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Learning D3.js Mapping
Learning D3.js Mapping

Learning D3.js Mapping: Build stunning maps and visualizations using D3.js

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Learning D3.js Mapping

Chapter 2. Creating Images from Simple Text

In this chapter, a high-level overview of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) will be presented by explaining how it operates and what elements it encompasses. In a browser context, SVG is very similar to HTML and is one of the means by which D3 expresses its power. Understanding the nodes and attributes of SVG will empower us to create many kinds of visualizations, not just maps. This chapter includes the following points:

  • A general SVG overview and key elements
  • The SVG coordinate system
  • The primary elements of SVG (lines, rectangles, circles, polygons, and paths)

Introduction – general knowledge

SVG, an XML markup language, is designed to describe two-dimensional vector graphics. The SVG markup language resides in the DOM as a node that describes exactly how to draw a shape (a curve, line, circle, and polygon). Just like HTML, SVG tags can also be styled from standard CSS. Note that, because all commands reside in the DOM, the more shapes you have, the more nodes you have and the more work for the browser. This is important to remember because, as SVG visualizations become more complex, the less fluidly they will perform.

The main SVG node is declared as follows:

<svg width="200" height="200"></svg>

This node's basic properties are width and height; they provide the primary container for the other nodes that make up a visualization. For example, if you wanted to create ten sequential circles in a 200 x 200 box, the tags would look like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<svg width="200&quot...

Positioning elements

What about position? Where do these primitives draw inside the SVG element? What if you wanted to put a circle on the top left and another one on the bottom right? Where do you start?

SVG is positioned by a grid system, similar to the Cartesian coordinate system. However, in SVG (0,0) is the top-left corner. The x axis proceeds horizontally from left to right starting at 0. The y axis also starts at 0 and extends downward. See the following illustration:

Positioning elements

What about drawing shapes on top of each other? How do you control the z index? In SVG, there is no z coordinate. Depth is determined by the order in which the shape is drawn. If you were to draw a circle with coordinates (10,10) and then another one with coordinates (10,10), you would see the second circle drawn on top of the first.

The following sections will cover the basic SVG primitives for drawing shapes and some of their most common attributes.

Line

The SVG line is one of the simplest in the library. It draws a straight line from one point to another. The syntax is very straightforward and can be experimented with at http://localhost:8080/chapter-2/line.html, assuming the http-server is running:

<line x1="10" y1="10" x2="100" y2="100" stroke-width="1" stroke="red"/>

This will give you the following output:

Line

A description of the element's attributes is as follows:

  • x1 and y1: The starting x and y coordinates
  • x2 and y2: The ending x and y coordinates
  • stroke: This gives the line a red color
  • stroke-width: This denotes in pixels the width of the line to be drawn

The line tag also has the ability to change the style of the end of the line. For example, adding the following would change the image so it has round endings:

stroke-linecap: round;

As stated earlier, all SVG tags can also be styled with CSS elements. An alternative way of producing the same graphic would be to first...

Rectangle

The basic HTML code to create a rectangle is as follows:

<rect width="100" height="20" x="10" y="10"></rect>

Let's apply the following style:

      rect {
        stroke-width: 1;
        stroke:steelblue;
        fill:#888;
        fill-opacity: .5;
      }

We will create a rectangle that starts at the coordinates (10,10), and is 100 pixels wide and 20 pixels high. Based on the styling, it will have a blue outline, a gray interior, and will appear slightly opaque. See the following output and example http://localhost:8080/chapter-2/rectangle.html:

Rectangle

There are two more attributes that are useful when creating rounded borders (rx and ry):

<rect with="100" height="20" x="10" y="10" rx="5" ry="5"></rect>

These attributes indicate that the x and y corners will have 5-pixel curves.

Circle

A circle is positioned with the cx and cy attributes. These indicate the x and y coordinates of the center of the circle. The radius is determined by the r attribute. The following is an example you can experiment with: http://localhost:8080/chapter-2/circle.html:

<circle cx="62" cy="62" r="50"></circle>

Now type in the following code:

   circle {
        stroke-width: 5;
        stroke:steelblue;
        fill:#888;
        fill-opacity: .5;
   }

This will create a circle with the familiar blue outline, a gray interior, and half-way opaque:

Circle

Introduction – general knowledge


SVG, an XML markup language, is designed to describe two-dimensional vector graphics. The SVG markup language resides in the DOM as a node that describes exactly how to draw a shape (a curve, line, circle, and polygon). Just like HTML, SVG tags can also be styled from standard CSS. Note that, because all commands reside in the DOM, the more shapes you have, the more nodes you have and the more work for the browser. This is important to remember because, as SVG visualizations become more complex, the less fluidly they will perform.

The main SVG node is declared as follows:

<svg width="200" height="200"></svg>

This node's basic properties are width and height; they provide the primary container for the other nodes that make up a visualization. For example, if you wanted to create ten sequential circles in a 200 x 200 box, the tags would look like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<svg width="200" height="200">
  <circle cx="60" cy="60" r="50...

Positioning elements


What about position? Where do these primitives draw inside the SVG element? What if you wanted to put a circle on the top left and another one on the bottom right? Where do you start?

SVG is positioned by a grid system, similar to the Cartesian coordinate system. However, in SVG (0,0) is the top-left corner. The x axis proceeds horizontally from left to right starting at 0. The y axis also starts at 0 and extends downward. See the following illustration:

What about drawing shapes on top of each other? How do you control the z index? In SVG, there is no z coordinate. Depth is determined by the order in which the shape is drawn. If you were to draw a circle with coordinates (10,10) and then another one with coordinates (10,10), you would see the second circle drawn on top of the first.

