Create a chart in Java

FusionTime is a JavaScript charting library that helps you visualize, and explore time-series data. In FusionTime, you get lots of out-of-the-box interactivity, like, time navigator, date range selectors, tooltips with crosslines, interactive legend and more features, which enhance the experience of exploring and understanding time series data.

We have built a simple FusionCharts server-side JSP wrapper, which provides bindings for FusionTime. The FusionCharts server-side JSP wrapper allows you to easily add interactive time-series charts to any Java project.

Installation

Since FusionTime is distributed along with FusionCharts Suite, download/install the FusionCharts package to get access to FusionTime. Note that you will also need Java 6 or later version to use FusionTime.

Install FusionCharts and the JSP wrapper component using following steps:

• Copy and paste the fusioncharts.java file from integrations > java > fusioncharts-wrapper in your project folder.

• Include the FusionCharts JavaScript files, which can be downloaded from here.

• Include the FusionTime file to render time-series charts.

// Include FusionCharts core file
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.fusioncharts.com/fusioncharts/latest/fusioncharts.js"></script>

// Include FusionTime file
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.fusioncharts.com/fusioncharts/latest/fusioncharts.timeseries.js"></script>
COPY

// Include FusionCharts core file
<script type="text/javascript" src="path/to/local/fusioncharts.js"></script>

// Include FusionTime file
<script type="text/javascript" src="path/to/local/fusioncharts.timeseries.js"></script>
COPY

Create Your First Chart

Now that you have installed FusionTime and FusionCharts JSP wrapper, let us build the first chart to show the Daily sales of a grocery store.

The chart will look as shown below:

The data for the above chart is shown in the table below:

FusionCharts accepts a DataTable as the data source. DataTable is a part of DataStore, which is a tabular representation of the data. To create the DataTable, you need to provide the following:

• schema - which defines the properties of the columns.

• data - values of each row and column of the DataTable.

For an instance of FusionTime, you can create n number of DataTables, but only one DataStore.

Next, let's learn how to prepare the schema and the data of the DataTable.

Create the schema

The schema outlines each column represented in the above table. The schema contains an array which has multiple objects created in it. Each object represents a column in the DataTable.

name and type are mandatory keys for each object. If the object type is time then format is also a mandatory key.

To define the schema, let's create a schema.json file and copy the following code:

It is not mandatory to create the schema in a different .json file. You can also define the schema within the .html file.

[{
    "name": "Time",
    "type": "date",
    "format": "%-m/%-d/%Y"
}, {
    "name": "Sales",
    "type": "number"
}]COPY

In the above code:

• Each object of a schema maps to a column of the tabular representation of the data.

• The JSON object has the following attributes:

  • name - Specify the name of the column of the tabular representation of data

  • type - Specify the type of the column.

  • format - Specify the input format of the date as per your data. In this example, the format is %-m/%-d/%Y. To know more about date formats, click here.

Now that we have the schema ready, let's work on the data.

Create the data

Data can be provided either in JSON format or 2D array format. We will use the 2D array format.

Data for the above chart has been used in the data object defined below:

[
    [
        "1/4/2011",
        16.448
    ],
    [
        "1/5/2011",
        272.736
    ],
    [
        "1/5/2011",
        11.784
    ],
    [
        "1/5/2011",
        3.54
    ],
    [
        "1/6/2011",
        19.536
    ],
    [
        "1/7/2011",
        2573.82
    ],
]COPY

Create a new data.json file, and copy the above code there.

It is not mandatory to create a data.json file. You can also include the data in your HTML file.

In the above code:

• Each object in the data array corresponds to a row in the tabular representation of the data.

• Each element in an object is represented by each object of the schema. The values in each object of the array represent the following:

  • Time according to the format

  • Total Sales amount

We are all set with our data to create the chart.

By default, FusionTime applies the average function to aggregate the data and display on the chart. You can change the aggregate function from average to any other numeric calculation. To know more, click here.

Now, let's create the files to render the above chart.

Render the chart

Once you have the data and the schema ready, create a .jsp file and copy the following code:

// Custom method for pulling the data content from remote location by providing the file url as method parameter.
public String getContent(String url) throws Exception {
    URL website = new URL(url);
    URLConnection connection = website.openConnection();
    BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
            new InputStreamReader(
                    connection.getInputStream()));
    StringBuilder response = new StringBuilder();
    String inputLine;

    while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
        response.append(inputLine);
    }
    in.close();
    return response.toString();
}

// Fetch data and schema information from remote url and store these in local schema and data variables.
String data = getContent("..PATH/data.json");
String schema = getContent("..PATH/schema.json");

// Create and initialize FusionTable object instance with the constructor parameters of data and schema.
FusionCharts.FusionTable fusionTable = new FusionCharts.FusionTable(schema, data);  
// Create and initialize TimeSeries object instance with the constructor parameters of FusionTable object instance.
FusionCharts.TimeSeries timeSeries = new FusionCharts.TimeSeries(fusionTable);  

// Wrapper constructor parameters
// charttype, chartID, width, height, renderAt, data format, TimeSeries object
FusionCharts chart = new FusionCharts("timeseries", "MyFirstChart" , "700", "450", "chart-container", "json", timeSeries);

// Render the chart
chart.render();COPY

In the above code:

• Create a custom method for pulling the data content from remote location.

• schema and data are the variables to comsume informations of schema and data file.

• Create and initialize FusionTable object instance with the constructor parameters of data and schema.

• Create and initialize TimeSeries object instance with the constructor parameters of FusionTable object instance.

• The following parameter values have been set for the chart wrapper constructor:

  • Value of charttype has been set to timeseries.

  • Value of chartID has been set to MyFirstChart.

  • Value of width has been set to 700.

  • Value of height has been set to 450.

  • Value of renderAt has been set to chart-container.

  • Value of data format has been set to json.

  • Value of the time-series object has been set to timeSeries.

• The render() member function of the jsp-fusioncharts wrapper has been used to render the chart.

That's it! Your first chart in Java using FusionTime is ready.