Adding a new graphic

You can add new formats to LODEX via Vega-Lite or Vega

Before adding a new graphic you need to know how to add a new format

Table of Contents

• Adding a Vega-Lite graphic
  • Code organization (folder)
  • Creating the models
  • Create the view
• Adding a Vega graphic
• Helper

Adding a Vega-Lite graphic

Code organization (folder)

• Formats folder: src/app/js/formats/vega-lite/component
• Models builder folder: src/app/js/formats/vega-lite/models
• Models json folder: src/app/js/formats/vega-lite/models/json

Definition:

• Formats are just a format
• Models builder are a javascript class that dynamically edit json Models
• Models json are json file with the vega-lite spefication write into

Creating the models

Before create the models builder you need to create a Vega-Lite specification with Vega-Lite Editor, after creating specification add it into the Models json folder with .vl.json for the file extension.

When specification is created, a builder must be constructed into the Models builder folder. This builder needs to extended the BasicChart.js . You need also to import you json into your builder with using require.

After this step: your code must be close to this

note: buildSpec comes from BasicChart. widthIn is the size of the html container

import BasicChart from './BasicChart';

class MyChart extends BasicChart {
    construtor() {
        super();
        this.model = require('./json/mychart.vl.json');
    }

    myFunction(parametter) {
        /*

        beautiful code here

        */
    }

    buildSpec(widthIn) {
        /*

        beautiful code here

        */
        return this.model;
    }
}

When you have your builder, a new format needs to be create in the corresponding folder.

Create the view

With vega lite's builder, the view needs to be handle with a specific code (only in render and mapStateToProps).

mapStateToProps

The mapStateToProps needs to reorganized the data before being used by Vega-Lite.

const mapStateToProps = (state, { formatData }) => {
    // return an empty object if formatData is undefined (this can be change if you need to edit data)
    if (!formatData) {
        return {};
    }
    // return the data with a normalized data format
    return {
        data: {
            values: formatData,
        },
    };
};

render

When you start the render of your graphic you need to create a new instance of your builder but this instance needs to be instantly deepClone to avoid the duplication of graph specification.

const myChart = deepClone(new MyChart());

For the return you need to use ContainerDimensions for building the graphic in the return statement.

The render function must to look like that

render() {
    // Get the data from mapStateToProps
    const data = this.props.data;

    // Create a new MyChart instance

    const myChart = deepClone(new MyChart());

    // Set all MyChart parameters chosed by the administrator

    myChart.myFunction(this.props.parametter);

    return (
        <div style={styles.container}>
            <ContainerDimensions>
                {/* Make the chart responsive */}
                {({ width }) => {
                    const spec = myChart.buildSpec(width);
                    return (
                        <CustomActionVegaLite
                            spec={spec}
                            data={data}
                            injectType={VEGA_LITE_DATA_INJECT_TYPE_A}
                        />
                    );
                }}
            </ContainerDimensions>
        </div>
    );
}

Note on injectType: Most of the time you need to use VEGA_LITE_DATA_INJECT_TYPE_A for the injection type, because it's using the normalized data injection but in some case it can't be use. If that case is encountered you must do create a new INJECT_TYPE. Inside of CustomActionVegaLite you add your new data injection type within the existing code.

Adding a Vega graphic

For Vega is the same step like preceding but parts of it are different:

• Formats folder: src/app/js/formats/vega/component
• Models builder folder: src/app/js/formats/vega/models
• Models json folder: src/app/js/formats/vega/models/json
• Vega Editor
• BasicChart.js do not exist for the Vega version but normally you can extended it
• Instead of CustomActionVegaLite use CustomActionVega
• Instead of vl.json use vg.json

Helper

• ToolTips.js

  • ToolTips.js provide an eays way to manage custom tool tip in your code
    • This class provide support for tooltip with 2 or 3 field
  • Exemple: PieChartAdmin.js

• chartUtils.js

  • chartUtils.js is a directory that contains a lot of useful constants/functions to standardize the code.
  • List of useful constants/functions
    • lodexScaleToIdScale: Convert the scale notation of lodex into an ID
    • lodexOrderToIdOrder: Convert the value order notation of lodex into an ID
    • VALUES_ASC: ID for an order by value with an ascending direction
    • And more...
  • Exemple: BarChartView.js