The following sections will cover the basic SVG primitives for drawing shapes and some of their most common attributes.

Line


The SVG line is one of the simplest in the library. It draws a straight line from one point to another. The syntax is very straightforward and can be experimented with at http://localhost:8080/chapter-2/line.html, assuming the http-server is running:

<line x1="10" y1="10" x2="100" y2="100" stroke-width="1" stroke="red"/>

This will give you the following output:

A description of the element's attributes is as follows:

  • x1 and y1: The starting x and y coordinates

  • x2 and y2: The ending x and y coordinates

  • stroke: This gives the line a red color

  • stroke-width: This denotes in pixels the width of the line to be drawn

The line tag also has the ability to change the style of the end of the line. For example, adding the following would change the image so it has round endings:

stroke-linecap: round;

As stated earlier, all SVG tags can also be styled with CSS elements. An alternative way of producing the same graphic would be to first create a CSS style, as shown in the following code:

      line ...

Rectangle


The basic HTML code to create a rectangle is as follows:

<rect width="100" height="20" x="10" y="10"></rect>

Let's apply the following style:

      rect {
        stroke-width: 1;
        stroke:steelblue;
        fill:#888;
        fill-opacity: .5;
      }

We will create a rectangle that starts at the coordinates (10,10), and is 100 pixels wide and 20 pixels high. Based on the styling, it will have a blue outline, a gray interior, and will appear slightly opaque. See the following output and example http://localhost:8080/chapter-2/rectangle.html:

There are two more attributes that are useful when creating rounded borders (rx and ry):

<rect with="100" height="20" x="10" y="10" rx="5" ry="5"></rect>

These attributes indicate that the x and y corners will have 5-pixel curves.

Circle


A circle is positioned with the cx and cy attributes. These indicate the x and y coordinates of the center of the circle. The radius is determined by the r attribute. The following is an example you can experiment with: http://localhost:8080/chapter-2/circle.html:

<circle cx="62" cy="62" r="50"></circle>

Now type in the following code:

   circle {
        stroke-width: 5;
        stroke:steelblue;
        fill:#888;
        fill-opacity: .5;
   }

This will create a circle with the familiar blue outline, a gray interior, and half-way opaque:

Polygon


To create a polygon, use the polygon tag. The best way to think about an SVG polygon is to compare it to a child's dot-to-dot game. You can imagine a series of dots and a pen connecting each (x,y) coordinate with a straight line. The series of dots is identified in the points attribute. Take the following as an example (http://localhost:8080/chapter-2/polygon.html):

<polygon points="60,5 10,120 115,120"/>

First, we start at 60,5 and we move to 10,120. Then, we proceed to 115,120 and finally return to 60,5 (note that the pen returns to the starting position automatically.)

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Description

If you are interested in creating maps for the web GIS data, this book is for you. Familiarity with D3.js will be helpful but is not necessary.

What you will learn

  • Access data resources to make maps and learn how to modify structures
  • Render your maps on a browser
  • Style your maps according to your needs and bind events to maps to make them interactive
  • Tie paths to the geospatial data to outline an SVG map
  • Use Chrome Dev Tools in order to inspect created code
  • Fetch data through AJAX calls with the assistance of the D3.js library
  • Work with data structures and compose blocks of logic into reusable functions
  • Troubleshoot your code
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Publication date : Dec 29, 2014
Length: 126 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783985609
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Table of Contents

8 Chapters
1. Gather Your Cartographer's Toolbox Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Creating Images from Simple Text Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Producing Graphics from Data – the Foundations of D3 Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Creating a Map Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Click-click Boom! Applying Interactivity to Your Map Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Finding and Working with Geographic Data Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Testing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.3
(7 Ratings)
5 star 71.4%
4 star 14.3%
3 star 0%
2 star 0%
1 star 14.3%
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MD Jan 26, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Making maps is about clearly describing a terra incognita. As such this book is a crisp and concise exploration of making maps using D3, which itself is unknown landscape to many developers. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially since it was not a monolithic tome. It is just long enough to cover the subject matter in detail, and not so verbose that you need to carve out a week to read it.
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Han Jong In Feb 09, 2015
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Excellent & Very Good..!!
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Christopher Parker Jan 12, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
I wish more tech books were written like this. I have a ton of books just sitting on my shelf that are just collecting dust - I read them once and I put them aside.I was skeptical that such a short book would be if any use, but my favorite tech book are short and concise. So, I bought this on a whim. I needed to learn d3.This book is awesome. I spent the weekend working through the whole thing. The code is really well written. My goodness - it is well written! And there are test cases! The book is actually practical. Tech books like this are never practical, but this one is.Anyways, call me impressed. Super happy with this purchase.
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bdw Mar 03, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Interesting introduction to d3 mapping which provides a nice ramp up for those just beginning and advances into the more advanced topics such as data file types and map interactivity. The first part of the book discusses how to setup a development environment suitable for working with the provided code examples. Next, you'll learn to create basic maps followed by more interactive examples, which take advantage of d3's enter-update-exit lifecycle. Finally, you'll learn about transitions, filetypes and testing methodologies for use in creating quality geographic visuals. I really enjoyed the book and highly recommend it.
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Nicholas Roberts May 14, 2015
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This book is great! It makes something that seemed intimidating a breeze. Thomas and Oscar do a great job explaining map making in D3 and give you the tools to go out and continue learning. A little bonus is that it has the best explanation of D3's enter, update, and exit concepts that I've seen so far! Keep it up!
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