Question

When I save the code for a Motion Chart into an html file and try to open it, I get the footer and the “initializing” progress bar blinks for a split second, but nothing else shows up.

so

M1 <- gvisMotionChart(Fruits, idvar="Fruit", timevar="Year")
plot(M1)

works great, but

print(M1, file='d:/delete/fruit.html')

and then opening the resulting file in a browser comes up blank (except for the footer). Is there a way I can save this visualization and circulate it around?

Answer 1

As I understand it, the file has to be displayed via a web server to show the chart

http://code.google.com/apis/chart/interactive/docs/gallery/motionchart.html#Notes

Because of Flash security settings, this (and all Flash-based
visualizations) might not work correctly when accessed from a file
location in the browser (e.g., file:///c:/webhost/myhost/myviz.html)
rather than from a web server URL (e.g.,
http://www.myhost.com/myviz.html). This is typically a testing issue
only. You can overcome this issue as described on the Macromedia web
site.

The plot command in R uses the internal R http help server to overcome this limitation.

Here’s how I overcame it:

1. Go to http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager04.html
2. Click on the dropbox which says ‘Edit location’ and choose ‘add location’
3. Click ‘browse for folder’
4. Choose the folder in which you saved your html file
5. Click OK

Now open your googleVis html file and it should display successfully. In fact, any googleVis file you open from within the folder you selected will also display as you would expect.