Chart.js Tutorial

What is Chart.js?

Chart.js is an open-source JavaScript library on Github that allows you to draw different types of charts by using the HTML5 canvas element. Since it uses Canvas, you have to include a polyfill to support older browsers.

Charts.js Installation Guide

Why do we use Chart.js?

Whenever we need to add any type of chart or graph in our project we can add those by the use of Chart.js.

• Its installation process is very easy and it helps in monitoring every kind of graph and bar.
• It has many features like we can change font size according to our visual needs.
• We can colors to make a difference between different charts.
• It can change the layout according to ourselves.
• We can add animations also. tooltip can be added in bar graphs for the presentation of any data.
• Last, but not least, It is open-source and it has a very big community that helps to maintain its version and bugs.

Features

• It provides a set of frequently used chart types, bar graphs, plugins, and many customization options.
• We can use more than one chart type in the same canvas and customize it.
• You can also use a community-maintained chart type if you do not want to customize it.
• We can customize charts by blending chart types, font sizes, layouts, colors, tooltips, etc.

Integration

ChartJS already has built-in Typescript typings. It can be used with all frameworks of JavaScript for e.g. React, Vue, Svelte, and Angular. Chart.js also provides links to CDN and jsDelivr so that it can be easily integrated into any type of project. It also provides an npm package so that it can be directly installed into your system and can be integrated with your system.

Chart.js General

IT is rendered on the screen via the canvas element of the developer. we can create any type of chart by the use of Chart.js having any type of customization and visuals. We can add content to that but that content is not accessible to the user through the screen. so the canvas is accessible in all the web browsers but not its content. that’s why Chart.js provides many other attributes to do so. This is only one example out of many. more There are many other features provided by Chart.js, that we are going to discuss below.

Features	Description
General Accessibility	It ensures the accessibility rendered on user-provided canvas elements. Users can add accessibility features like ARIA attributes or fallback content within the canvas elements.
General Colors	It allows color customization in the charts. For the geometric elements like lines and bars, we can set background and border colors and for the Text elements such as labels and titles, we can set the font colors.
General Data structures	It is the backbone of chat.js or any other charting library, with the help of data structures we can determine how data is organized, manipulated, and finally displayed in the chats.
General Fonts	It is the global font settings that can be applied in the visual chart allowing to style of the text elements. Using this setting we can customize the text element.
General Options	It provides us the options for change or customize the chart level, Dataset level, Dataset animation options, Dataset element level options, Scale options, Plugin options, etc.
General Padding	It can be used to provide a border around the chart or to make sure that none of its components are placed too close to the canvas’ edges.
General Performance	Chart.js charts are speedily rendered thanks to their utilization of canvas elements. This choice of rendering contributes to swift performance, allowing for the creation of dynamic and visually appealing charts.

Chart.js Configuration

ChartJS Configuration is used to change the behaviour of chart by providing properties like fonts, styling, colors, the legend, etc. It has many properties those are describes below.

Features	Description
Configuration	It is used to change the behaviour of charts by provirding different types of properties.
Animations Configuration	It is the set of options to control the dynamic visualization effects in the Chart.js chart. This configuration contains animation settings, transitions, easing functions,etc.
Canvas background Configuration	It consists of setting options to control the visual appearance of the chart area. That help to change background properties like color.
Data Decimation Configuration	It is the feature developed for line charts, allowing us to reduce the data points automatically. By this, the chart’s performance and visuals are optimized in proper clear form.
Device Pixel Ratio Configuration	It allows the users to override the default pixel ratio of the window, which provides control over the rendering resolution of the chart canvas.
Elements Configuration	It provides us with the option to configure four types of elements: arcs, lines, points, and bars.
Interactions Configuration	It provides us the mode of interactions means it is responsible for handeling the events while intraction with charts.
Layout Configuration	It provides the configuration for the customize the layout globally.
Legend Configuration	It provides configuration for displaying the data about the datasets that are appearing on the chart.
Locale Configuration	It facilitates the locale option in order to set the numbers of ticks on scales in accordance with language-specific number convention formatting.
Responsive Charts Configuration	It helps in making the charts responsive according to the screen sizes.
Subtitle Configuration	It provides the option to add the second title below the main title.
Title Configuration	It manages the title of the chart.
Tooltip Configuration	It provides the configuration for adding the tooltip on the chart with many type of customizable properties

Chart.js Chart Types

ChartJS offers a diverse set of chart types, each designed to convey specific types of data effectively. It also helps to see the computed data at a glance, in order to analyze & make the required decision accordingly. With this, it enhances overall readability, & the user experience.

