Integration with any charting library

This tutorial explains how to connect WebDataRocks to a third-party charting library, such as Chart.js, ApexCharts, ECharts, or D3.js.

WebDataRocks can be integrated with charting libraries using the getData() API call, which returns data displayed on the grid. Then, you need to preprocess the data to a format required by your charting library and pass it to the chart.

In this tutorial, we will integrate with Chart.js, but the steps are similar for other libraries.

Note that if you are integrating with amCharts, Highcharts, FusionCharts, or Google Charts, use our ready-to-use connectors that will automatically process the data. Check out the list of available tutorials.

Step 1. Add WebDataRocks to your project

Step 1.1. Complete the integration guide. Your code of the component with WebDatarocks should look similar to the following:

<script setup>
  import { Pivot } from "@webdatarocks/vue-webdatarocks";
  import "@webdatarocks/webdatarocks/webdatarocks.css";
</script>

<template>
  <div>
    <Pivot
     toolbar
    />
  </div>
</template>

Step 1.2. Create a report for WebDataRocks — connect to the data source and define which fields should be displayed in rows, columns, and measures:

<script setup>
  import { Pivot } from "@webdatarocks/vue-webdatarocks";
  import "@webdatarocks/webdatarocks/webdatarocks.css";

  const report = {
    dataSource: {
      filename: "https://cdn.webdatarocks.com/data/data.csv",
    },
    slice: {
      rows: [
        {
          uniqueName: "Country",
        },
      ],
      columns: [
        {
          uniqueName: "Measures",
        },
      ],
      measures: [
        {
          uniqueName: "Price",
          aggregation: "sum",
        },
      ],
    },
  };
</script>

<template>
  <div>
    <Pivot
     toolbar
     v-bind:report="report"
    />
  </div>
</template>

The fields you’ve specified in the report will be shown on the chart.

Step 2. Get a reference to the WebDataRocks instance

Some of WebDataRocks methods and events are needed to create a chart. Using a reference to the WebDataRocks instance, we can access WebDataRocks API.

Get the reference as follows:

<script setup>
  // ...
  import { ref } from "vue";
  
  const pivotRef = ref(null);

  // ...
</script>

<template>
  <div>
    <Pivot
     ref="pivotRef"
     toolbar
     v-bind:report="report"
    />
</template>

Now it’s possible to interact with the component through pivotRef.value.webdatarocks.

Step 3. Add a charting library

Note that this tutorial integrates WebDataRocks with Chart.js. The following steps may vary depending on your charting library.

Step 3.1. Install the npm package with your charting library. For example:

npm install vue-chartjs

Step 3.2. Import the charting library into your component:

// ...

import { PolarArea } from "vue-chartjs";
import {
  Chart as ChartJS,
  RadialLinearScale,
  ArcElement,
  Tooltip,
  Legend,
} from "chart.js";

ChartJS.register(RadialLinearScale, ArcElement, Tooltip, Legend);

Step 3.3. Add a container for your chart in the template of the component:

<PolarArea/>

Step 3.4. Create a reference to store the chart:

const chartData = ref({
  labels: [],
  datasets: [
    {
      data: [],
    },
  ],
});

We will pass the data from the component to chartData in step 4.3.

Step 4. Integrate WebDataRocks with the charting library

In this step, we will use the getData() API call. This method was added especially for integration with third-part charting libraries; using it, you can request data from WebDataRocks and pass it to a charting library.

Step 4.1. If we call the getData() method before WebDataRocks is fully loaded, it will return an empty result. To know when WebDataRocks is ready to provide data for the chart, handle the reportcomplete event:

<script setup>
// ...

function reportComplete () {
  // Unsubscribing from reportcomplete
  // We need it only to track the initialization of WebDataRocks
  pivotRef.value.webdatarocks.off("reportcomplete");
  createChart();
}
</script>

<template>
  <div>
    <Pivot
     ref="pivotRef"
     toolbar
     v-bind:report="report"
     v-bind:reportcomplete="reportComplete"
    />
    <PolarArea v-bind:data="chartData" />
  </div>
</template>

Step 4.2. Implement the createChart() function using the getData() API call:

function createChart() {
  if (pivotRef.value) {
    pivotRef.value.webdatarocks.getData(
      {},
      // Function called when data for the chart is ready
      drawChart,
      // Function called on report changes (filtering, sorting, etc.) 
      drawChart
    );
  };
};

Step 4.3. Implement the drawChart() function specified in the previous step. This function will initialize the chart, set all the configurations specific to this chart type, and fill it with the data provided by WebDataRocks:

function drawChart(rawData) {
  const { labels, values } = prepareData(rawData); // This function will be implemented in step 4

  // Configuring the chart and filling it with data
  chartData.value = {
    labels: labels,
    datasets: [
      {
        data: values,
        backgroundColor: [
          "rgba(255, 99, 132, 0.5)",
          "rgba(54, 162, 235, 0.5)",
          "rgba(255, 206, 86, 0.5)",
          "rgba(75, 192, 192, 0.5)",
          "rgba(153, 102, 255, 0.5)",
          "rgba(255, 159, 64, 0.5)",
      ],
      },
    ],
  };
};

Step 5. Prepare the data

getData() API call returns an object (e.g., rawData) that contains the data from the grid and its metadata. The metadata includes a number of fields in rows and columns in the slice, an array of format objects, etc. Read more about the getData() response.

