Summary
Within the Spotfire® community, one area of discussion that crops up continually is that of new visualization types. Customers often ask for a visualization type during a POC that Spotfire does not currently support. Others ask for simple customizations of existing visualizations, such as moving labels around, that sound straightforward but are almost impossible to implement without extensive coding.
There are now a number of JavaScript libraries available for creating rich interactive graphics within a standard web browser. One such is D3 which has a large library of example visualizations available on the D3 Website. There are many others, including Highcharts, ZoomCharts and Google Charts.
The JavaScript Visualization Framework, or JSViz, is a Custom Extension for Spotfire that allows users to create their own visualizations using JavaScript libraries such as d3 but still allow them to seamlessly integrate with the Spotfire platform. Note that although d3 was an initial driver for implementing the custom extension, it can actually work with any JavaScript based code.
Samples
Included with the framework are a number of sample charts including:
- Doughnut Chart
- Circle Packing
- Chord Diagram
- Gauges
- Area Chart
- Horizon Chart
- Polar Chart
- Ternary Chart
- Tree Control
- Venn Diagram
- Word Cloud
Partner Samples
A Spotfire Partner, IQVIA have produced a number of high quality samples that use a framework built on top of JSViz. You can find them here.
The samples include:
- Animating Data
- Bullet List
- Gauges and Donuts
- Image Viewer
- Network Chart
- Radar (Spider) Chart
- Sankey Chart
- Word Cloud
Download JSViz - Versions
JSViz can be downloaded on this page.
JSViz is compatible with Spotfire 7.5 and later.
For an overview of the different extension and customization options that the Spotfire platform provides, see Extending Spotfire.
API
The documentation for the .NET API is attached below as a zip file. This API can be used within Spotfire via IronPython or within a .NET Spotfire Custom Extension to configure JSViz visualizations.
The examples provided with JSViz also include a comprehensive scripting example showing how to use IronPython to create and configure JSViz charts.
Automating Plot Setup
It is possible to automate the creation of JSViz instances from the toolbar or the tools menu, by creating a custom extension that leverages the JSViz API:
- One-click JSViz Visualizations - Extending JSViz for Spotfire®
- Automating Plot Setup for JSViz Using a Custom Tool in Spotfire®
Custom windows forms property pages are now available from 3.5. Developers who have made use of the one-click visualization extension of pre 3.5 may need to update their add-in project to actively include any of the original property pages of JSViz property dialog as they no longer are displayed by default.
Release 3.5.4
Published: February 2021
March 30th 2021, Release 3.5.4 is compatible with Spotfire 7.5 onwards.
* Fixed: When using IronPython Scripting and setting "Limit by Expression" using the
FilterExpression property, in some cases, the expression was not being correctly
applied.
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February 26th 2021, Release 3.5.3 is compatible with Spotfire 7.5 onwards.
* Fixed: The contents of the Configuration data were inadvertently being limited to 32767
characters when being edited via the GUI. This limitation has been removed.
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July 22nd 2019, Release 3.5.2 is compatible with Spotfire 7.5 onwards.
* Fixed: Under certain circumstances, JSViz throws the following error when opening a dxp:
InvalidOperationException at Spotfire.Dxp.Framework:
Attempt to read from a node that is in state 'Detached'. (HRESULT: 80131509)
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May 15th 2019, Release 3.5.1.0
* New: Filter by Expression now uses the Spotfire Expression Editor
* New: JSViz now gives a warning when attempting to add a Data Configuration, and the DXP
file does not contain any in-memory data tables
* Fixed: JSViz no longer crashes when last in-memory table in a dxp is deleted
* Fixed: Inserting JSViz is allowed even when no in-memory tables are present
* Obsolete: Property FilterByExpression on a Data Setting is no longer required to be
directly set and has been removed from the Configuration Dialog. If a
Filter By Expression is present, it will be used.
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February 15th 2019, Release 3.5.0.0
* New: Added support for ordering data
* New: Added mode for only supplying JSON data on request
* New Sample: Virtual Table - demonstrates new data on request mode
* Fixed: Added new Icon that displays correctly in Spotfire X visualization list
* Fixed: JSViz logging now works during printing, and export operations
* Fixed: Modifying Column in Spotfire caused Limit By Expression to return incorrect data
* Deprecated: Use of wait() function for exporting and printing. Use SetBusy() instead.
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July 6th 2018, Release: 3.4.0.13
* Fixed: Creating an invalid data configuration no longer causes Spotfire to crash
* Fixed: Deleting multiple tables at once no longer causes Spotfire to crash
* Fixed: Setting an invalid Config section no longer causes Spotfire to crash
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March 6th 2018, Release: 3.4.0.12
* Fixed: This release specifically addresses the removal of log4net v1.x in Spotfire 7.12.
* Fixed: Visualizations using "Limit By Expression" randomly appear blank when first opened
* Fixed: Doughnut Chart sample would randomly appear blank when first opened. This was due
to a coding error in the resize() method.
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August 29th 2017, Release: 3.4.0.10
* New: Allow use of Document Property to supply complete HTML for visualization
This is specifically to support the use of Shiny R visualizations
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August 14th 2017, Release: 3.4.0.9
* New: JSVisualizationAdminLicense now controls whether user can edit properties of an
existing visualization
* Fixed: Error "Attempt to remove a non existing backwards pointer.." when opening
certain JSViz that used Document Properties
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August 3rd 2017, Release: 3.4.0.8
* Fixed: Spotfire would hang when generating an image of a visualization that used
Document Properties in a linked item url
* Fixed: This release specifically addresses the removal of log4net v1.x in Spotfire 7.12.
* Fixed: Visualizations using "Limit By Expression" randomly appear blank when first opened
* Fixed: Doughnut Chart sample would randomly appear blank when first opened. This was due
to a coding error in the resize() method.