I’m working on a project where I need to show live charts inside Figma. My Python script pulls real-time financial data and outputs it as a pandas DataFrame. I originally planned to use Tkinter for the GUI but wasn’t happy with how it looked, so I’m exploring Figma as an alternative. Is it possible to link my Python application directly to Figma to create dynamic charts that update automatically? I need the graphs to refresh as new data comes in from my script.
I’ve done similar financial data viz projects - ditch Figma entirely. It’s not built for real-time data and you’ll waste time fighting the platform instead of building your solution. Go with Plotly Dash instead. It works seamlessly with pandas DataFrames and gives you professional financial charts right out of the box. The styling’s solid and you’ll get a polished interface without the headache of embedding charts into Figma. I made this exact switch for a trading dashboard and cut my development time in half. Real-time updates work perfectly with WebSocket connections, and you keep full control over your data pipeline from Python to visualization.
Figma doesn’t provide a direct connection to Python scripts for real-time data updates since it’s primarily a design tool. However, you can use a workaround by exporting your pandas DataFrame as JSON or CSV. After that, utilize Chart.js or D3.js for creating dynamic charts in a web browser, which can then be embedded in Figma using iframe or web viewer plugins. This way, the charts will update in sync with your Python script when it refreshes the data files. While it requires some HTML and JavaScript knowledge, it’s a more effective approach than connecting Figma directly to Python. Another option is to create static images using matplotlib and use Figma’s API to update them periodically, although this won’t achieve true real-time visualization.
figma’s great for designs, but maybe not for live charts… streamlit is a super cool alternative! it works directly with pandas and makes things much easier for updating live charts. more suited for what you’re trying to do!
honestly mate, check out grafana for this. it connects to tons of data sources and handles real-time updates well. you can feed your pandas data through influxdb or just use grafana’s json api. looks professional and updates automatically - no figma workarounds needed.
I’ve been messing around with similar setups recently - you should check out Bokeh Server. It works directly with pandas DataFrames and builds interactive charts that auto-update when your Python script pushes new data. The interface looks clean enough for financial stuff, and you can tweak the styling to match your Figma designs. The best part? It runs as a web app but stays connected to your Python backend, so no messy file exports or API headaches. Pretty easy to pick up if you know pandas, and it handles real-time data streams without choking.