Line chart race

An animated line or “bump” chart to show changing rank over time

Updated 5 years ago to v6.2.0 by Flourish team

How to use this template

What's it for?

Use this template to visualise the changing fortunes of people or groups in competition with each other, like political candidates or football teams. Choose between two modes: “Scores”, a line chart which plots the data’s raw values, and “Ranks”, a bump chart which plots rankings.

How to get started

  1. The first thing you need is a CSV or Excel file of your data.
  2. You need to make sure that there’s a row for each participant in the horserace – like a candidate or a football team. Use the first column to populate with the participants’ names. Each other column is a “stage” of the race – like a specific date, week or years.
  3. Here's an example:
    name Day 1 Day 2 Day 3
    Lance Armstrong 0 4 7
    Chris Hoyle 0 3 6

Not sure how to upload your data to Flourish? See our handy guide

FAQ

How do I add an image for each competitor? Under the Data tab, in the “Select columns to visualise” panel, there’s an “Image column”. Assign this to a column in your data table which contains image URLs. Then switch to the Preview view, and to the right, on the Settings panel, under “Label styles”, make sure the box for “Show image in circle” is checked.

How do I show ranks? There are two different ways to do this. The first one is to go “Interface” on the Settings panel and make sure that “Show ranks/scores buttons” is checked. This will ensure that whoever’s viewing your chart can always toggle between rank and score using the switcher to the right of the Replay button in the top left corner. The second way to show ranks is to uncheck that “Show ranks/scores buttons” and lock the view on rank by going to “Scoring type” on the Settings panel and changing the first option to “Ranks”.

How do I make the stages of the race different widths? There isn’t a setting to do this yet, but you can hack it by adding blank columns in the middle of your data. Say, for example, you have a dataset that includes data points for January, February, March and May. You may want to make that March stage of the chart twice as long as the other three. In the Data tab, add a blank column to the right of March. Make sure you also adjust the “Score columns”, on the “Select columns to visualise” panel to now include all five columns. Then switch to the Preview view and select “Line styles” on the Settings panel. Check the box for “Show lines between missing data points” and adjust the settings to match the styling of the existing line.

Why aren’t the x-axis labels visible? The labels for the x-axis won’t show up if the margins are too small. Go to “Margins” on the Settings panel and manually increase size of the Top and Bottom margins until the labels appear.

Tips

  • In the settings panel, you can decide whether to show scores or ranks, or to reveal buttons to let the viewer see both.
  • In the Flourish story editor, try clicking on the axis labels to show different stages of the race in different slides.

Examples

Credits

Created by the Flourish team, inspired by Google News Lab. Want to see additional features? Let us know at support@flourish.studio. Developers can also submit a pull request.

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

template: @flourish/horserace

version: 6

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: "@flourish/horserace",
    version: "6",
    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: "@flourish/horserace",
    version: "6",
    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
            filter: 4, // index of a column 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: "@flourish/horserace",
    version: "6",
    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: "@flourish/horserace",
    version: "6",
    bindings: {
        horserace: {
            name: "HorseraceHeader1",
            pic: "HorseraceHeader2",
            stages: ["HorseraceHeader3", "HorseraceHeader4", ...],
            filter: "HorseraceHeader5",
        }
    },
    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: "@flourish/horserace",
    version: "6",
    data: {
    horserace: [
        {
            name: ...,
            stages: [...]
        },
        ...
    ]
},
    ...
}

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

{
    template: "@flourish/horserace",
    version: "6",
    data: {
    horserace: [
        {
            name: ...,
            pic: ...,
            stages: [...],
            filter: ...
        },
        ...
    ]
},
    ...
}

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.
  • horserace.filter: Hide/show entrants based on the values in this column.

Template settings

Options for opts.state.

View

zoom_enabled boolean

Play mode.

Allowed values:

  • false (Show all)
  • true (Zoomed)

zoom_steps_to_show number

Visible stages. The number of time slices (each of which is column of data) to show on the time axis to the left and right of the current time (which in zoomed mode remains in the middle). Ignored if the number specified is greater than the number of stages in the data.

Min: 1

Max: 20

Scoring type

value_type string

Chart mode to show on load.

Allowed values:

  • ranks (Ranks)
  • scores (Scores)

higher_scores_win boolean

Data type. Useful for data where lower scores beat higher scores – e.g. race times

Allowed values:

  • true (Higher scores win)
  • false (Higher scores lose)

ties_mode string

Rank ties mode. What rank ranks should be given when there are ties? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranking for explanation of names.

