Chartly.js: build charts in the browser using d3.js and Blockly.

Chartly.js is a web component that allows end users to create ('program') a chart using the Blockly visual programming environment. Charts are 'compiled' to a JSON specification for the chart. At run time, Chartly interprets the JSON and draws the chart using d3.js.

Try Chartly here

How to use

Store the contents in a web-accessible folder and open chartly.html to try out the example editor. The example editor will also work when run directly from your hard drive (file://), only loading of examples will fail. The example editor automatically generates fake numeric data of variable sizes for testing purposes.

Using Chartly.js in your web application should be relatively straightforward; see the example editor in chartly.html. Note that you can persist chart designs in JSON as well as XML, but only XML can be read back to puzzle pieces (the JSON is meant for run-time rendering of a chart).

JSON chart specification

The JSON used to specify instructions for rendering a chart follow a simple structure. A 'command' is written as an array with two elements: the command identifier and its parameters (if any). Commands can (and usually are) nested. An example of JSON produced by Chartly.js is the following:

["align", {
	"vertical":"middle",
	"horizontal":"middle",
	"child": ["text", {
		"text": ["string", "Hello world"],
		"child":null,
		"next":null
	}],
	"next":null
}]

The example JSON above renders the text 'Hello world' in the center of the canvas. The root command is align (with parameters vertical=middle and horizontal=middle). The align command takes a sub- command for the child parameter, which is in this case is the text command. The text command takes a sub-command that specifies the actual text to render (in this case a string). Sibling items can be inserted using the next parameter and child items using the child item, but this is not the case in the example.

Contact

• Tommy van der Vorst
• Twitter: @tommyvdv
• Web: http://pixelspark.nl

License

Copyright (c) 2015 Tommy van der Vorst

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

This repository includes a compiled version of Blockly, which is used under the Apache License 2.0. It also includes a compiled version of d3.js, which is used under a BSD license. See the LICENSE file for additional details.