Word cloud

Like a cloud made of words

Updated 6 years ago to v1.0.0 by Duncan Clark

This section documents API usage specific to this template, so for an introduction we suggest you refer to the generic API documentation instead.

template: @duncan/word-cloud

version: 1

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: {
        words: [
            [ "WordsColumn1Value1", "WordsColumn2Value1",
            [ "WordsColumn1Value2", "WordsColumn2Value2",
            [ "WordsColumn1Value3", "WordsColumn2Value3",
            ...
        ]
    }
}

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: "@duncan/word-cloud",
    version: "1",
    bindings: {
        words: {
            word: 0, // index of a column in your data
            frequency: 1, // index of a column in your data
        }
    },
    data: {
        words: [
            [ "WordsColumn1Value1", "WordsColumn2Value1",
            [ "WordsColumn1Value2", "WordsColumn2Value2",
            [ "WordsColumn1Value3", "WordsColumn2Value3",
            ...
        ]
    }
}

All possible bindings that you can supply are shown in this example:

{
    template: "@duncan/word-cloud",
    version: "1",
    bindings: {
        words: {
            word: 0, // index of a column in your data
            frequency: 1, // index of a column in your data
        }
    },
    data: {
        words: [
            [ "WordsColumn1Value1", "WordsColumn2Value1",
            [ "WordsColumn1Value2", "WordsColumn2Value2",
            [ "WordsColumn1Value3", "WordsColumn2Value3",
            ...
        ]
    }
}

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:

{
        words: [
            { "WordsHeader1": ..., "WordsHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "WordsHeader1": ..., "WordsHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "WordsHeader1": ..., "WordsHeader2": ..., ... },
            ...
        ]
    }

... 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: "@duncan/word-cloud",
    version: "1",
    bindings: {
        words: {
            word: "WordsHeader1",
            frequency: "WordsHeader2",
        }
    },
    data: {
        words: [
            { "WordsHeader1": ..., "WordsHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "WordsHeader1": ..., "WordsHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "WordsHeader1": ..., "WordsHeader2": ..., ... },
            ...
        ]
    }
}

All possible bindings that you can supply are shown in this example:

{
    template: "@duncan/word-cloud",
    version: "1",
    bindings: {
        words: {
            word: "WordsHeader1",
            frequency: "WordsHeader2",
        }
    },
    data: {
        words: [
            { "WordsHeader1": ..., "WordsHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "WordsHeader1": ..., "WordsHeader2": ..., ... },
            { "WordsHeader1": ..., "WordsHeader2": ..., ... },
            ...
        ]
    }
}

(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: "@duncan/word-cloud",
    version: "1",
    data: {
    words: [
        {
            word: ...,
            frequency: ...
        },
        ...
    ]
},
    ...
}

And the full list of all possible properties is as follows:

{
    template: "@duncan/word-cloud",
    version: "1",
    data: {
    words: [
        {
            word: ...,
            frequency: ...
        },
        ...
    ]
},
    ...
}

Meanings of the template data keys:

  • words.word: word
  • words.frequency: frequency

Template settings

Options for opts.state.

title string

Title.

subtitle string

Subtitle.

titles_margin number

Titles margin.

text_color color

Text.

bg_color color

Backgrnd.

data_tables boolean

Text input.

Allowed values:

  • true (Spreadsheet)
  • false (Paste in raw text)

raw_text text

Text.

font string

Font. You can use any font on your computer but for publishing online stick to universal fonts (such as Georgia, Verdana, Times New Roman) or Source Sans Pro, which is included in the template and used for the title and subtitle.

padding number

Word spacing.

word_limit number

Word limit. Limits the number of words, in order of frequency. Leave blank to show all words in the data table.

Min: 1

random_seed number

Randomiser. Change the number to try different layouts

exclusions boolean

Exclude common words.

excluded_words text

Exclude words.