Allowed values:

  • competition (Competition)
  • dense (Dense)

Chart sizing

height_mode string

Height mode. In "Fill space" mode, the lines will be spread out over the available chart height, which by default will be the standard Flourish chart sizes for any given screen width. In this mode the circles/images might overlap if you have lots of lines. "Match data" mode will resize the embedded graphic so there is enough vertical space to avoid overlaps. (Note this won't have any effect if you embed the graphic as a fixed height.) "Auto" switches between the two modes depending on the number of lines.

Allowed values:

  • auto (Auto)
  • fixed (Fill space)
  • flexible (Match data)

margin_top number

Top.

margin_right number

Right.

margin_bottom number

Bottom.

margin_left number

Left.

margin_right_mobile number

Right (mobile).

Controls

show_buttons boolean

Ranks/scores toggle.

Allowed values:

  • true (Visible)
  • false (Hidden)

show_replay boolean

Replay button.

Allowed values:

  • true (Visible)
  • false (Hidden)

filter_control_type string

Filter control type. Only used when a filter column is specified. "Auto" creates a button group if there is enough space, or a dropdown if there is not.

Allowed values:

  • auto-buttons (Auto)
  • dropdown (Dropdown)
  • grouped-buttons (Grouped buttons)

filter_width number

Control width. Width of control if sufficient space is available.

Min: 50

filter_include_all boolean

Include “All” option.

label_ranks string

“Ranks” label.

label_scores string

“Scores” label.

label_replay string

“Replay” label.

filter_all_label string

“All” label.

Colours

color.palette colors

Palette.

color.extend boolean

Auto-extend. Automatically generate additional colours when needed to avoid the palette colours being used more than once. Added colours are based on the average lightness and chroma values of the palette. This works best if the palette’s colours do not have very high or low saturation.

color.advanced boolean

Fine tune. Fine tune how additional colours are added to the palette.

color.hue_rotation_angle number

Hue rotation for added colours. Angle, in degrees in HCL colourspace, between one generated colour and the next. The default value, ~360/(Golden ratio), ensures adjacent hues are not too similar.

Max: 360

color.custom_palette text

Custom overrides. Type the name of the entity whose colour you want to set, a colon and then a colour (using a name, hex-code or rgb declaration). Multiple colours can be set using multiple lines. For example:


Party 1: red
Party 2: #4455AA
Party 3: rgb(30,168,26)

Line styles

line_width number

Line width.

line_opacity number

Opacity.

Max: 1

curve string

Curve.

Allowed values:

  • curveLinear (Straight)
  • curveMonotoneX (Normal curve)
  • curveNatural (Overflowing curve)
  • curveStep (Step middle)
  • curveStepAfter (Step after)
  • curveStepBefore (Step before)

shade boolean

Shading behind line.

Allowed values:

  • true (On)
  • false (Off)

shade_width number

Width. Width in pixels

shade_opacity number

Opacity. Set to a value between 0 and 1

Max: 1

missing boolean

Lines between missing data points.

Allowed values:

  • true (On)
  • false (Off)

missing_opacity number

Opacity.

Max: 1

missing_width number

Width.

missing_dash_width number

Dash width.

missing_dash_space number

Dash space.

Circle styles

start_circle_r number

Start radius.

end_circle_r number

End radius.

end_circle_stroke number

End stroke.

end_circle_stroke_bg boolean

Stroke color.

Allowed values:

  • true (Background)
  • false (Line)

horse_images boolean

Image inside circle.

Allowed values:

  • true (On)
  • false (Off)

Label styles

rank_font_size number

Rank font size.

label_font_size number

Label font size.

label_color_mode string

Label color.

Allowed values:

  • auto (Auto)
  • fixed (Fixed)

label_color color

Color.

rank_outside_picture boolean

Rank position.

Allowed values:

  • false (Inside)
  • true (Outside)

hide_labels boolean

Show label.

Allowed values:

  • false (Always)
  • true (On hover)

label_format.prefix string

Prefix. Text to place in front of number

label_format.suffix string

Suffix. Text to place after number

label_format.n_dec number

Decimal places. Use negative integers to round to positive powers of ten (eg -2 rounds to the nearest 100)

Min: -10

Max: 10

label_format.strip_zeros boolean

Remove trailing zeros.

label_format.strip_separator boolean

Hide thousands separator below 10,000. Turn off if you want four-digit numbers to include a separator, e.g. “1,234” rather than “1234”.

label_format.transform_labels boolean

Multiply/divide values.

label_format.transform string

Allowed values:

  • multiply (Multiply by)
  • divide (Divide by)
  • exponentiate (×10 to the power of)

label_format.multiply_divide_constant number

label_format.exponentiate_constant number

Y axis

y_axis_label_colors color

Label color.

y_axis_label_size number

Label size.

y_axis_stroke_color color

Stroke color.

