Implement professional-grade web-based charts in PHP without in-depth knowledge of HTML5 and JavaScript.
Introduction
Recently, I needed to quickly create a chart from a set of PHP data sets. Charts must be interactive, user-friendly, and downloadable. After evaluating a number of PHP charting solutions, including phpChart, pChart, and Highcharts, I decided on phpChart as my tool of choice.
Background
As a main backend programmer, I neither have a lot of time to slowly study the use of JavaScript (customers want to see charts online within 24 hours), nor do I have the advanced skills Front-end coding knowledge. Basically, I want PHP developers with barely any front-end programming experience to be able to quickly develop beautiful charts.
I tried pChart, a popular PHP charting library. The generated charts look pretty good, although they are downloadable, but the charts are all static images. Highcharts seems to be the best choice. The chart looks stunning, is animated, and has many customization options, but at the same time, it is also very complex and requires a lot of JavaScript knowledge. Highcharts is neither designed for PHP nor is it free for business use.
Basic elements of phpChart
What I like most about phpChart is that it allows people to start with simplicity and minimal code.
The lite version of phpChart can be downloaded from http://phpch
Set conf.php
The first thing we need to do is set the variable SCRIPTPATH to the PhpChart class library in the conf.php file. This variable represents the relative or absolute URL of the phpChart library on your web server.
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>define(</span><span class="string">'SCRIPTPATH'</span><span>,</span><span class="string">'/phpChart/'</span><span>); </span></span></li></ol>
Create the simplest chart
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>包含PHP头文件conf.php： </span></span></li><li><span>require_once(<span class="string">"../conf.php"</span><span>); </span></span></li></ol>
Call the constructor C_PhpChartX and finally call the draw() function.
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>$pc=</span><span class="keyword">new</span><span> C_PhpChartX(array(array(</span><span class="number">123</span><span>, </span><span class="number">34</span><span>, </span><span class="number">51</span><span>, </span><span class="number">22</span><span>, </span><span class="number">3</span><span>)), ‘simplest_graph’); </span></span></li><li><span>$pc->draw(); </span></li></ol>
This is the code you need to get started. Below is the rendered output.
This is what I call minimal coding. There's no point in learning the basics the hard way when you have a team of programmers working on it. One thing any programmer wants to do as soon as possible is immerse themselves in complex documentation from a new set of libraries or tools.
By the way, the name of the second parameter in the constructor should be unique to your chart. I typed "simplest_graph", but it could be any non-space string. It must be a unique value so you can have multiple charts on one page.
Add title
You should add a title to your chart so users know what they are looking at.
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>$pc->set_title(array(</span><span class="string">'text'</span><span>=>’My Simplest Graph')); </span></span></li></ol>
Add animation
One of the things pChart can't do is animation. In phpChart, animation support is available by simply calling set_animate and passing a true value.
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>$pc->set_animate(</span><span class="keyword">true</span><span>); </span></span></li></ol>
That’s it. At this point your chart should have a title and animation. The complete code is as follows:
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>$pc = </span><span class="keyword">new</span><span> C_PhpChartX(array(array(</span><span class="number">123</span><span>, </span><span class="number">34</span><span>, </span><span class="number">51</span><span>, </span><span class="number">22</span><span>, </span><span class="number">3</span><span>)),</span><span class="string">'simplest_graph'</span><span>); </span></span></li><li><span>$pc->set_animate(<span class="keyword">true</span><span>); </span></span></li><li class="alt"><span>$pc->set_title(array(<span class="string">'text'</span><span>=></span><span class="string">'My Simplest Graph'</span><span>)); </span></span></li><li><span>$pc->draw(); </span></li></ol>
Code content
If you view the source in the browser, you will find that phpChart automatically includes many JavaScript and CSS files, including jquery.js, jquery-ui, and jqplot.js, jquery-ui.css, etc. Although the charts are rendered in the browser via client-side JavaScript, the code on the front end is entirely PHP.
The reason why it’s popular is that as a PHP developer, I no longer have to worry about JavaScript because phpChart will take care of it for me. Below is the entire JavaScript code generated when viewing the source code - the result of my previous four lines of PHP code.
