Integration with amCharts

This guide shows how to integrate Flexmonster with amCharts — a JavaScript library for interactive data visualization. Flexmonster supports amCharts 5 and amCharts 4.

This tutorial is split into the following sections:

• Supported chart types
• Adding amCharts
• Preparing data for the chart
• Configuring number formatting

Supported chart types

Flexmonster supports all chart types available in amCharts 5 and amCharts 4.

Visit the Examples page for ready-to-use examples of integration with different chart types.

Adding amCharts

The steps below describe how to create a pie chart based on data received from the component. To integrate Flexmonster with other chart types, refer to the amCharts documentation.

Step 1. Embed the component into your webpage

Add Flexmonster to your webpage and configure a simple report (e.g., based on a JSON or CSV data source). Replace "XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX" with your license key. If you don’t have a license key, contact our team and request a special trial key.

<div id="pivotContainer">The component will appear here</div>
<script src="https://cdn.flexmonster.com/flexmonster.js"></script>

<script>
  const pivot = new Flexmonster({
    container: "pivotContainer",
    componentFolder: "https://cdn.flexmonster.com/",
    report: {
      dataSource: {
        filename: "data/data.csv"
      },
      slice: {
        rows: [
          { uniqueName: "Country" }
        ],
        columns: [
          { uniqueName: "Color" },
          { uniqueName: "[Measures]" }
        ],
        measures: [
          { uniqueName: "Price" }
        ]
      }
    },
    licenseKey: "XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX"
  });
</script>

Step 2. Add amCharts files

Include the amCharts files to your webpage:

<script src="https://cdn.amcharts.com/lib/5/index.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.amcharts.com/lib/5/percent.js"></script>

<script src="https://cdn.amcharts.com/lib/4/core.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.amcharts.com/lib/4/charts.js"></script>

Step 3. Add Flexmonster Connector for amCharts

Flexmonster Connector for amCharts provides ready-to-use methods for easy and smooth integration with amCharts. Add it to your webpage with the following line of code:

<script src="https://cdn.flexmonster.com/lib/flexmonster.amcharts.js"></script> 

Step 4. Add a container for amCharts

Add a container for the chart:

<div id="chartContainer"></div>

Note If you are integrating with amCharts 5, explicitly set the height for your container in CSS styles. Otherwise, the created chart will not be visible.

Step 5. Add a reportcomplete event handler

A chart should be created only when the component is ready to provide the data. To track this, use the reportcomplete event:

const pivot = new Flexmonster({
  container: "pivotContainer",
  componentFolder: "https://cdn.flexmonster.com/",
  report: {
    // Report from the 1st step
  },
  licenseKey: "XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX",
  reportcomplete: function() {
    pivot.off("reportcomplete");
    createChart();
  }
});  

When data loading is complete, the event handler will invoke the createChart() function to draw the chart. The implementation of the createChart() function is given below.

Step 6. Request data from the component

The Connector for amCharts provides the amcharts.getData() method, which requests data from the component and returns it as an array of objects. Call the amcharts.getData() method to get data from the component:

function createChart() {
  pivot.amcharts.getData({}, drawChart, updateChart);
}

Data returned by the amcharts.getData() method contains fields specified in the report.slice object. If the amcharts.getData() method gets a slice as a parameter, the data is prepared according to it.

Step 7. Create a global variable to work with the chart instance

Declare a global variable that will be used to draw and update the chart:

const root = am5.Root.new("chartContainer");

let chart;

Step 8. Create a function to draw the chart

The drawChart() function initializes the chart, configures it, and fills the chart with data provided by the amcharts.getData() method:

function drawChart(chartConfig, rawData) {
  // Create the chart
  let chart = root.container.children.push(
    am5percent.PieChart.new(root, {})
  );

  // Create and configure pie series
  let series = chart.series.push(
    am5percent.PieSeries.new(root, {
      valueField: pivot.amcharts.getMeasureNameByIndex(rawData, 0),
      categoryField: pivot.amcharts.getCategoryName(rawData),
     });
  );
  series.slices.template.setAll({
    stroke: am5.color("#fff"),
    strokeWidth: 2,
  });
  series.labels.template.setAll({
    fontSize: 12
  });