zoom_y_axis boolean

Dynamic Y axis. Rescales the y axis when filtering or playing in zoomed mode

zoom_y_padding number

Padding (%). The amount of the axis to leave blank above/below the lines

Max: 100

y_axis_min number

Min score.

y_axis_max number

Max score.

y_axis_min_rank number

Min rank.

y_axis_max_rank number

Max rank.

y_axis_format.prefix string

Prefix. Text to place in front of number

y_axis_format.suffix string

Suffix. Text to place after number

y_axis_format.n_dec number

Decimal places. Use negative integers to round to positive powers of ten (eg -2 rounds to the nearest 100)

Min: -10

Max: 10

y_axis_format.strip_zeros boolean

Remove trailing zeros.

y_axis_format.strip_separator boolean

Hide thousands separator below 10,000. Turn off if you want four-digit numbers to include a separator, e.g. “1,234” rather than “1234”.

y_axis_format.transform_labels boolean

Multiply/divide values.

y_axis_format.transform string

Allowed values:

  • multiply (Multiply by)
  • divide (Divide by)
  • exponentiate (×10 to the power of)

y_axis_format.multiply_divide_constant number

y_axis_format.exponentiate_constant number

X axis

x_axis_label_color color

Label color.

x_axis_label_size number

Label size.

x_axis_rotate string

Label rotation.

Allowed values:

  • tilted (Tilted)
  • horizontal (Horizontal)
  • vertical (Vertical)

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

Number formatting

localization.input_decimal_separator string

Decimal separator in data sheet. Used for interpreting your data. Only change if data is not displaying on the chart as expected.

Allowed values:

  • . (.)
  • , (,)

localization.output_separators string

Number format to display. How the numbers should appear on chart labels

Allowed values:

  • ,. (12,235.67)
  • ., (12.345,67)
  • . (12235.67)
  • , (12345,67)
  • . (12 235.67)
  • , (12 345,67)

Layout

Layout

layout.body_font font

Font.

layout.max_width number

Maximum width. Leave blank to stretch to container width

Min: 50

layout.margin number

Margin.

layout.background_color_enabled boolean

Color.

Allowed values:

  • true (On)
  • false (Off)

layout.background_image_enabled boolean

Image.

Allowed values:

  • true (On)
  • false (Off)

layout.background_color color

Color.

layout.background_image_src url

Image URL.

layout.background_image_size string

Size.

Allowed values:

  • cover (Fill)
  • contain (Fit)
  • auto (Original)
  • 100% 100% (Stretch)

layout.background_image_position string

Position.

Allowed values:

  • top left (Top left)
  • top center (Top center)
  • top right (Top right)
  • center left (Center left)
  • center center (Center)
  • center right (Center right)
  • bottom left (Bottom left)
  • bottom center (Bottom center)
  • bottom right (Bottom right)

layout.layout_order string

Layout order.

Allowed values:

  • stack-default (data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABYAAAAdCAYAAAHZdKxuAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAANhJREFUSA3tVNEOwiAM7Iy/p2/wkTz6g5gjOVZZEepcjMmWLBTau95ugIh6lpzzLcb4wNpFJaRk9MIahxAyXmD7mC7BC2RlFbliQjFMpJTujOdGs/ECwRoP3rlKoEzNJlz3+CwutK0NLRVt2QhjggA9n2IGEKANMxmt0VVsEfxgzfX7zL3ZiqbXLjcKc8vEORk5/75mMB/7u11uuIpdbtDCc5R3l/s+e+pmHt1foza7Nv6IXOeHiqGk9zWtSk1cN2cPrItnYjZzHZEZYtacxHTiuANSO/xN8AS4uW8Rw1Gu2AAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)
  • stack-2 (data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABYAAAAdCAYAAAHZdKxuAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAMpJREFUSA3tVMsKwyAQNKW/l970Iz32Bw0jjKTrSLUY0oOBsO5rnOwYnTs9W0ppDyG8EcsOkw8uauu9T3jR2+75yJxBnnC4JxMxxlezg0V9VsJsIGz75TfKdlkpg3aPcT8TsPNRMJjZEIf5xaAAahUyE+RtfcZvtFLoFh95aFXxH4hCWpUoTCg7fxqUfB4yEcl/CJlNy5qbfuZA8m8CwJ77q2djSj50lnuAWbOAOQlXxCuRHxcUje2XzfgrYzBpHUXLkmxh181SpnEAB4Vg0DSGhHsAAAAASUVORK5CYII=)
  • stack-3 (data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABYAAAAdCAYAAAHZdKxuAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAANFJREFUSA3tVEEOwyAMo9O+193gkRz3QSZHMmNRUkGp1guVqkCIHZMAITTfVkrZU0pv+B7NQpCV1vEdxxgLfmB9jEvwBBNzkjXn/HIRDOqzJs0GwS1eEmonAn52RITJaUYScd5KLl0fTQf58HVpIFlXMDPNBVMf2TDXPq7dZM2eelrMQ6uDucG50mlWzG/ooCWDvqENXldn1pcyhpgJWjYcPe5z5ZFrAgoe2LN0f2v1ZYq5UyofuiME99hFXKtUm1c9aoBmeEeRjVIQma6XpVblAwnpZjN/VjqsAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC)
  • stack-4 (data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABYAAAAdCAYAAAHZdKxuAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAANtJREFUSA3tVNEOwjAI3Iy/p2/tR/bRH6zekmuA1glO45bYZAHKcdDCOk1izbXWC+0zlJzzDVJ5sNGW9qSUKj4QKY8yWvBDUWnoKKVcTzS2yWHiIfeMwm2yIbLbRL3DRJYubi+0bAPCkcvapO3AdFgZvuDuyJZR2i4wSpBBP9ZD7RsOLQ9gD/Y5ZmaA3EEHWY6r3SEwrzDEHLpnlvOXa4/7xttZfhNwyPdKcqLPaz6JlXpr9bNgCfbobw2ch5iY0CQzyCOPR9ya5zleBPNy3LxknAbiv1YxExxH3gEqBW7I4zw3PQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==)