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span><script language=</span><span class="string">"JavaScript"</span><span> type=</span><span class="string">"text/javascript"</span><span>> </span></span></li><li><span> var _simplest_graph_plot_properties; </span></li><li class="alt"><span> $(document).ready(function(){ </span></li><li><span> setTimeout( function() { </span></li><li class="alt"><span> _simplest_graph_plot_properties = { </span></li><li><span> <span class="string">"title"</span><span>:{ </span></span></li><li class="alt"><span> <span class="string">"text"</span><span>:</span><span class="string">"My Simplest Graph"</span><span>,</span><span class="string">"show"</span><span>:</span><span class="number">1</span><span> </span></span></li><li><span> },<span class="string">"animate"</span><span>:</span><span class="keyword">true</span><span>,</span><span class="string">"animateReplot"</span><span>:</span><span class="keyword">true</span><span> </span></span></li><li class="alt"><span> } </span></li><li><span> </span></li><li class="alt"><span> $.jqplot.config.enablePlugins = <span class="keyword">true</span><span>; </span></span></li><li><span> $.jqplot.config.defaultHeight = <span class="number">300</span><span>; </span></span></li><li class="alt"><span> $.jqplot.config.defaultWidth = <span class="number">400</span><span>; </span></span></li><li><span> _simplest_graph= $.jqplot(<span class="string">"simplest_graph"</span><span>, </span></span></li><li class="alt"><span> [[<span class="number">123</span><span>, </span><span class="number">34</span><span>, </span><span class="number">51</span><span>, </span><span class="number">22</span><span>, </span><span class="number">3</span><span>]], _simplest_graph_plot_properties); </span></span></li><li><span> </span></li><li class="alt"><span> }, <span class="number">200</span><span> ); </span></span></li><li><span> }); </span></li><li class="alt"><span></script> </span></li></ol>As you may also notice, "simplest_graph<span style="color: #111111; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif;">"<code><span style="color: #111111; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif;">”</span> is used as part of a JavaScript variable, such as _simplest_graph_plot_properties representing a jqplot object. This is why I said earlier that naming must be unique.
Additionally, the PHP data array is automatically converted to a JavaScript array, so the following PHP array:
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>array(array(</span><span class="number">123</span><span>, </span><span class="number">34</span><span>, </span><span class="number">51</span><span>, </span><span class="number">22</span><span>, </span><span class="number">3</span><span>)) </span></span></li></ol>
becomes a JavaScript array:
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>[[</span><span class="number">123</span><span>,</span><span class="number">34</span><span>,</span><span class="number">51</span><span>,</span><span class="number">22</span><span>,</span><span class="number">3</span><span>]] </span></span></li></ol>
Change renderer type
PhpChart supports bar chart, line chart and stack chart; strip chart; block chart; bubble chart; candle chart; gecko chart; meter chart ; and several other types of charts. Renderer support:
BarRenderer
BezierCurveRenderer
BlockRenderer
BubbleRenderer
CanvasAxisLabelRenderer
CanvasAxisTickRenderer
CategoryAxisRenderer
DateAxisRenderer
DonutRenderer
EnhancedLegendRenderer
FunnelRenderer
LogAxisRenderer
MekkoAxisRenderer
MekkoRenderer
MeterGaugeRenderer
OHLCRenderer
PyramidAxisRenderer
PieRenderer
