Visual Viper Documentation

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Overview

Visual Viper (VV) is a Python library designed to automate the process of creating scientific charts. The library uses Vega-Lite, a high-level grammar for interactive graphics, to render visualizations from various research data sources through a convenient API.

Why Visual Viper?

Digital Transformation in Healthcare

The healthcare industry is undergoing a digital transformation, leading to a significant influx of data. For healthcare professionals and researchers, this means an increased need for efficient data visualization tools.

Streamlined Visualization Process

Visual Viper aims to streamline the often labor-intensive process of creating data visualizations, thereby saving time and enhancing the consistency of scientific communication.

Features

  • Modular and Extensible: Built on a plugin architecture, VV is designed to accommodate various data sources and types of visualizations.

  • Customizable: Each stage of the visualization process allows for independent modification without affecting the library’s overall functionality.

  • Environment Agnostic: Operates in various environments without requiring significant changes.

  • Serverless Deployment: Can run independently on local machines, Lambda, or as a Web API.

Core Components

  • `DatasetBuilder`: Fetches and preprocesses data.

  • `NotationBuilder`: Generates the chart notation, specifying chart layouts and visual aesthetics.

  • `ChartRenderer`: Creates the visualization output, which can be an image file or a in-memory file-like object.

  • `ChartDeployer`: Handles the deployment of completed visualizations.

Development Paradigms

  • Object-Oriented Programming (OOP): Promotes a structured codebase that’s easy to manage and maintain.

  • Test-Driven Development (TDD): Ensures robustness and quality by writing tests before the actual code.

Future Plans

  • Introduction of new chart types, including Bar Chart, Survival Chart, and Sankey Diagrams.

  • Packaging as an importable Python package, followed by an efficiency evaluation.

Conclusion

Visual Viper offers a robust and flexible tool for data visualization, significantly enhancing the efficiency of scientific communication in the healthcare sector.

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