Features	Description
Area Chart	It is the type of chart that is mainly used to represent the data points over the continuous axis by filling the area or portion within the data line and the axis by making it a colored portion.
Bar Chart	It is a graph that uses rectangular bars to show data. The length of each bar corresponds to the value it represents, making it easy to compare several groupings quickly.
Bubble Chart	It is used to display the three-dimensional data or 3D data.
Doughnut and Pie Charts	It is the circular statistical-shaped chart that is used to display the data in rings, where each ring represents the data from the dataset.
Line Chart	It is a visual representation of data points connected by straight lines, depicting trends or patterns in a dataset over time or categories.
Mixed Chart Types	It is a single graphical representation in which multiple chart types are combined. Examples are line, bar, radar, and doughnut in a single chart.
Polar Area Chart	It is the type of chart that represents the data in a circular shape format which is quite similar to the pie chart.
Radar Chart	It is used to present the multivariate data in a spider-web-like format, which allows us to properly analyze and compare more than one quantitative variable in parallel.
Scatter Chart	It is a data visualization concept that allows users to represent and analyze the relationship between two numerical variables.

Chart.js Axes

It is an ntegral part of a chart. that determine how to map the data to a pixel va;ue on the chart. It basically deal with axes of all type of charts and provides default scaling. Also it is open to customize the scales of each type of charts having different axes. Many other type of axes are described below.

Features	Description
Axes	It is an integral part of Chart.js and it is used to determine the pixel value of the chart. There can be one or more X-axis and Y-axis. It provides the common and trick configuration for axes.
Cartesian Axes	It can be of many types and each type specifies the need of the value according to its name. For e.g. Category axis provides a label category to label the name of each point on the chart or graph.
Radial Axes	These are used mainly for the polar area, radar, and bubble charts. It has circular axis that runs around the boundaries of the chart, which shows the different kinds of data points at various distances from the center of the chart.
Labeling Axes	It is mainly used to make the charts more readable and informative. It provides various options to customize the labels of both X and Y axes, as well as other types of axes as we know for example radial axes.
Styling Axes	It helps to style the axes so that they can look good, rather than a boring chart. It allows us to customize the look of the grid lines, ticks, and borders or the chart.

Chart.js Developers

Chart.js Developer feature allow us to extend the feature of Chart.js. It extends the feature of customizing the chart by providing extra methods, properties and configurations. Types of developer features are described below in brief.

Features	Description
Developers	It extends the feature of Chart.js by providing the extra properties and configurations.
API Developer	It is a collection of methods, properties, and different events that we can use to create and manage the charts quite effectively.
New Axes Developer	It is used to extend and create custom axes by using the Chart.Scale class. Using this feature we can develop specific scales other than the standard one which is provided by Chart.js.
New Charts Developer	It provides the control over Dataset Interface, Extending Existing Chart Types, TyeScript typings, etc.
Contributing Developers	Chart.js is open to contribute, means if you want to add any more feature to it you can freely constribute to it by using there GitHub repository.
Plugins Developers	It provides the efficient way to customize or change the default behaviour of the chart by providing extra pluginss.
Publishing an extension Developers	It allows you to create extension for Chart.js.
TypeDoc Developers	It provides the list and documentation of Enumerations, Classes, Interfaces, etc.
Updating Charts Developers	It provides th eoptions for updating the data used in chart.

FAQs

1. What is Chart.js and what is its primary purpose?

Chart.js is an open-source JavaScript library that provides developers to create interactive charts and graphs on web pages. It’s primary purpose is to simply the data process of visualization of data by providing customizable various types of charts.

2. What are the key components require to integrate a Chart.js chart into a web page?

You can intergrate Chart.js with your project by installing it by the use of the npm package or by including the links provided by the Chart.js. you can refer this for installation of Chart.js into your project.

3. How can developers customize the appearance of a Chart.js chart?

They can customize the chart by the use of the configuration provided by the chart.js.

4. Explain the role of datasets in Chart.js chart.

Dataset in Chart.js represents the actual data points on the chart. It also shows the properties like color, font, etc.

5. How to Create Bubble and Soughnut Charts using Chart.js ?

You have to first integrate the Chart.js library into you project then by the help of the canvas tag you can add both the charts into your project. you can refer this for whole explanation.