如果你不指定类型的话，默认图表类型是折线图。要更改图表类型，需要调用set_series_default函数。例如，将上面的例子更改为饼图
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>$pc->set_series_default(array(</span><span class="string">'renderer'</span><span>=></span><span class="string">'plugin::PieRenderer'</span><span>)); </span></span></li></ol>
请注意，我用的是phpChart企业版。 phpChart精简版只支持折线图。
数组和命名约定
这里还有一些值得注意的地方。首先，phpChart函数中使用的几乎所有参数是一个数组，不是全部，但几乎所有的都是。只需记住这一点，就能避免 调试时的大量头痛问题后面我将简要地覆盖调试功能）。其次，渲染器在phpChart中被称为“插件”，故而你必须像这样传递 “plugin::PieRenderer”，中间双冒号。对于自定义JavaScript中，用 “js::yourJavascriptFunctioName”。
高级phpChart：自定义JavaScript
到目前为止，所有我展示的都是PHP。在大多数情况下，对于简单的PHP函数调用，phpChart完全能做得很好。为了充分利用 phpChart，你或许会想要使用自定义JavaScript。例如，你可以用phpChart从JavaScript函数和外部源加载数据。
下面的sineRenderer是一个自定义JavaScript函数，用于定义从一组随机数显示正弦值。然后传递给set_data_renderer函数。
PHP：
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>$data1 = array(); </span></span></li><li><span>$pc = <span class="keyword">new</span><span> C_PhpChartX(array($data1),</span><span class="string">'basic_chart_4'</span><span>); </span></span></li><li class="alt"><span>$pc->set_title(array(<span class="string">'text'</span><span>=></span><span class="string">'Basic Chart with Custom JS'</span><span>)); </span></span></li><li><span>$pc->set_data_renderer(<span class="string">"js::sineRenderer"</span><span>); </span></span></li><li class="alt"><span>$pc->add_plugins(array(<span class="string">'pointLabels'</span><span>)); </span></span></li><li><span>$pc->set_animate(<span class="keyword">true</span><span>); </span></span></li><li class="alt"><span>$pc->draw(); </span></li><li><span> </span></li><li class="alt"><span>JavaScript： </span></li><li><span> </span></li><li class="alt"><span>sineRenderer = function() { </span></li><li><span> var data = [[]]; </span></li><li class="alt"><span> <span class="keyword">for</span><span> (var i=</span><span class="number">0</span><span>; i<</span><span class="number">13</span><span>; i+=</span><span class="number">0.5</span><span>) { </span></span></li><li><span> data[<span class="number">0</span><span>].push([i, Math.sin(i)]); </span></span></li><li class="alt"><span> } </span></li><li><span> <span class="keyword">return</span><span> data; </span></span></li><li class="alt"><span> }; </span></li></ol>想要知道set_data_renderer函数的更多内容可点击这里：http://phpchart.org/phpChart/docs/output/C_PhpChartX_set_data_renderer@.html
导出图表到图片
刚开始的时候，对此我很困扰，因为我不知道如何导出图表。事实证明，phpChart图表可以导出为可下载的图片，但这个过程并没有很好的记录下来。我发现添加以下代码到所有页面的底部，就可以扭转乾坤：
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span><script type=</span><span class="string">"text/javascript"</span><span> </span></span></li><li><span> src=<span class="string">"http://www.codeproject.com/phpChart/js/showjs.js"</span><span>></script> </span></span></li></ol>
下载showjs.js：http://phpch
调试phpChart
最后，在结束之前，我要提一提phpChart的一个非常宝贵的特点。那就是它的内置调试功能。在其网站上，所有的在线例子http://phpch
要启用调试，只需添加以下代码行到conf.php文件：
<ol class="dp-j"><li class="alt"><span><span>define(</span><span class="string">'DEBUG'</span><span>, </span><span class="keyword">true</span><span>); </span></span></li></ol>
最后的思考
PhpChart的一个主要好处是，通过使用这个工具，PHP程序员可以实现专业级的基于Web的图表——而无需深入了解HTML5和JavaScript知识。
如果你像我一样，也是前端编程的门外汉，但同样需要生成交互式的Web图表，那么你或许会喜欢phpChart。关于phpChart的HTML5图表例子已经完整地罗列到以下这个页面中。运气好的话，你也许并不需要文档——就可以直接理解代码。
How to open php file
How to remove the first few elements of an array in php
What to do if php deserialization fails
What are the production methods of html5 animation production?
How to connect php to mssql database
How to connect php to mssql database
How to upload html
How to solve garbled characters in PHP
![[Web front-end] Node.js quick start](https://img.php.cn/upload/course/000/000/067/662b5d34ba7c0227.png)
