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 via npm:
$ npm install vis
Install via bower:
$ bower install vis
Link via cdnjs: http://cdnjs.com
Or download the library from the github project: https://github.com/almende/vis.git.
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.
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>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
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 2 is required as of v4.
Before you can do a build:
-
Install node.js and npm on your system: https://nodejs.org/
-
Install the following modules using npm:
browserify,babelify, anduglify-js:$ [sudo] npm install -g browserify babelify uglify-js -
Download or clone the vis.js project:
$ git clone https://github.com/almende/vis.git -
Install the dependencies of vis.js by running
npm installin the root of the project:$ cd vis $ npm install
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');Then create a custom bundle using browserify, like:
$ browserify custom.js -t babelify -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 using uglifyjs:
$ 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>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 -t babelify -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>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 -t babelify
$ 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>To test the library, install the project dependencies once:
$ npm install
Then run the tests:
$ npm test
Copyright (C) 2010-2015 Almende B.V.
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.