BudgetViz is...

• an open-source budget data visualization program designed for journalists
• free as in beer and free as in speech, under GPL license
• programmed in Python/Jinja2, generating (hopefully standards-compliant) HTML/CSS and jQuery
• available for download
• originally designed for the Claremont Port Side
• see an example here.

Use Instructions

• Generating a BudgetViz doesn't require programming skills, strictly speaking, but an understanding of HTML/CSS is necessary. A basic familiarity with Python and/or Javascript/jQuery is helpful.

1. Download BudgetViz and unzip somewhere.
2. Install Jinja2
3. Edit vizconfig.py to set the relevant parameters. Follow the directions in that file.
4. In a Terminal shell, run 'python viz.py'.
5. Paste the output into your webpage.
6. Upload the BudgetViz_public folder (containing images, javascript and stylesheets) into the same directory as the page containing the BudgetViz