Using ReactJS to create reusable chart components
ReactJS is one of the most popular JavaScript libraries used for front-end development. A StackOverflow survey conducted in 2017, showed a whopping 311% rise in the popularity of ReactJS amongst developers.
While you can use it for various applications, in this tutorial we will see the process of creating charts using ReactJS. To do this, we will use the FusionCharts’ JavaScript library and its React-FusionCharts Component. This component allows developers to integrate the charting library with ReactJS without any extra effort.
To create the chart, we are going to use a simple and easy to follow four step process:
- Step 1: Prepare the data
- Step 2: Include the React and FusionCharts libraries
- Step 3: Create chart instance
- Step 4: Render the chart instance
Step 1: Prepare the Data
The first thing that you need to do is construct data in a format accepted by the libraries. Currently, FusionCharts accepts data in JSON and XML only. Hence we need to convert the raw data to one of these formats. For this example, we will use JSON. We now have to convert each data value into a JSON key-value pair.
We’ll be using the following data:
| Apps | Downloads |
|---|---|
| Sarahah | 3880000 |
| Messenger | 2570000 |
| Snake vs Block | 2420000 |
| 2140000 | |
| Amazon | 1830000 |
| Spotify Music | 1540000 |
| Netflix | 1530000 |
| Word Connect | 1440000 |
| Pandora | 1300000 |
| WhatsApp Messenger | 1210000 |
Since the data is comparative, we can effectively visualize it using a bar chart. Based on the requirement of the bar chart, we will convert our source data into label and value key-value pairs in the JSON format.
After formatting all the data, the JSON representation will look like this:
JSON data
{
"label": "Sarahah",
"value": "3880000"
}, {
"label": "Messenger",
"value": "2570000"
}, {
"label": "Snake vs Block",
"value": "2420000"
}, {
"label": "Facebook",
"value": "2140000"
}, {
"label": "Amazon",
"value": "1830000"
}, {
"label": "Spotify Music",
"value": "1540000"
}, {
"label": "Netflix",
"value": "1530000"
}, {
"label": "Word Connect",
"value": "1440000"
}, {
"label": "Pandora",
"value": "1300000"
}, {
"label": "WhatsApp Messenger",
"value": "1210000"
}
Step 2: Include the React and FusionCharts libraries
To get started, you need to download the React-FusionCharts Component
The installation of the libraries is pretty simple. You need to include thefusioncharts.js and thereact-fusioncharts.js script source links in the head of your HTML page, as shown in the code snippet below:
<html>
<head>
<title>Top 10 iOS Apps in July 2017</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/react@latest/dist/react.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://fb.me/JSXTransformer-0.13.3.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/react@15.6.0/dist/react.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://unpkg.com/react-dom@15/dist/react-dom.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://unpkg.com/fusioncharts/fusioncharts.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://unpkg.com/fusioncharts/fusioncharts.charts.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://unpkg.com/fusioncharts@3.12.1/themes/fusioncharts.theme.ocean.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://unpkg.com/react-fusioncharts/dist/react-fusioncharts.js"></script>
</head>
</html>
To avoid misrepresentation you must add react-fusioncharts.js file after adding all other scripts.
Or, you can install the React-FusionCharts Component using NPM. However, the installation and rendering process would differ for this method.
For NPM, you will have to first render install the ReactJS and FusionCharts packages. Next, you’ll have to load the FusionCharts and Charts modules using the require command. You can read more on installing via npm.
Power up: You can do the entire setup by running just one command:
npm install react react-dom fusioncharts react-fusioncharts –save.
Step 3: Create a Chart Instance
With the dependencies in place, we will create an instance for our chart. The chart instance will consist of two important parts – the ‘chart configuration’` and the render() method.
JavaScript/JSX:
Chart Instance
var myDataSource = {
chart: {
caption: "Top 10 iOS Apps - July 2017",
subCaption: "Downloads (In Millions)",
"canvasBgAlpha": "0",
"bgColor": "#ffffff",
"bgAlpha": "70",
"baseFont": "Roboto",
"baseFontSize": "14",
"showAlternateVGridColor": "1",
"alternateVGridAlpha": "5",
"labelFontSize": "15",
"captionFontSize": "20",
"subCaptionFontSize": "16",
"toolTipColor": "#000000",
"toolTipBgColor": "#ffffff",
"toolTipAlpha": "90",
"captionFontBold": "0",
"subCaptionFontBold": "0",
"paletteColors": "#8E24AA",
"valueFontSize": "13",
"valueFontBold": "0",
"animation": "0",
"divLineAlpha": "15",
"divLineDashed": "0",
"plotFillAlpha": "90",
theme: "ocean"
},
"data": [{
"label": "Sarahah",
"value": "3880000"
}, {
"label": "Messenger",
"value": "2570000"
}, {
"label": "Snake vs Block",
"value": "2420000"
}, {
"label": "Facebook",
"value": "2140000"
}, {
"label": "Amazon",
"value": "1830000"
}, {
"label": "Spotify Music",
"value": "1540000"
}, {
"label": "Netflix",
"value": "1530000"
}, {
"label": "Word Connect",
"value": "1440000"
}, {
"label": "Pandora",
"value": "1300000"
}, {
"label": "WhatsApp Messenger",
"value": "1210000"
}]
};
var barChartConfigs = {
id: "bar-chart",
renderAt: "chart-container",
type: "bar2d",
width: "100%",
height: 400,
dataFormat: "json",
dataSource: myDataSource
};
var MyApp = React.createClass({
render: function() {
return (
<div id="chart-container"></div>
);
}
});
The chart id and the renderAt objects in the Chart Configuration define the chart and the rendering element, respectively.
type: attribute defines the JS chart alias to render. The bar chart is just one of the many chart types supported by the FusionCharts suite. For the complete list of chart types supported by FusionCharts, you can refer to the list of charts.
The width and height define the size of the chart canvas.
Since we are using the JSON data, the dataFormat is set to JSON.
Configuring Chart Cosmetics Using Chart Attributes:
To add to the visual appeal of the chart, we can configure chart attributes some of which can be found below:
Canvas:
bgColor– Selects the background color of the chart.
showAlternateVGridColor – Creates alternating vertical grid bands by setting it to 1.
paletteColors – Assigns colors to be used in the chart elements.
Animation – Selects chart animations on loading the chart.
divLineDashed – Makes the divisional lines dashed by setting it to 1.
plotFillAlpha – Sets the transparency of the data objects in the chart.
Fonts:
baseFont – Selects any standard/non-standard font family for the text used in the chart
baseFontSize – Sets the font size of the values and text in the chart
valueFontSize – Sets the font size of the values
Tooltips:
toolTipColor – Changes the color of the text in the tooltip
toolTipBgColor – Changes the color of the tooltip background
toolTipAlpha – Sets the transparency of the tooltip background
These are only some of the attributes that help you customize the appearance of your chart. For the complete list of cosmetic and functional attributes supported, you can read the documentation on chart attributes.
Step 4: Render the Chart Instance
To render the chart, add an HTML container element in the body of your HTML page, as shown in the code snippet below:
HTML:
<div id="top"><div>
JavaScript/JSX:
React.render( < MyApp / > ,
document.getElementById("top")
);
To summarize, in this example, we have created a React class that will render the chart element when returned.
To render the chart we have called the render() method that will in turn call the class we have created.
If you have been following along, your output should look similar to the image shown below:
However, if you’re unable to see any output you can refer to this JSFiddle sample.
If you are still unable to get your chart running, you can reach me @GoanIdle.
This post first appeared on FusionCharts.
