Legend

A legend is a chart element used to display the series name for each dataset, in case of multi-series or combination charts. Legends are used to correlate a data plot to its series name using its color.

Legends are not applicable to single series charts.

In the following image, the legend rendered below the x-axis helps identify the data plots corresponding to a series name. Each series is represented by its own icon in the legend.

Legend

Show/Hide the Legends

To show/hide the legends, set the showLegend attribute to 1/0. The default value of this attribute is 1.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "showLegend": "1"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

In the chart shown above, when you click the legend icon for Last Year, all data plots in blue, (showing the quarterly revenue for the last year) are hidden.

Show/Hide Data Plots via the Legend

With FusionCharts Suite XT, show/hide the data plots belonging to a data series by clicking the corresponding legend icon. The legend interaction can also be disabled using interactiveLegend attribute. The default value of this attribute is 1. Let's check out a sample without the interactive legend.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "interactiveLegend": "0"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

Highlight a Data Series via the Legend

Hover the mouse pointer over a legend text to highlight corresponding data plots in the chart. Whenever you do this, the chart reduces the opacity of the data plots belonging to other data series, making the one you hover on stand out prominently.

To enable this feature, set the plotHighlightEffect attribute to fadeout.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "plotHighlightEffect": "fadeout"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

In the chart shown above, when the mouse pointer hovers over the legend text This Year, the data plots in blue (corresponding to Last Year) fade out, and the data plots in green (corresponding to This Year) are highlighted.

Customize the Highlight Effect

Instead of just reducing the opacity of the data plots that don't correspond to the hovered over legend text, you can customize a different effect.

Define plotHighlightEffect attribute in the following format, to customize the highlight effect:

plotHighlightEffect=effectName|confStr

Always set effectName to fadeout. Use confStr, a comma-separated list of customization properties for the effect. Use the following attributes to see the difference:

Specify the hex code for the data plot fill color using the color attribute.
Specify the transparency of the data plots using the alpha attribute.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "plotHighlightEffect": "fadeout|color=#7f7f7f, alpha=60"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

In the above chart, when you hover the mouse pointer over the legend text This Year, data plots belonging to the Last Year data series are grayed out.

For the above chart, the attribute has been defined as shown below:

"plotHighlightEffect": "fadeout|color=#7f7f7f, alpha=60"

Use the following attributes to customize the border while highlight effect is set:

Specify the hex code for the plot border color using the borderColor attribute.
Specify the transparency of the plot border using the borderAlpha attribute. If you don't include this attribute into the configuration string, then it takes the value assigned to the attribute alpha (in the configuration string, as shown above).

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "showplotBorder": "1",
        "plotHighlightEffect": "fadeout|borderColor=ff0000, borderAlpha=50"
    }
}

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

Use the following attributes to customize the background of the anchor:

Specify the hex code for the anchor background color using the anchorBgColor attribute. If you don't include this attribute into the configuration string, then it takes the value assigned to the attribute color (in the configuration string, as shown above).
Specify the transparency of the anchor background using the anchorBgAlpha attribute.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "plotHighlightEffect": "fadeout|anchorBgColor=ff0000, anchorBgAlpha=50"
    }
}

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

The attributes to customize the values of highlight effect are:

Specify the hex code for the data value background color using the valueBgColor attribute.
Specify the hex code for the data value border color using the valueBorderColor attribute.
Specify the hex code for the data value font color using the valueFontColor attribute. If you don't include this attribute into the configuration string, then it takes the value assigned to the attribute color (in the configuration string, as shown above).

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "showplotBorder": "1",
        "plotHighlightEffect": "fadeout|alpha=60, valueBgColor=#ff0000, valueBorderColor=#3a4660, valueFontColor=#000000"
    }
}

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

Set the Legend Position

Use the following attributes to set legend position:

Specify the position of the legend using the legendPosition attribute. You can either set it below the chart for value bottom or to the right of the chart for value right.
Set the legendAllowDrag attribute to 1 to make the legend draggable.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendPosition": "right",
        "legendAllowDrag": "1"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

Drag Legend

Click here to edit the above chart.

Configure Legend Icon Size

Specify the legend icon size using the legendIconScale attribute. You can control the size of legend icon with values from 1 (100%) to 5 (500%).