Here is an example of the rawData.data array returned by getData(). This data is based on the slice that was defined in the step 1.2:

data: [
  { v0: 6221870 }, // Grand total
  { r0: "Australia", v0: 1372281 },
  { r0: "France", v0: 1117794 },
  { r0: "Germany", v0: 1070453 },
  { r0: "Canada", v0: 1034112 },
  { r0: "United States", v0: 847331 },
  { r0: "United Kingdom", v0: 779899 }
]

This raw data now must be transformed to match the data format required by your charting library, in our case — Chart.js. Let’s create a function that will preprocess the data, for example, prepareData().

We are passing data to the data.labels and data.datasets properties, where data.labels contains field members and data.datasets contains values. Read more in the Chart.js documentation.

The prepareData() function for Chart.js will look similar to the following:

const prepareData = (rawData) => {
  const labels = rawData.data.filter((rec) => rec.r0 && rec.v0).map((rec) => rec.r0);
  const values = rawData.data.filter((rec) => rec.r0 && rec.v0).map((rec) => rec.v0);

  return { labels, values };
};

prepareData() must return an object with the data that can be used by your charting library. The example shows the returned object for Chart.js:

{ 
  labels: ["Australia", "France", "Germany", "Canada", "United States", "United Kingdom"], 
  values: [1372281, 1117794, 1070453, 1034112, 847331, 779899] 
}

Step 6. Pass the data to the chart

When the data is ready to be used by your charting library, pass the data to the chart container that was created in step 3.3:

<PolarArea v-bind:data="chartData" />

Step 7. Run the project

Run your project with the following command:

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173/ in the browser to see how the pivot table looks in combination with Chart.js.

Try filtering the data, changing measures, and adjusting aggregation functions — the chart will be updated at once.

Check out the full code

After completing this tutorial, the full code of the integration should look as follows:

<script setup>
  import { Pivot } from "@webdatarocks/vue-webdatarocks";
  import "@webdatarocks/webdatarocks/webdatarocks.css";
  import { ref } from "vue";

  import { PolarArea } from "vue-chartjs";
  import {
    Chart as ChartJS,
    RadialLinearScale,
    ArcElement,
    Tooltip,
    Legend,
  } from "chart.js";

  ChartJS.register(RadialLinearScale, ArcElement, Tooltip, Legend);

  const pivotRef = ref(null);

  const chartData = ref({
    labels: [],
    datasets: [
      {
        data: [],
      },
    ],
  });

  const report = {
      dataSource: {
        filename: "https://cdn.webdatarocks.com/data/data.csv",
      },
      slice: {
        rows: [
          {
            uniqueName: "Country",
          },
        ],
        columns: [
          {
            uniqueName: "Measures",
          },
        ],
        measures: [
          {
            uniqueName: "Price",
            aggregation: "sum",
          },
        ],
      },
    };

  function reportComplete () {
    // Unsubscribing from reportcomplete
    // We need it only to track the initialization of WebDataRocks
    pivotRef.value.webdatarocks.off("reportcomplete");
    createChart();
  };

  function createChart() {
    if (pivotRef.value) {
      pivotRef.value.webdatarocks.getData(
        {},
        drawChart, 
        drawChart
      );
    };
  };

  function drawChart(rawData) {
    const { labels, values } = prepareDataFunction(rawData);

    chartData.value = {
      labels: labels,
      datasets: [
        {
          data: values,
          backgroundColor: [
            "rgba(255, 99, 132, 0.5)",
            "rgba(54, 162, 235, 0.5)",
            "rgba(255, 206, 86, 0.5)",
            "rgba(75, 192, 192, 0.5)",
            "rgba(153, 102, 255, 0.5)",
            "rgba(255, 159, 64, 0.5)",
         ],
       },
      ],
    };
  };

  const prepareDataFunction = (rawData) => {
    const labels = rawData.data.filter((rec) => rec.r0 && rec.v0).map((rec) => rec.r0);
    const values = rawData.data.filter((rec) => rec.r0 && rec.v0).map((rec) => rec.v0);

    return { labels, values };
  };
</script>

<template>
  <div>
    <Pivot
       ref="pivotRef"
       toolbar
       v-bind:report="report"
       v-bind:reportcomplete="reportComplete"
    />
    <PolarArea v-bind:data="chartData" />
  </div>
</template> 

See also

• getData()