1.Integration with amCharts

This guide describes how to integrate Flexmonster with amCharts – a JavaScript library for interactive data visualization.

Note that the approach described in the tutorial works only for amCharts 4. To integrate Flexmonster with older amCharts versions, follow this guide: Integration with any charting library.

See the sections below to integrate Flexmonster with the amCharts library:

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

Supported chart types

Data preprocessed by Flexmonster Connector for amCharts is of the array of objects format. All amCharts chart types accept this data format, so Flexmonster supports all of them.

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 web page 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>
    var pivot = new Flexmonster({
        container: "pivotContainer",
        componentFolder: "https://cdn.flexmonster.com/",
        height: 300,
        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

To use the amCharts functionality, include amCharts files to your web page:

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

Including files directly to the webpage is one of the possible ways to add amCharts. Refer to the amCharts installation guide for other options of adding amCharts.

Step 3. Add Flexmonster Connector for amCharts

Flexmonster Connector for amCharts provides ready-to-use methods for easy and smooth integration with amCharts. Include it to your web page with the following lines 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="amchartsContainer"></div>

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:

var pivot = new Flexmonster({
    container: "#pivotContainer",
    componentFolder: "https://cdn.flexmonster.com/",
    report: {
       // the 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. Create a variable for the chart

Declare a variable to work with the chart instance:

let chart;

Note that the variable should be visible to functions that draw and redraw the chart.

Step 7. Request data from the component

The connector for amCharts extends the Flexmonster API with the amcharts.getData() method, which requests data from the component and structures it to the format required by amCharts. Call the amcharts.getData() method to get data from the component:

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

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

See more details about the amcharts.getData() method.

Step 8. Create a function to draw the chart

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

function drawChart(chartData, rawData) {
    // initialize the chart
    var chart = am4core.create("amchartsContainer", am4charts.PieChart);
    //fill the chart with the data from Flexmonster
    chart.data = chartData.data;
    chart.legend = new am4charts.Legend();
    // Create pie series
    var series = chart.series.push(new am4charts.PieSeries());
    series.dataFields.category = pivot.amcharts.getCategoryName(rawData);
    series.dataFields.value = pivot.amcharts.getMeasureNameByIndex(rawData, 0);
}

Notice the following lines in the code snippet:

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

The amcharts.getCategoryName() method is used to set the category name for the amCharts Category axis. Learn more about how the method chooses the category name.

Then, getMeasureNameByIndex() sets the value for the Value axis.

For more details on how the pie chart is created, see the amCharts documentations.

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, and so on):

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

When the data is updated, the function will dispose of the current chart and draw a new chart based on the updated data.

Step 10. See the results

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

Preparing data for the chart

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

The amcharts.getData() method returns data in the format required by amCharts, namely an array of objects. For example:

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

The object contains only one category field and all the measures presented in the slice.

The field to represent the category is chosen as follows:

If the slice.rows array contains some fields, the first field from rows is chosen to be the category.
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 getMeasureNameByIndex() method can be used to select the category for series.

Configuring number formatting

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

When the formatting string is prepared by the method, the following properties of the Format Object 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 configurations set in the Format Object, 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).

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