Line, bar and pie charts
Updated 7 years ago by Template retirement home
How to use this template
The Swiss Army Knife of templates. Choose from line, bar, grouped bar, stacked bar, area or pie charts – and animate between them all.
Data requirements
You need one column of “Labels” (categories, times, numbers, etc) and one or more columns of “Values” (which must contain numbers). Each “Values” column creates a line on a line chart, a series of bars in a bar chart, or a pie chart.
Making a grid of charts
You can use the “Grid of charts” option to display each series in your data on its own mini chart – a visualisation technique called “small multiples”. Data can also be divided into mini charts by specifying a “Charts grid” column. In this case, there will be one chart for each unique value in the selected column. This is useful if your data is arranged in this way, or if you want to create a grid with multiple series on each chart.
Tips
- You can use custom colours by typing them as a comma-separated list in to the “Colour scheme or custom colours” menu. You can use any named CSS colour or hexcode.
- With a grid of line or bar charts, you can choose whether to have the same y axis for all the charts (good for comparing absolute numbers) or to have each chart set its own y-axis based on the data it contains (best for comparing the shape of each series).
- If you make different views of your data and save them as separate visualisations, you can animate between the charts in the Flourish story editor.
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: _176
version: _21
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: {
data: [
[ "DataColumn1Value1", "DataColumn2Value1",
[ "DataColumn1Value2", "DataColumn2Value2",
[ "DataColumn1Value3", "DataColumn2Value3",
...
]
}
}
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: "_176",
version: "_21",
bindings: {
data: {
x: 0, // index of a column in your data
}
},
data: {
data: [
[ "DataColumn1Value1", "DataColumn2Value1",
[ "DataColumn1Value2", "DataColumn2Value2",
[ "DataColumn1Value3", "DataColumn2Value3",
...
]
}
}
All possible bindings that you can supply are shown in this example:
{
template: "_176",
version: "_21",
bindings: {
data: {
x: 0, // index of a column in your data
y: [1, 2, ...], // index(es) of column(s) in your data
facet: 3, // index of a column in your data
}
},
data: {
data: [
[ "DataColumn1Value1", "DataColumn2Value1",
[ "DataColumn1Value2", "DataColumn2Value2",
[ "DataColumn1Value3", "DataColumn2Value3",
...
]
}
}
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:
{
data: [
{ "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
{ "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
{ "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
...
]
}
... 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: "_176",
version: "_21",
bindings: {
data: {
x: "DataHeader1",
}
},
data: {
data: [
{ "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
{ "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
{ "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
...
]
}
}
All possible bindings that you can supply are shown in this example:
{
template: "_176",
version: "_21",
bindings: {
data: {
x: "DataHeader1",
y: ["DataHeader2", "DataHeader3", ...],
facet: "DataHeader4",
}
},
data: {
data: [
{ "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
{ "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
{ "DataHeader1": ..., "DataHeader2": ..., ... },
...
]
}
}
(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: "_176",
version: "_21",
data: {
data: [
{
x: ...,
y: [...]
},
...
]
},
...
}
And the full list of all possible properties is as follows:
{
template: "_176",
version: "_21",
data: {
data: [
{
x: ...,
y: [...],
facet: ...
},
...
]
},
...
}
Meanings of the template data keys:
- data.x: A column of names or times
- data.y: One or more columns of numbers
- data.facet: If specified and “Grid of charts” view is on, creates a separate mini chart for each value found in the column.
Template settings
Options for opts.state.
Chart type
chart_type string
Allowed values:
- line (Line chart)
- column_grouped (Bar chart)
- column_stacked (Stacked bar chart)
- area (Area chart)
- donut (Pie chart)
layout string
Grid mode. “Grid of charts” creates a mini chart for each series (or each value in your ”Charts grid” column, if specified) Allowed values:
layout_fit boolean
Fill container with graphic. This is how the graphic will look when embedded at a fixed height
facet_aspect number
Chart height, % of width.
facet_fixed_cols boolean
Fixed number of columns in grid.
facet_min_w number
Min chart width in grid. Determines how many columns of charts there should be in the grid. Ignored if you specify a fixed number of columns.
facet_cols number
Number of columns in grid. Leave blank for automatic layout Min: 1
Chart styles
bg_color color
Background colour.
legend_show boolean
Show legend. Ignored in grid mode if colouring by chart
palette string
Colour scheme or custom colours. Choose from the list of enter a custom pallete as a comma-separated list of colour codes or names (e.g. #343434, red, rgb(28,28,28)) Predefined values:
line_width number
Line width.
line_opacity number
Line opacity. Max: 1
dot_radius number
Dot radius. Max: 25
dot_opacity number
Dot opacity. Max: 1
area_opacity number
Stack opacity. Max: 1
line_curve string
Line curve. Allowed values:
line_end_labels boolean
Show labels at end of lines. Add margin-right the layout panel if using end labels
column_padding_inner number
Space between bars (%). Max: 100
column_padding_outer number
Space before/after bars (%). Max: 100
donut_inner_radius number
Doughnut hole (%). Max: 99
donut_corner_radius number
Corner curve (pixels).
donut_pad_angle number
Segment padding (degrees). Max: 10
Title and subtitle
title string
Title.
subtitle string
Subitle.
title_padding number
Margin (pixels).
title_color color
Colour.
Chart margins
margin_top number
Top.
margin_bottom number
Bottom.
margin_left number
Left.
margin_right number
Right.
X axis
x_axis_min number
X min. Ignored if axis is showing categories rather than numbers
x_axis_max number
X max. Ignored if axis is showing categories rather than numbers
x_axis_padding_left number
X axis padding. Horizontal space between the y and x axes
x_axis_label string
X axis label.
x_axis_label_y number
Label position.
x_axis_show boolean
Show x axis.
x_axis_show_domain boolean
Line at bottom.
x_axis_num_ticks number
No of tick marks. Approximate. The actual number will depend on the range of values, chart size, etc.
x_axis_tick_dashed number
Tick dash size. Zero for a solid line, bigger numbers for bigger dashes
x_axis_color color
Text colour.
x_axis_tick_color color
Tick colour.
x_axis_tall_ticks boolean
Tick marks full height.
x_axis_ticks_inline boolean
Tick labels next to line.
Y axis
y_axis_label string
Y label.
y_axis_min number
Y min.
y_axis_max number
Y max.
facet_matching_axis boolean
Matching axis across grid of charts.
y_axis_log boolean
Log scale.
y_axis_show boolean
Show y axis.
y_axis_show_domain boolean
Line at edge.
y_axis_num_ticks number
Number of tick marks. Approximate. The actual number will depend on the range of values, chart size, etc.
y_axis_tick_dashed number
Tick dash size. Zero for a solid line, bigger numbers for bigger dashes
y_axis_color color
Text colour.
y_axis_tick_color color
Tick colour.
y_axis_wide_ticks boolean
Tick marks full width.
y_axis_ticks_inline boolean
Tick labels above line.
Popups
show_popups boolean
Show popups.
popup_font_size number
Font size.
Number formatting
number_prefix string
Number prefix.
number_suffix string
Number suffix.
Animations
data_trans_duration number
Animation duration. The duration, in milliseconds, of transitions – for example between two slides in a story