Export chart as image

Exporting a single chart as an image (.png, the default output format) is the simplest task that you can accomplish with FusionExport. In this article, you will learn how to export a chart.

Prerequisites

Before starting with the code, ensure that you have:

Chart Configuration

The chart configuration files are simple .json files. If you are executing the template code without any changes, the chart configuration file should be in the following path:

[code_executed_from_this_directory]/resources/chart-config-file.json

It is not mandatory to create a file containing the chart configuration. In the code, you can directly create an object containing a serialized JSON string representation of the chart configuration, and pass it on to the ExportConfig.set() object of the FusionExport SDK you are using. For more clarity, see the inline comments in the template code .

The accepted format of configuration is the same as that of charts which you can generate using FusionCharts Suite . Refer to Chart Attributes for detailed information on the possible configurations of the charts.

Except for the case of exporting dashboards, all other exports work on the basis of the chart configuration that you create. Here, we will use the configuration of a simple Column 2D chart.

[{
    "type": "column2d",
    "renderAt": "chart-container",
    "width": "550",
    "height": "350",
    "dataFormat": "json",
    "dataSource": {
        "chart": {
            "caption": "Number of visitors in the last 3 days",
            "subCaption": "Bakersfield Central vs Los Angeles Topanga",
            "theme": "fusion"
        },
        "data": [{
                "label": "Mon",
                "value": "15123"
            },
            {
                "label": "Tue",
                "value": "14233"
            },
            {
                "label": "Wed",
                "value": "25507"
            }
        ]
    }
}]

Based on the above configuration, the exported chart will look like the illustration below.

Export-Chart-As-Image

Code

Before you start with the code, we suggest going through the steps that the code accomplishes.

  1. Import and resolve the dependencies as per the system/programming language specific dependencies, and the FusionExport SDK client.

  2. Create a new instance of the ExportConfig() object, which will be used to extract the chart configuration by using the chart configuration file path you pass to its set() method. You can also pass on an object containing the serialized JSON string representation of the configuration to the set() method.

  3. Create a new instance of the ExportManager() object. To export the chart, pass the instance of ExportConfig() to export(), which is a method of the instance of ExportManager(). This will export the chart, and save the output file to the path you provide (by default, it is the directory from which the code is being executed).

  4. Optionally, you can print the names of the exported files on the console, and the error messages if anything goes wrong.

The above guidelines may vary slightly based on the programming language you are using, and the customizations you want on top of the defaults.

In most cases, the default output file name is export--1.png. If you execute the template code without any changes, you can find it in the same directory from where the code has been executed.

For detailed information on the vast number of possibilities, refer to FusionExport SDK API Reference , and select the SDK of your choice from the left navigation panel.


using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using FusionCharts.FusionExport.Client; // Import sdk

namespace FusionExportTest
{
    public static class ExportSingleChart
    {
        public static void Run(string host = Constants.DEFAULT_HOST, int port = Constants.DEFAULT_PORT)
        {
            // Instantiate the ExportConfig class and add the required configurations
            ExportConfig exportConfig = new ExportConfig();
            List results = new List();

            // Instantiate the ExportManager class
            using (ExportManager exportManager = new ExportManager())
            {
                exportConfig.Set("chartConfig", File.ReadAllText("./resources/chart-config-file.json"));

                // Call the Export() method with the export config
                results.AddRange(exportManager.Export(exportConfig, outputDir = ".", unzip = true));
            }

            foreach (string path in results)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(path);
            }

            Console.Read();

        }

    }
}


import com.fusioncharts.fusionexport.client.*; // import sdk

public class Script {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        String configPath = "resources/chart-config-file.json";

        // Instantiate the ExportConfig class and add the required configurations
        ExportConfig config = new ExportConfig();
        // Provide path of the chart configuration which we have defined above.
        // You can also pass the same object as serialized JSON.
        config.set("chartConfig", configPath);

        // Instantiate the ExportManager class
        ExportManager manager = new ExportManager();
        // Call the export() method with the config and the respective callbacks
        manager.export(config, outputDir = ".", unzip = true);
  }
}


<?php
  // Import dependencies
  require DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php';
  use FusionExport\ExportManager;
  use FusionExport\ExportConfig;

  // Instantiate the ExportConfig class and add the required configurations
  $exportConfig = new ExportConfig();
  // Provide path of the chart configuration which we have defined above.
  // You can also pass the same object as serialized JSON.
  $exportConfig->set('chartConfig', realpath('resources/chart-config-file.json'));

  // Instantiate the ExportManager class
  $exportManager = new ExportManager();

  // Call the export() method with the exportConfig and the respective callbacks
  $exportManager->export($exportConfig, $outputDir = '.', $unzip = true);
?>


// ** IMPORT AND RESOLVE DEPENDENCIES ***

// Import 'path' core module of Node.js
const path = require('path');

// Import FusionExport SDK client for Node.js
const {
    ExportManager,
    ExportConfig
} = require('fusionexport-node-client');


// ** EXPORT CONFIG ***

// Instantiate ExportConfig and add the required configurations
const exportConfig = new ExportConfig();

// Provide path of the chart configuration which we have defined above.
// You can also pass the same object as serialized JSON.
exportConfig.set('chartConfig', path.join(__dirname, 'resources', 'chart-config-file.json'));


// ** EXPORT-MANAGER ***

// Instantiate ExportManager
const exportManager = new ExportManager();


// * OUTPUT **

// Provide the exportConfig. By default it returns a promise.
// Optionally, print the exported file names and error messages, if any

exportManager.export(exportConfig, outputDir = '.', unzip = true).then((exportedFiles) => {
  exportedFiles.forEach(file => console.log(file));
}).catch((err) => {
  console.log(err);
});


# Import sdk
from fusionexport import ExportManager, ExportConfig

# Instantiate the ExportConfig class and add the required configurations
export_config = ExportConfig()

# Provide path of the chart configuration which we have defined above.
# You can also pass the same object as serialized JSON.
export_config["chartConfig"] = read_file("resources/chart-config-file.json")

# Provide port and host of FusionExport Service
export_server_host = "127.0.0.1"
export_server_port = 1337

# Instantiate the ExportManager class
em = ExportManager(export_server_host, export_server_port)

# Call the export() method with the export_config as an argument
em.export(export_config, outputDir = ".", unzip = True)

Next Steps

After you have exported a single chart as an image, we recommend learning how to:

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