Have you ever wanted to add data visualizations to a JavaScript project? While there are ways of doing this with only the JavaScript standard libraries, it is fair to say that this process would likely be painstaking and not an effective implementation. Luckily, there are several libraries available to help make this process easier. One such library, and one of my favorites, is Chart.js.
Chart.js is a simple yet flexible library that makes creating data visualizations easy, as well as gives ways of updating them. It is an open source library, and has excellent performance in all modern browsers. One of the best features of Chart.js is that it will automatically redraw your chart(s) on window resize for appropriate scales.
Chart.js has support for 8 different families of charts, including Area Charts, Bar Charts, Bubble Charts, Doughnut/Pie Charts, Line Charts, Polar Area Charts, Radar Charts, Scatter Charts, and Mixed Chart Types. Additionally, there are sub styles of each chart family available, so you can select the appropriate chart depending on the data that you need to visualize. For example the Bar Chart family includes Horizontal Bar Chart, Stack Bar Chart, Vertical Bar Chart, and many more.
Charts implemented with Chart.js are interactive. One such interactive feature is the ability for the user to hover the mouse cursor over a specific data point on the chart, and see the exact value in a small pop-up box. Chart.js also supports multiple scales, including linear, logarithmic, as well as time scales. The legend for your Chart.js charts is also highly customizable, and even supports event hooks for features such as highlighting chart elements when the corresponding element is hovered in the legend. Chart.js even supports animated charts which can add an even greater level of presentation to your project’s data visualizations.
To learn more about Chart.js, I suggest installing it today and heading on over to the documentation to get started.