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    Vis

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    Dynamic, browser-based visualization library
    Filed under  › 

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    vis.js (deprecated!)

    :exclamation: This project is not maintained anymore! (See Issue #4259 for details)
    We welcome you to use the libraries from the visjs community from now on.

    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 was initially developed by Almende B.V.

    Install

    Install via npm:

    npm install vis

    Install via bower:

    bower install vis

    Link via cdnjs: https://cdnjs.com/libraries/vis

    Or download the library from the github project: https://github.com/almende/vis.git.

    Load

    To use a component, include the javascript and css files of vis in your web page:

    <!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="vis/dist/vis.min.js"></script>
  <link href="vis/dist/vis.min.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.

    Example

    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.min.js"></script>
  <link href="vis/dist/vis.min.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>

    Build

    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

    Custom builds

    The folder dist contains bundled versions of vis.js for direct use in the browser. These bundles contain all the visualizations and include 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.

    Prerequisites

    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, and uglify-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 install in the root of the project:
    cd vis
npm install

    Examples of custom builds

    Example 1: Bundle only a single visualization type

    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 --presets [es2015] ] -o dist/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 dist/vis-custom.js -o dist/vis-custom.min.js

    The custom bundle can now be loaded like:

    <!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
  <script src="dist/vis-custom.min.js"></script>
  <link href="dist/vis.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
  ...
</body>
</html>

    Example 2: Exclude external libraries

    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 --presets [es2015] ] -o dist/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.js and hammer.js excluded. The generated bundle can be minified with uglifyjs:

    uglifyjs dist/vis-custom.js -o dist/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/2.17.1/moment.min.js"></script>
  <script src="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/hammer.js/2.0.8/hammer.min.js"></script>

  <!-- load vis.js -->
  <script src="dist/vis-custom.min.js"></script>
  <link href="dist/vis.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
  ...
</body>
</html>

    Example 3: Bundle vis.js as part of your (commonjs) application

    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);

    The application can be bundled and minified:

    browserify app.js -o dist/app-bundle.js -t babelify
uglifyjs dist/app-bundle.js -o dist/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="dist/app-bundle.min.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

    Example 4: Integrate vis.js components directly in your webpack build

    You can integrate e.g. the timeline component directly in you webpack build. Therefor you can e.g. import the component-files from root direcory (starting with "index-").

    import { DataSet, Timeline } from 'vis/index-timeline-graph2d';

var container = document.getElementById('visualization');
var data = new DataSet();
var timeline = new Timeline(container, data, {});

    To get this to work you'll need to add some babel-loader-setting to your webpack-config:

    module: {
  module: {
    rules: [{
      test: /node_modules[\\\/]vis[\\\/].*\.js$/,
      loader: 'babel-loader',
      query: {
        cacheDirectory: true,
        presets: [ "babel-preset-es2015" ].map(require.resolve),
        plugins: [
          "transform-es3-property-literals", // #2452
          "transform-es3-member-expression-literals", // #2566
          "transform-runtime" // #2566
        ]
      }
    }]
  }
}

    There is also an demo-project showing the integration of vis.js using webpack.

    Test

    To test the library, install the project dependencies once:

    npm install

    Then run the tests:

    npm run test

    License

    Copyright (C) 2010-2017 Almende B.V. and Contributors

    Vis.js is dual licensed under both

    and

    Vis.js may be distributed under either license.

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