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D3.js Quick Start Guide
D3.js Quick Start Guide

D3.js Quick Start Guide: Create amazing, interactive visualizations in the browser with JavaScript

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D3.js Quick Start Guide

Using SVG to Create Images Using Code

SVG elements are a way to create images within a web page and are the foundation of D3 and how it works. They use code to create shapes, rather than defining each pixel of an image. This chapter covers how to create various SVG elements within a web page. In it, we will cover the following topics:

  • Base tags
  • Basic elements
  • Positioning
  • Styling
  • Important SVG elements

The complete code for this section can be found here: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/D3.js-Quick-Start-Guide/tree/master/Chapter02.

Base tag

When viewing SVG graphics in a browser, it's important to embed an <svg> tag inside an HTML page. Let's create an index.html file and add the following to it:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<svg></svg>
</body>
</html>

Now start a web browser and open that file (usually, File | Open File). For this book, it is recommended that the reader use Google Chrome, but in development and production, any browser will do. If we inspect our HTML in the Elements tab of Chrome's Dev Tools (View | Developer | Developer Tools), we'll see the following:

Basic elements

We can draw elements in our <svg> element by adding a variety of predefined tags as child elements of the <svg>. This is just as we did in HTML, where we add <div>, <a>, and <img> tags inside the <body> tag. There are many tags, such as <circle>, <rect>, and <line>, that we'll explore in a bit. Here's just one example:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
    <head>
    </head>
    <body>
        <svg>
            <circle></circle>
        </svg>
    </body>
</html>

Note that we can't see the circle because it doesn't have a radius, as shown in this screenshot:

We'll talk more about this later, but, for now, if we want to see the circle, we can add a special attribute that all <circle>...

Positioning an element

The <svg> tag is an inline element, such as an image (as opposed to a block element such as a <div>). Elements within the <svg> are positioned similar to Photoshop, with a set of coordinates that follow the form (x,y). An example of this could be (10,15), which translates to x=10 and y=15. This is different than HTML, where elements are laid out relative to one another. Here are some important things to keep in mind:

  • The point (0,0) is the upper–left corner of the <svg> element.
  • As y values increase, the point moves vertically down the <svg> element.
  • Don't confuse this with a typical coordinate system that has (0,0) at the lower–left corner with a point moving up, as y increases in value. This diagram shows the difference between a traditional coordinate system and an SVG coordinate system:

We can use...

Styling an element

The appearance of any tag inside an <svg> can be styled with the following attributes (the following are the attributes with example values):

  • fill=red or fill=#ff0000 will alter the color of the shape.
  • stroke=red or stroke=#ff0000 will alter stroke color. Stroke is a line that surrounds each element.
  • stroke-width=4 will adjust the width of the stroke.
  • fill-opacity=0.5 will adjust the transparency of the fill color.
  • stroke-opacity=0.5 will adjust the transparency of the stroke color.
  • transform = "translate(2,3)" will translate the element by the given x, y values.
  • transform = "scale(2.1)" will scale the size of the element by the given proportion (for example, 2.1 times as big).
  • transform = "rotate(45)" will rotate the element by the given number of degrees.

Let's style the circle we positioned previously:

<circle...

Important SVG elements

To demonstrate each element, we'll use the following code as a starting point and then add each element inside the <svg> tag:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" dir="ltr">
    <head>
    </head>
    <body>
        <svg width=800 height=600>
        </svg>
    </body>
</html>

Let's now move on to each element. Note that you can write each tag in the form <element></element>, as we did with <circle></circle> previously, or the self-closing form, <element/>, which you will see next with <circle/>.

Circle

Circles have the following attributes:

  • r: radius
  • cx: x position
  • cy: y position...

Summary

In this chapter, we covered the basics of SVG (base tags, basic elements, positioning, and styling). We also looked at Bezier curves and how to draw organic shapes with them. We're now ready to learn how D3 can be used to modify these elements. In Chapter 3, Building an Interactive Scatter Plot, we will dive into the basics of D3.js and create an interactive scatter plot.

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Key benefits

  • Takes you through the most common graphs you'll need
  • Add interactivity to your visualizations
  • Easy to follow builds

Description

D3.js is a JavaScript library that allows you to create graphs and data visualizations in the browser with HTML, SVG, and CSS. This book will take you from the basics of D3.js, so that you can create your own interactive visualizations, to creating the most common graphs that you will encounter as a developer, scientist, statistician, or data scientist. The book begins with an overview of SVG, the basis for creating two-dimensional graphics in the browser. Once the reader has a firm understanding of SVG, we will tackle the basics of how to use D3.js to connect data to our SVG elements. We will start with a scatter plot that maps run data to circles on a graph, and expand our scatter plot to make it interactive. You will see how you can easily allow the users of your graph to create, edit, and delete run data by simply dragging and clicking the graph. Next, we will explore creating a bar graph, using external data from a mock API. After that, we will explore animations and motion with a bar graph, and use various physics-based forces to create a force-directed graph. Finally, we will look at how to use GeoJSON data to create a map.

Who is this book for?

This book is for web developers, interactive news developers, data scientists, and anyone interested in representing data through interactive visualizations on the Web with D3. Some basic knowledge of JavaScript is expected, but no prior experience with data visualization or D3 is required to follow this book.

What you will learn

  • Build a scatter plot
  • Build a bar graph
  • Build a pie chart
  • Build a force-directed graph
  • Build a map
  • Build interactivity into your graphs

Product Details

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Publication date : Sep 27, 2018
Length: 180 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789342383
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Product Details

Publication date : Sep 27, 2018
Length: 180 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789342383
Languages :
Tools :

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Table of Contents

9 Chapters
Getting Started with D3.js Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using SVG to Create Images Using Code Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Building an Interactive Scatter Plot Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Making a Basic Scatter Plot Interactive Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Creating a Bar Graph Using a Data File Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Animating SVG Elements to Create an Interactive Pie Chart Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using Physics to Create a Force-Directed Graph Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Mapping Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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L. Dec 21, 2018
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
It isn't always easy to know what book to start with for software. I was a bit worried about getting a D3 book that would be too advanced, or worse, not have enough information. This was perfect. The explanations are easy to understand and the code is presented in a logical order so users learn "why" as they go. Highly recommended for those who are D3 beginners but need something that goes as far as dynamic graphing of external data. This is not a huge book because it doesn't need to be to get the point across. Well done and timely.
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