Re:Observable 2.0, a static site generator for data apps
by ipsum2 on Thursday February 15, 2024 @05:26PM
(#39390071)
How do dashboards work if data is computed at build time? Does that mean every time you want to update the data you need another build? I'm interested in live dashboards, is Obversable framework the wrong tool for the job?
Re:Observable 2.0, a static site generator for data apps
by mbostock on Thursday February 15, 2024 @06:10PM
(#39390577)
Yes, we use continuous deployment (cron) to rebuild as needed. You can also get realtime data on the client if you need to (via fetch or WebSocket to your own servers — it’s “just” JavaScript), but generally we find building static data snapshots a useful constraint because it forces you to think about exactly what data is needed, and as a result the dashboard loads instantly.
Re:Observable 2.0, a static site generator for data apps
by sroussey on Thursday February 15, 2024 @08:11PM
(#39391757)
Row64 dashboards are pretty instant. And interactive.
Edit: link: https://row64.com/
Re:Observable 2.0, a static site generator for data apps
by ipsum2 on Friday February 16, 2024 @03:12AM
(#39394451)
My use case is monitoring machine learning models as they train, static snapshots doesn't seem like the right approach for me.
Re:Observable 2.0, a static site generator for data apps
by mbostock on Friday February 16, 2024 @10:07AM
(#39398011)
If you’re developing the models locally, perhaps Framework’s preview server could work: it watches local files and automatically pushes updates to the browser when files change. This enables reactive updates for data loaders, but also works with static files. So you could visualize the models as they are being generated — meaning as some external process writes local files.
But in general the use case we’re targeting is a shared data app, dashboard, or report. Not something just for you individually, or something ephemeral (that you look at in real-time during training). For example, Framework would work well for sharing a report or dashboard evaluating the performance of the latest models you’ve built with your team.
I’m not sure what better integration with other blogging frameworks would look like — like, part of the page is rendered by Framework, but the site as a whole is handled by the blogging framework? Perhaps we could develop Framework’s API further so it could function like a plugin. But this is speculative and not a priority for us currently. If you explore the possibilities here please let us know!