vis.js is a dynamic, browser-based visualization library

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vis.js

Vis.js is a dynamic, browser based visualization library. The library is designed to be easy to use, handle large amounts of dynamic data, and enable manipulation of the data. The library consists of the following components:

DataSet and DataView. A flexible key/value based data set. Add, update, and remove items. Subscribe on changes in the data set. A DataSet can filter and order items, and convert fields of items.
DataView. A filtered and/or formatted view on a DataSet.
Graph2d. Plot data on a timeline with lines or barcharts.
Graph3d. Display data in a three dimensional graph.
Network. Display a network (force directed graph) with nodes and edges.
Timeline. Display different types of data on a timeline.

The vis.js library is developed by Almende B.V.

Install

Install via npm:

npm install vis

Install via bower:

bower install vis

Or download the library from the github project: https://github.com/almende/vis.git.

Load

To use a component, include the javascript and css files of vis in your web page:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="components/vis/dist/vis.js"></script>
  <link href="components/vis/dist/vis.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
  <script type="text/javascript">
    // ... load a visualization
  </script>
</body>
</html>

or load vis.js using require.js. Note that vis.css must be loaded too.

require.config({
  paths: {
    vis: 'path/to/vis/dist',
  }
});
require(['vis'], function (math) {
  // ... load a visualization
});

A timeline can be instantiated as:

var timeline = new vis.Timeline(container, data, options);

Where container is an HTML element, data is an Array with data or a DataSet, and options is an optional object with configuration options for the component.

Example

A basic example on loading a Timeline is shown below. More examples can be found in the examples directory of the project.

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
  <title>Timeline basic demo</title>
  <script src="vis/dist/vis.js"></script>
  <link href="vis/dist/vis.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

  <style type="text/css">
    body, html {
      font-family: sans-serif;
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="visualization"></div>

<script type="text/javascript">
  var container = document.getElementById('visualization');
  var data = [
    {id: 1, content: 'item 1', start: '2013-04-20'},
    {id: 2, content: 'item 2', start: '2013-04-14'},
    {id: 3, content: 'item 3', start: '2013-04-18'},
    {id: 4, content: 'item 4', start: '2013-04-16', end: '2013-04-19'},
    {id: 5, content: 'item 5', start: '2013-04-25'},
    {id: 6, content: 'item 6', start: '2013-04-27'}
  ];
  var options = {};
  var timeline = new vis.Timeline(container, data, options);
</script>
</body>
</html>

Build

To build the library from source, clone the project from github

git clone git://github.com/almende/vis.git

The source code uses the module style of node (require and module.exports) to organize dependencies. To install all dependencies and build the library, run npm install in the root of the project.

cd vis
npm install

Then, the project can be build running:

npm run build

To automatically rebuild on changes in the source files, once can use

npm run watch

This will both build and minify the library on changes. Minifying is relatively slow, so when only the non-minified library is needed, one can use the watch-dev script instead:

npm run watch-dev

Custom builds

The folder dist contains bundled versions of vis.js for direct use in the browser. These bundles contain the all visualizations and includes external dependencies such as hammer.js and moment.js.

The source code of vis.js consists of commonjs modules, which makes it possible to create custom bundles using tools like Browserify or Webpack. This can be bundling just one visualization like the Timeline, or bundling vis.js as part of your own browserified web application.

Note that hammer.js version 1 is required (v1.0.6-v1.1.3), version 2 is not yet supported.

Prerequisites

Before you can do a build:

Install node.js, npm, and browserify on your system.
Download or clone the vis.js project.
Install the dependencies of vis.js by running npm install in the root of the project.

Example 1: Bundle a single visualization

For example, to create a bundle with just the Timeline and DataSet, create an index file named custom.js in the root of the project, containing:

exports.DataSet = require('./lib/DataSet');
exports.Timeline = require('./lib/timeline/Timeline');

Install browserify globally via [sudo] npm install -g browserify, then create a custom bundle like:

browserify custom.js -o vis-custom.js -s vis

This will generate a custom bundle vis-custom.js, which exposes the namespace vis containing only DataSet and Timeline. The generated bundle can be minified with uglifyjs (installed globally with [sudo] npm install -g uglify-js):

uglifyjs vis-custom.js -o vis-custom.min.js

The custom bundle can now be loaded like:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="vis-custom.min.js"></script>
  <link href="dist/vis.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
  ...
</body>
</html>

Example 2: Exclude external libraries

The default bundle vis.js is standalone and includes external dependencies such as hammer.js and moment.js. When these libraries are already loaded by the application, vis.js does not need to include these dependencies itself too. To build a custom bundle of vis.js excluding moment.js and hammer.js, run browserify in the root of the project:

browserify index.js -o vis-custom.js -s vis -x moment -x hammerjs

This will generate a custom bundle vis-custom.js, which exposes the namespace vis, and has moment and hammerjs excluded. The generated bundle can be minified with uglifyjs:

uglifyjs vis-custom.js -o vis-custom.min.js

The custom bundle can now be loaded as:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
  <!-- load external dependencies -->
  <script src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/moment.js/2.7.0/moment.min.js"></script>
  <script src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/hammer.js/1.1.3/hammer.min.js"></script>

  <!-- load vis.js -->
  <script src="vis-custom.min.js"></script>
  <link href="dist/vis.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
  ...
</body>
</html>

Example 3: Bundle vis.js as part of your (commonjs) application

When writing a web application with commonjs modules, vis.js can be packaged automatically into the application. Create a file app.js containing:

var moment = require('moment');
var DataSet = require('vis/lib/DataSet');
var Timeline = require('vis/lib/timeline/Timeline');

var container = document.getElementById('visualization');
var data = new DataSet([
  {id: 1, content: 'item 1', start: moment('2013-04-20')},
  {id: 2, content: 'item 2', start: moment('2013-04-14')},
  {id: 3, content: 'item 3', start: moment('2013-04-18')},
  {id: 4, content: 'item 4', start: moment('2013-04-16'), end: moment('2013-04-19')},
  {id: 5, content: 'item 5', start: moment('2013-04-25')},
  {id: 6, content: 'item 6', start: moment('2013-04-27')}
]);
var options = {};
var timeline = new Timeline(container, data, options);

Install the application dependencies via npm:

npm install vis moment

The application can be bundled and minified:

browserify app.js -o app-bundle.js
uglifyjs app-bundle.js -o app-bundle.min.js

And loaded into a webpage:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
  <link href="node_modules/vis/dist/vis.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
  <div id="visualization"></div>
  
  <script src="app-bundle.min.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Test

To test the library, install the project dependencies once:

npm install

Then run the tests:

npm test

License

Vis.js is dual licensed under both

The Apache 2.0 License http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

and

The MIT License http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

Vis.js may be distributed under either license.

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