vis

What is vis?

The vis npm package is a dynamic, browser-based visualization library. It is designed to handle large amounts of dynamic data and enables the creation of interactive timelines, 2D/3D graphs, and network visualizations.

What are vis's main functionalities?

Timeline

The Timeline feature allows you to create interactive timelines with items that can have start and end dates. This is useful for visualizing events over time.

const vis = require('vis');

// Create a DataSet (allows two way data-binding)
var items = new vis.DataSet([
  {id: 1, content: 'item 1', start: '2023-04-20'},
  {id: 2, content: 'item 2', start: '2023-04-14'},
  {id: 3, content: 'item 3', start: '2023-04-18'},
  {id: 4, content: 'item 4', start: '2023-04-16', end: '2023-04-19'},
  {id: 5, content: 'item 5', start: '2023-04-25'},
  {id: 6, content: 'item 6', start: '2023-04-27', type: 'point'}
]);

// Configuration for the Timeline
var options = {};

// Create a Timeline
var timeline = new vis.Timeline(container, items, options);

Network

The Network feature allows you to create interactive network graphs with nodes and edges. This is useful for visualizing relationships and connections between entities.

const vis = require('vis');

// create an array with nodes
var nodes = new vis.DataSet([
  {id: 1, label: 'Node 1'},
  {id: 2, label: 'Node 2'},
  {id: 3, label: 'Node 3'},
  {id: 4, label: 'Node 4'},
  {id: 5, label: 'Node 5'}
]);

// create an array with edges
var edges = new vis.DataSet([
  {from: 1, to: 3},
  {from: 1, to: 2},
  {from: 2, to: 4},
  {from: 2, to: 5}
]);

// create a network
var container = document.getElementById('mynetwork');
var data = {
  nodes: nodes,
  edges: edges
};
var options = {};
var network = new vis.Network(container, data, options);

Graph2D

The Graph2D feature allows you to create interactive 2D graphs. This is useful for visualizing data points over a two-dimensional space.

const vis = require('vis');

// Create a DataSet (allows two way data-binding)
var data = new vis.DataSet();

// Add data
for (var i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
  data.add({x: i, y: Math.sin(i / 5)});
}

// Configuration for the Graph2d
var options = {
  start: '2023-04-10',
  end: '2023-04-30'
};

// Create a Graph2d
var container = document.getElementById('mygraph');
var graph2d = new vis.Graph2d(container, data, options);

Other packages similar to vis

d3

D3.js is a JavaScript library for producing dynamic, interactive data visualizations in web browsers. It uses HTML, SVG, and CSS. Compared to vis, D3.js offers more flexibility and control over the visualizations but requires more effort to set up and use.

chart.js

Chart.js is a simple yet flexible JavaScript charting library for designers & developers. It offers a variety of chart types and is easy to use. Compared to vis, Chart.js is more focused on traditional chart types like bar, line, and pie charts, and is less suited for complex network or timeline visualizations.

cytoscape

Cytoscape.js is a graph theory library for visualizing and analyzing networks. It is highly customizable and supports a wide range of graph layouts. Compared to vis, Cytoscape.js is more specialized for network visualizations and offers more advanced features for graph analysis.

README

vis.js

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:

• Timeline. Display different types of data on a timeline. The timeline and the items on the timeline can be interactively moved, zoomed, and manipulated.
• Graph. Display a graph of network with nodes and edges.
• DataSet and DataView. A flexible key/value based data set. Add, update, and remove items. Subscribe on changes in the data set. Filter, order, and cast items.

The vis.js library is developed by Almende B.V.

Install

Install via npm:

npm install vis

Install via bower:

bower install vis

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

Load

To use a component, include the javascript file of vis in your web page:

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
    <script src="components/vis/vis.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        // ... load a visualization
    </script>
</body>
</html>

or load vis.js using require.js:

require.config({
    paths: {
        vis: 'path/to/vis',
    }
});
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="components/vis/vis.js"></script>

    <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 project uses jake as build tool. The build script uses Browserify to bundle the source code into a library, and uses UglifyJS to minify the code. 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

To be able to run jake from the command line, jake must be installed globally:

sudo npm install -g jake

Then, the project can be build by executing jake in the root of the project:

jake

License

Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Almende B.V.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Changelog

2013-06-07, version 0.0.9

• First working version of the Graph imported from the old library.
• Documentation added for both Timeline and Graph.