Graphite low bandwidth graphs with new aggregates, dynamic theme and time period

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Graphite has been updated with new features and enhancements for entry into the November 2017 SBC. Some of the most notable improvements are described here in this post.

Eight additional data aggregation types have been added. The additional new types are shown in the list below.

Average : (Average price of the trades during the period.)
Median : (Midpoint of the trading price for the period.)
LWA : (Linear weighted average price for the period.)
EMA : (Exponentially weighted average price for the period.)
VWAP : (Volume weighted average price for the period.)
EVWA : (Elastic volume weighted average price for the period.)
SD : (Standard deviation of the trading price for the period.)
Variance : (Variance of the trades for the period.)

All the aggregation is done using a segregated first order method that is provided by the Rocket data service.

Improved data scrubbing has also been added to provide a cleaner view of the price data. The level of data scrubbing can be controlled dynamically by the user through a web API provided by the Rocket data service.

There is now a new simple line type graph. The line graph will retrieve a visualization of the latest available aggregated price data each time the URL image link is accessed. The new line graph type will make it possible to view any of the individual aggregate types that are created from the price data. This line graph can also have a theme applied like other current and future Graphite graph types. Some of the theme options that have been added just for the line type graph include line style type, line color, line width, choice of displaying a symbol marking each of the interval period points and the symbol that is used.

The graph theme support now has some first time exposure. It is now possible to change the theme each time a request is made to the graph endpoint. This is done using the theme URL parameter for example: https://lumag.solutions/linegraph.svg&theme=GalacticTalk . An attempt has been made to create a basic graph theme that might some what match the colors used here on GalacticTalk. The GalacticTalk theme was created by modifying a little over half of the 120 or so settings available in a theme configuration. This example theme probably does not provide the best aesthetics, but should give an idea of how adjusting various theme settings can change the appearance of a graph.

New line graph type

The graph above is using the new line type with the GalacticTalk example theme. The graph also is using a new aggregate method of VWAP, which is just one of 8 that are newly available. The theme support can be seen in action by requesting the graph without specifying a theme parameter in the URL for example https://lumag.solutions/linegraph.svg. If no theme is specified, then the default dark theme will be used.

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The graphing capabilities of Graphite have been further expanded to provide dynamic time period display. The feature is accessed using a toPeriod URL parameter. This is accomplished by dynamically performing a secondary aggregation of the data that has previously been aggregated using any of the available methods. Since the graphs are using the fast and efficient Rocket Data service the performance impact of this secondary aggregation is minimal only adding about 5 or 10 milliseconds to the total graph rendering time.

Before describing the details of using the new toPeriod URL parameter, some limitations of the current implementation will be mentioned.

It is only possible to apply the secondary aggregation using a higher time period, because calculating the data to form a smaller period would require magic. For example if the original aggregate was configured to use 1 hour, then going to 2, 3, 4, etc hours, days, weeks or what ever larger period would be possible.
The method used to perform the secondary aggregation is fixed to Average. It could be possible to allow for other methods using a separate URL parameter, but we are currently aiming for simplicity and ease of use for now.
Only the line type graphs currently support using the toPeriod URL parameter.
Only whole numbers are accepted. For example trying to use 6.8 hours won't work and will just quietly be rounded down to 6 hours.

The value to assign to the toPeriod URL parameter is formed using any whole number an underscore then a time period. Some examples are 38_hours, 2_days, 9_hours, etc. The current recognizable time periods are seconds, minutes, hours, days, and weeks. So a complete example URL would look like this https://lumag.solutions/linegraph.svg&toPeriod=9_hours. it is also possible of course to combine with any other URL parameters described in this or previous posts for example startingDate, width height, theme and etc.

To wrap up, the Graphite graphing solution provides fast efficient low bandwidth graphs of all assets on the Stellar network. These graphs can be accessed by simply using a URL link. Many different URL parameters can be used to dynamically control the graph configuration on a per request basis. This will allow ICO, token and asset issuers to easily include price graphs for their offerings in the investor information areas of their websites. Graphs can now be easily included in any website without needing to integrate with large heavy Javascript libraries that can drastically slow page load times. There is also no need to use complex limiting <iframes> type solutions with these graphs. Graphite graphs are also very suitable for low bandwidth mobile applications.

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The Graphite graphs are again updating properly. Seems there was a breaking change made to Horizon upstream, but all should be well now.

For the next SBC we have plans to show some great unique innovative tools to maximize the potential in receiving a favorable exchange rate on the Stellar network. This would be useful when providing remittance or transfer services to clients and could provide a means to not just lower the overall costs, but potentially create a profit while using the Stellar network. It could also provide a benefit to trading applications.

We are also currently taking any feature requests for the next SBC, so if there any really interesting innovative ideas pertaining to data visualization and analysis using the Stellar network we would like to hear them so we could possibly try to implement them.