copying and pasting data from your spreadsheet software is the best way to have clean data. If the error is related to a specific line, please check that line and be sure everything is fine.
Sometimes, you want to use the delimiter char as a literal instead of splitting columns. If this is the case, you can do that by double quoting the value. Let's see an example:
First name, Age
John Doe, 26
Mark Smith, Jr., 34
Steve White, 53
In the example above the value Mark Smith, Jr. will cause an error, since it includes the delimiter char (the comma) as a literal. If you want to use the comma in that way, you should double quote the value (RAWGraphs will remove the quotes from the value and you will not see them in your visualization):
First name, Age
John Doe, 26
"Mark Smith, Jr.", 34
Steve White, 53
If you have any trouble, please ask the Google group.
Well, it depends mostly on your browser and your machine configuration, however, yes, if you are crashing the browser, it is too much data.
Nope. RAWGraphs is a web app but your data are not sent or stored anywhere. Feel safe to use confidential data because they will stay on your computer, even when using our online version. However, if it makes you more comfortable, you can always download and run RAWGraphs locally. See here to know how.
Yes, it’s really simple. You can export the visualization in vector format (SVG) and open it with any vector graphics editor (e.g. Adobe Illustrator, Sketch, Inkscape, …).
Sure, RAWGraphs works with svg format, so you can just copy and paste the code you find at the bottom of the app into any HTML page to embed it.
Definitely! RAWGraphs is intended to be open and extensible so you can add your custom charts or edit the ones already available. See the Developer Guide for more information.
Great! You found one! We’d love to know more about it. Open a new issue here on GitHub or create a new topic on our Google group and we will look into it as soon as possible. Thanks!
Of course! You are completely free to share, publish and modify the visualizations produced with RAWGraphs. We would appreciate if you share with us your amazing work done using RAWGraphs. If you think that your work could inspire other people, plese consider to submit it to our gallery!
Not really… But if you have found RAWGraphs useful in your research, or if you want to reference it in your work, please consider to cite the paper we presented at CHItaly 2017.
you can read the article in Green Open Access at the following link:
Anyway, we remind you that RAWGraphs is provided under the Apache License 2.0. While this is less relevant if you use RAWGraphs as it is, it becomes more important to respect all the terms and conditions of the License when you modify RAWGraphs's code. Please, do not hesitate to contact us if you have any doubts about this matter.
RAWGraphs has been designed and developed by Giorgio Caviglia, Michele Mauri, Matteo Azzi, Giorgio Uboldi and Tommaso Elli at the DensityDesign Research Lab at the Politecnico di Milano.