  // Fill the chart with the data from Flexmonster
  series.data.setAll(chartConfig.data);
}

am5percent.PieSeries.new(root, {
  categoryField: pivot.amcharts.getCategoryName(rawData),
  valueField: pivot.amcharts.getMeasureNameByIndex(rawData, 0),
});

function drawChart(chartData, rawData) {
  // Initialize the chart
  chart = am4core.create("chartContainer", am4charts.PieChart);

  // Fill the chart with the data from Flexmonster
  chart.data = chartData.data;

  // Create and configure pie series
  let series = chart.series.push(new am4charts.PieSeries());
  series.dataFields.category = pivot.amcharts.getCategoryName(rawData);
  series.dataFields.value = pivot.amcharts.getMeasureNameByIndex(rawData, 0);
  series.slices.template.stroke = am4core.color("#fff");
  series.slices.template.strokeWidth = 2;
  series.labels.template.fontSize = 12;
}

series.dataFields.category = pivot.amcharts.getCategoryName(rawData);
series.dataFields.value = pivot.amcharts.getMeasureNameByIndex(rawData, 0);

Step 9. Create a function to update the chart

Create a function that will redraw the chart once the report is updated (e.g., when the data is filtered, sorted, etc.):

function updateChart(chartConfig, rawData) {
  root.container.children.clear();
  drawChart(chartConfig, rawData);
}

function updateChart(chartConfig, rawData) { 
  chart.dispose();
  drawChart(chartConfig, rawData);
}

When the data is updated, this function will redraw the chart based on the updated data.

Step 10. See the results

Launch your webpage from a browser and see an interactive pie chart displaying data from the component. Check out a live example on JSFiddle:

• Flexmonster with amCharts 5
• Flexmonster with amCharts 4

Preparing data for the chart

This section explains how Flexmonster Connector for amCharts preprocesses data for the chart.

The amcharts.getData() method returns data as a JSON array of objects:

[
  {
    "categoryName": "value",
    "measureName 1": "value",
    …
    "measureName n": "value",
  }
  …
]

Each object in the array contains only one category field as well as all the measures from the slice.

A field to represent the category is chosen as follows:

1. If the slice.rows array contains some fields, the first field from rows is chosen to be the category.
2. If the slice.rows array is empty and the slice.columns array contains some fields, the first field from columns is chosen as the category.

If both slice.rows and slice.columns are empty, then no category is available, and amcharts.getCategoryName() will return undefined.

In such cases, the amcharts.getMeasureNameByIndex() method can be used to select the category for the series.

Configuring number formatting

The Connector allows using a number format set via the FormatObject for amCharts as well. The amcharts.getNumberFormatPattern() method converts the FormatObject received from the component to the amCharts number formatting string.

When the formatting string is prepared by the method, the following properties of the FormatObject are considered:

• decimalPlaces
• maxDecimalPlaces
• negativeNumberFormat (only the -1 and (1) formats are available)
• currencySymbol
• positiveCurrencyFormat
• negativeCurrencyFormat (only the $-1, -1$, ($1), (1$) formats are available)
• isPercent

Regardless of the configuration set in the FormatObject, the thousandsSeparator and decimalSeparator format parameters always have constant values. These values are , for thousandsSeparator and . for decimalSeparator. amCharts imposes this limitation as it uses predefined separators for decimals and thousands.

Here is an example of the formatting string returned by the amcharts.getNumberFormatPattern() method:

'$'#,###.00|'($'#,###.00')'

The part of the string before | defines the positive number format. The part of the string after | defines the negative number format. For example, 1205 will be shown as $1,205.00, and -1205 will be shown as ($1,205.00).

What's next?

• API reference of Flexmonster Connector for amCharts
• Configure the data source
• Customize the Toolbar
• Add localization
• Apply a CSS theme