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendIconScale": "2"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

Draw a Custom Legend Icon Shape

Use the following attributes to draw a custom legend icon shape:

Set the drawCustomLegendIcon attribute to 1 to enable drawing of a custom legend icon. All other legend icon customization attributes work only if you enable this feature.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "drawCustomLegend":"1"
    }
}

By default, the background color of the icons are same as that of the plot colors. Specify the hex color code for the background of the legend icon using the legendIconBgColor attribute.
Set the legend icon transparency using the legendIconAlpha attribute. It takes values between 0 (transparent) and 100 (opaque; default).
Set the legend icon background transparency using the legendIconBgAlpha attribute. It takes values between 0 (transparent) and 100 (opaque; default).
Set the thickness of the legend icon border using the legendIconBorderThickness attribute.
Specify the hex color code for the border of the legend icon using the legendIconBorderColor attribute. By default, it takes the data plot fill color.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendIconBgColor": "#ff0000"
        "legendIconAlpha": "50",
        "legendIconBgAlpha": "30",
        "legendIconBorderColor": "#123456",
        "legendIconBorderThickness": "3"
    }
}

Set the number of sides for the legend icon using the legendIconSides attribute.
Set the starting angle for drawing the legend icon using the legendIconStartAngle attribute.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendIconSides": "5",
        "legendIconStartAngle": "60"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

Customize Legend Scroll Bar

If you have multiple data items in a multi-series chart, the legend automatically displays a scroll bar. Use the legendScrollBgColor attribute to specify the background color of the scroll bar.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendScrollBgColor": "#f0000f"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

Reverse Legend Order

Set the value of reverseLegend attribute to 1, to reverse the order of datasets in the legend.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "reverseLegend": "1"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

Hide Data Series upon Loading

Set the value of initiallyHiddenattribute to 1, to hide the data plots of a data series initially, on chart load. The plots will become visible when you click on the name of the series in the legend. This attribute works from the dataset object level in JSON data, and by default takes the value of 0, thereby displaying data plots of every series when you load the chart.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        ...
    },
    "dataset": [{
        "initiallyHidden": "1"
    }]
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

Customize Legend Appearance

Use the following attributes used to customize legend appearance:

Specify the background color for the legend using the legendBgColor attribute, which accepts hex codes as values.
Specify the background transparency for the legend using the legendBgAlpha attribute. It takes values between 0 (transparent) and 100 (opaque).

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendBgColor": "#CCCCCC",
        "legendBgAlpha": "20"
    }
}

Specify the border color for the legend using the legendBorderColor attribute, which accepts hex codes as values.
Specify the border thickness for the legend in pixels, using the legendBorderThickness attribute.
Specify the border transparency for the legend using the legendBorderAlpha attribute. It takes values between 0 (transparent) and 100 (opaque).

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendBorderColor": "#666666",
        "legendBorderThickness": "1",
        "legendBorderAlpha": "40",
    }
}

Set the value of the legendShadow attribute to 1, to display legend shadow.
If you have too many items in the legend, it will automatically display a scroll bar. Specify the background color of the scroll bar using the legendScrollBgColor attribute, which accepts hex codes.
Specify the horizontal alignment of the legend caption with the legendCaptionAlignment attribute, which accepts the values left, center, and right.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendCaptionAlignment": "center",
        "legendScrollBgColor": "#ffffff",
        "legendShadow": "1"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

Customize Legend Font Cosmetics

Use the following attributes to customize the legend font cosmetics:

Specify the legend item font using the legendItemFont attribute.
Specify the legend item font size using the legendItemFontSize attribute, which accepts values between 0 and 72.
Specify the legend item font color using the legendItemFontColor attribute, which accepts hex codes as values.
Display legend keys in bold, by setting the value of legendItemFontBold attribute to 1.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendItemFontBold": "0",
        "legendItemFont": "Arial",
        "legendItemFontSize": "11",
        "legendItemFontColor": "#666666",
    }
}

Specify the legend item font color on hover, using the legendItemHoverFontColor attribute, which accepts hex codes as values.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendItemHoverFontColor": "#000000" 
    }
}

Specify the legend caption value using the legendCaption attribute, which accepts strings.
Specify the legend caption font using the legendCaptionFont attribute.
Specify the legend caption font size using the legendCaptionFontSize attribute, which accepts values between 0 and 72.
Specify the hex color code for the caption font of the legend using the legendCaptionFontColor attribute.
Set the legendCaptionBold attribute to 1 to make the caption appear bold.

Refer to the code below:

{
    "chart": {
        "legendCaption": "Which year?",
        "legendCaptionBold": "1",
        "legendCaptionFont": "Arial",
        "legendCaptionFontSize": "14",
        "legendCaptionFontColor": "#333333"
    }
}

The chart will look as shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..

Click here to edit the above chart.

Legend

Show/Hide the Legends

Show/Hide Data Plots via the Legend

Highlight a Data Series via the Legend

Customize the Highlight Effect

Set the Legend Position

Configure Legend Icon Size

Draw a Custom Legend Icon Shape

Customize Legend Scroll Bar

Reverse Legend Order

Hide Data Series upon Loading

Customize Legend Appearance

Customize Legend Font Cosmetics

Hi, I am Debargho. I wrote this article.

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