Horserace chart
Updated 7 years ago by Template retirement home
How to use this template
Horserace chart
A simple charting template for plotting changing rank in a group of competitors over time. Useful for showing the changing fortunes of candidates in elections, football team, etc.
Data requirements
Each row after the header row should be a participant in the race – such as a politician or team. There should be a column for the participant name and multiple columns for the “stages” in the race (week, day, hours, etc). Each stage is plotted at an equal width on the chart.
Credits and feedback
Created by Duncan Clark, Daan Louter and Robin Houston, originally based on a design by Google News Lab. Want to see additional features? Let us know at support@flourish.studio (or submit a pull request).
API information
This section documents API usage specific to this template, so for an introduction we suggest you refer to the generic API documentation instead.
template: _123
version: _15
Template data
There are three different formats in which you can supply data to this template. The most convenient for you to use likely depends on the source of your data, as described below.
1. Array of arrays, and a bindings object
You can supply arrays of arrays to opts.data
, which might look
like:
{ data: { horserace: [ [ "HorseraceColumn1Value1", "HorseraceColumn2Value1", [ "HorseraceColumn1Value2", "HorseraceColumn2Value2", [ "HorseraceColumn1Value3", "HorseraceColumn2Value3", ... ] } }
where each array of arrays represents the rows in a data sheet.
To tell the API how the values from each column should be
associated with the keys that the template is expecting, you must also supply
an object attached to opts.bindings
. (The meanings of the
keys in the bindings object are documented
below.) The minimal bindings you can
supply for this template are as shown in this example:
{ template: "_123", version: "_15", bindings: { horserace: { name: 0, // index of a column in your data } }, data: { horserace: [ [ "HorseraceColumn1Value1", "HorseraceColumn2Value1", [ "HorseraceColumn1Value2", "HorseraceColumn2Value2", [ "HorseraceColumn1Value3", "HorseraceColumn2Value3", ... ] } }
All possible bindings that you can supply are shown in this example:
{ template: "_123", version: "_15", bindings: { horserace: { name: 0, // index of a column in your data pic: 1, // index of a column in your data stages: [2, 3, ...], // index(es) of column(s) in your data } }, data: { horserace: [ [ "HorseraceColumn1Value1", "HorseraceColumn2Value1", [ "HorseraceColumn1Value2", "HorseraceColumn2Value2", [ "HorseraceColumn1Value3", "HorseraceColumn2Value3", ... ] } }
2. Array of objects with arbitrary keys, and a bindings object
This format is most likely useful when you have data from an external source,
such as CSV data loaded from d3-dsv.
You should supply this attached to the opts.data
, which might look
like:
{ horserace: [ { "HorseraceHeader1": ..., "HorseraceHeader2": ..., ... }, { "HorseraceHeader1": ..., "HorseraceHeader2": ..., ... }, { "HorseraceHeader1": ..., "HorseraceHeader2": ..., ... }, ... ] }
... but with the keys being the column headers from your
source data instead. You must also supply an object attached to
opts.bindings
. The minimal bindings you can
supply for this template are as shown in this example:
{ template: "_123", version: "_15", bindings: { horserace: { name: "HorseraceHeader1", } }, data: { horserace: [ { "HorseraceHeader1": ..., "HorseraceHeader2": ..., ... }, { "HorseraceHeader1": ..., "HorseraceHeader2": ..., ... }, { "HorseraceHeader1": ..., "HorseraceHeader2": ..., ... }, ... ] } }
All possible bindings that you can supply are shown in this example:
{ template: "_123", version: "_15", bindings: { horserace: { name: "HorseraceHeader1", pic: "HorseraceHeader2", stages: ["HorseraceHeader3", "HorseraceHeader4", ...], } }, data: { horserace: [ { "HorseraceHeader1": ..., "HorseraceHeader2": ..., ... }, { "HorseraceHeader1": ..., "HorseraceHeader2": ..., ... }, { "HorseraceHeader1": ..., "HorseraceHeader2": ..., ... }, ... ] } }
(As before, the keys containing "Header" would be replaced by column names from your data source.)
3. Array of objects with template-defined keys
There is an alternative format you can use, which is likely to be easier to
use if your data is not from a spreadsheet source. With this alternative format
you supply your data to the template as
an array of objects, attached to opts.data
, where the keys must
be those used by the template, as documented below. In this case
there is no need to supply a bindings object, since the key names are already
those expected by the template. The required properties in the data
object are as follows (scroll down for a
description of what each property is):
{ template: "_123", version: "_15", data: { horserace: [ { name: ..., stages: [...] }, ... ] }, ... }
And the full list of all possible properties is as follows:
{ template: "_123", version: "_15", data: { horserace: [ { name: ..., pic: ..., stages: [...] }, ... ] }, ... }
Meanings of the template data keys:
- horserace.name: The name of each entrant
- horserace.pic: The URL of the image to use
- horserace.stages: Raw scores, which will be automatically converted to ranks. Column names will be used to populate the x-axis of the chart.
Template settings
Options for opts.state
.
Scoring type
value_type string
Show ranks by default. Allowed values:
target_position number
Default start stage. Which stage the graphic should "play" to by default Min: 1
higher_scores_win boolean
Higher scores win. Uncheck this if lower scores beat higher scores (eg. race times)
show_buttons boolean
Allow users to switch between modes.
Line styles
line_width number
Line width.
line_opacity number
Line opacity.
curve string
Curve. Allowed values:
shade boolean
Show shading behind line.
shade_width number
Shading width.
shade_opacity number
Shading opacity.
Circles and labels
start_circle_r number
Start radius.
end_circle_r number
End radius.
rank_font_size number
Rank font size.
label_font_size number
Label font size.
label_decimals number
No of decimal places on scores.
rank_label_suffix string
Suffix.
horse_images boolean
Use image.
rank_outside_picture boolean
Move score outside picture.
Colors
bg_color color
Background color.
palette string
Color scheme. Choose "Other" to specify a comma-separate list of colour names or codes, or the name of a d3-chromatic scheme such as schemeAccent Allowed values:
custom_colors text
Custom colors. Override the colour scheme by entering a comma-separated list of colors names or codes
Animation
stage_duration number
Animation duration. The "race" animation length in milliseconds per stage
update_duration number
Mode duration. The animation duration when change between ranks and scores modes
Margins
margin_top number
Top.
margin_right number
Right.
margin_bottom number
Bottom.
margin_left number
Left.
Y axis
y_axis_min number
Min score value.
y_axis_max number
Max score value.
y_axis_tick_suffix string
Suffix score label.