layout.space_between_sections string

Space between sections.

Allowed values:

  • 0 (▁)
  • 0.5 (▃)
  • 1 (▄)
  • custom (...)

layout.space_between_sections_custom number

Custom.

Max: 100

layout.header_align string

Alignment.

Allowed values:

  • left (fa-align-left)
  • center (fa-align-center)
  • right (fa-align-right)

layout.title string

layout.title_styling boolean

Change title styles.

layout.title_size string

Size.

Allowed values:

  • 1.4 (ᴀ)
  • 1.6 (A)
  • 2 (fa-font)
  • custom (...)

layout.title_size_custom number

Custom. Specify a custom responsive font size. Best results will be with values between 1.2 and 3

layout.title_weight string

Weight.

Allowed values:

  • bold (Bold)
  • normal (Regular)

layout.title_color color

Color.

layout.title_line_height number

Line height.

Max: 3

layout.subtitle string

layout.subtitle_styling boolean

Change subtitle styles.

layout.subtitle_size string

Size.

Allowed values:

  • 1.4 (ᴀ)
  • 1.6 (A)
  • 2 (fa-font)
  • custom (...)

layout.subtitle_size_custom number

Custom. Specify a custom responsive font size. Best results will be with values between 1.2 and 3

layout.subtitle_weight string

Weight.

Allowed values:

  • bold (Bold)
  • normal (Regular)

layout.subtitle_color color

Color.

layout.subtitle_line_height number

Line height.

Max: 3

layout.subtitle_space_above string

Space above.

Allowed values:

  • 0 (▁)
  • 0.5 (▃)
  • 1 (▄)
  • custom (...)

layout.subtitle_space_above_custom number

Custom.

Max: 100

layout.text string

layout.text_styling boolean

Change text styles.

layout.text_size string

Size.

Allowed values:

  • 1.2 (ᴀ)
  • 1.4 (A)
  • 1.6 (fa-font)
  • custom (...)

layout.text_size_custom number

Custom. Specify a custom responsive font size. Best results will be with values between 1.2 and 3

layout.text_weight string

Weight.

Allowed values:

  • bold (Bold)
  • normal (Regular)

layout.text_color color

Color.

layout.text_line_height number

Line height.

Max: 3

layout.text_space_above string

Space above.

Allowed values:

  • 0 (▁)
  • 0.5 (▃)
  • 1 (▄)
  • custom (...)

layout.text_space_above_custom number

Custom.

Max: 100

layout.source_name string

Source name.

layout.source_url string

Source url.

layout.multiple_sources boolean

Multiple sources.

layout.source_name_2 string

Source name.

layout.source_url_2 string

Source url.

layout.source_name_3 string

Source name.

layout.source_url_3 string

Source url.

layout.source_label string

Source label.

layout.note string

Note.

layout.size number

Size.

layout.color color

Color.

layout.footer_align string

Alignment.

Allowed values:

  • left (fa-align-left)
  • center (fa-align-center)
  • right (fa-align-right)
  • justify (fa-align-justify)

layout.logo_url url

Image.

Link.

layout.logo_height number

Height.

layout.logo_margin number

Margin.

layout.logo_order string

Position.

Allowed values:

  • left (Left)
  • right (Right)

layout.footer_align_vertical string

V. align.

Allowed values:

  • flex-start (Top)
  • center (Center)
  • flex-end (Bottom)