Creating charts using built-in API
Using the built-in API is a quick and simple way to create a chart. However, you'll have to know the exact data structure of the chart you want to create.
Open Flash Chart 2 uses JSON as its data format, which means you can use any method you like to create a JSON string, then pass it to open-flash-chart.swf and viola! you get your chart. If you're not familiar with JSON, that's OK, you'll see that it's quite simple to work with.
For example, the JSON for a pie chart representing browser market share may look like this:
{
"elements": [
{
"type": "pie",
"alpha": 0.8,
"animate": [
{
"type": "fade"
},
{
"type": "bounce",
"distance": 5
}
],
"start-angle": 0,
"tip": "#percent#",
"colours": [
"#a8bc38",
"#bcd04c",
"#d0e460",
"#e4f574",
"#f8ff88"
],
"values": [
{
"value": 66.82,
"label": "Internet Explorer"
},
{
"value": 22.05,
"label": "Firefox"
},
{
"value": 8.23,
"label": "Safari"
},
{
"value": 0.70,
"label": "Opera"
},
{
"value": 2.20,
"label": "Other"
},
]
}
],
"title": {
"text": "Browser market share",
"style": "color: #f0f0f0; font-size: 20px"
},
"bg_colour": "#202020"
}That's not too hard to understand, is it?
In order to create the chart using the built-in API, you'll have to know what the JSON for the chart data looks like. The best place to look for each chart element's format is on Open Flash Chart 2 JSON format page.
Once you have the JSON structure in mind, it will be straightforward to create the chart using the built-in API:
<?php
$data = array(
'Internet Explorer' => 66.82,
'Firefox' => 22.05,
'Safari' => 8.23,
'Opera' => 0.70,
'Other' => 2.20,
);
$pie = ofc_api_element('pie');
$pie->set('alpha', 0.8);
$fade = ofc_api_element('fade');
$bounce = ofc_api_element('bounce');
$bounce->set('distance', 5);
$pie->set('animate', array($fade, $bounce));
$pie->set('start-angle', 0);
$pie->set('tip', '#percent#');
$pie->set('colours', ofc_api_color_theme('green'));
foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
$item = array(
'value' => $value,
'label' => $key,
);
$pie->add('value', $item);
}
$chart = ofc_api_chart();
$chart->add('element', $pie);
$title = array(
'text' => 'Browser market share',
'style' => 'color: #f0f0f0; font-size: 20px',
);
$chart->set('title', $title);
$chart->set('bg_colour', '#202020');
?>Now $chart has the same data structure as the JSON string above, you may want to
<?php
return $chart;
?>if it's in a function, or you may want to
<?php
print ofc_api_render($chart);
?>if it's just a quick PHP snippet.
You may want to read on how to render the chart data.