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x--- title: Setting Data Source Using URL | FusionCharts description: FusionCharts lets you pass the complete JSON/XML chart data using a JSON file or a URL without losing any functionality

heading: Setting Data Source Using URL

FusionCharts lets you pass the complete JSON/XML chart data as a static string to the dataSource attribute. Alternatively, you can also save the chart data in a .json or .xml file and then pass the relative URL of this file as value to the dataSource attribute.

The only difference between the two methods is the value that is passed to the dataFormat attribute. For the first method, the dataFormat attribute takes json or xml as values, depending on the chart data. For the second method, the values will be jsonurl and xmlurl.

This article explains how you can set the chart data using the URL of the corresponding file using FusionCharts PHP wrapper.

Load data using JSON as URL

Let's build the same revenue chart which we built in the first example using JSON, and use a .json file as the data source.

FusionCharts will load here..
{
    "chart": {
        "caption": "Countries With Most Oil Reserves [2017-18]",
        "subCaption": "In MMbbl = One Million barrels",
        "xAxisName": "Country",
        "yAxisName": "Reserves (MMbbl)",
        "numberSuffix": "K",
        "theme": "fusion"
    },
    "data": [
        {
            "label": "Venezuela",
            "value": "290"
        },
        {
            "label": "Saudi",
            "value": "260"
        },
        {
            "label": "Canada",
            "value": "180"
        },
        {
            "label": "Iran",
            "value": "140"
        },
        {
            "label": "Russia",
            "value": "115"
        },
        {
            "label": "UAE",
            "value": "100"
        },
        {
            "label": "US",
            "value": "30"
        },
        {
            "label": "China",
            "value": "30"
        }
    ]
}

The data for this chart is represented in the table below:

Country No. of Oil Reserves
Venezuela 290
Saudi 260
Canada 180
Iran 140
Russia 115
UAE 100
US 30
China 30

The JSON representation for the above table looks as shown below:

{
    // Chart Configuration
    "chart": {
        "caption": "Countries With Most Oil Reserves [2017-18]",
        "subCaption": "In MMbbl = One Million barrels",
        "xAxisName": "Country",
        "yAxisName": "Reserves (MMbbl)",
        "numberSuffix": "K",
        "theme": "fusion",
    },
    // Chart Data
    "data": [{
        "label": "Venezuela",
        "value": "290"
    }, {
        "label": "Saudi",
        "value": "260"
    }, {
        "label": "Canada",
        "value": "180"
    }, {
        "label": "Iran",
        "value": "140"
    }, {
        "label": "Russia",
        "value": "115"
    }, {
        "label": "UAE",
        "value": "100"
    }, {
        "label": "US",
        "value": "30"
    }, {
        "label": "China",
        "value": "30"
    }]
}

Copy this into a file, name it oilReserves.json, and store it in the same folder as your HTML page.

If you are using multilingual characters in your JSON, make sure that you save the JSON data with UTF-8 encoding.

The full code of the above sample is given below:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<?php
    /* Include the `../src/fusioncharts.php` file that contains functions to embed the charts.*/
    include("../includes/fusioncharts.php");
?>
<html>

<head>
    <title>FusionCharts | Chart using data from JSON URL</title>
    <!-- FusionCharts Library -->
    <script type="text/javascript" src="//cdn.fusioncharts.com/fusioncharts/latest/fusioncharts.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="//cdn.fusioncharts.com/fusioncharts/latest/themes/fusioncharts.theme.fusion.js"></script>
</head>

<body>

    <?php
      // chart object
      $Chart = new FusionCharts("column2d", "chart-1" , "700", "400", "chart-container", "jsonurl", "oilReserves.json");
      // Render the chart
      $Chart->render();
?>
    <h3>Chart using data from JSON URL</h3>
    <div id="chart-container">Chart will render here!</div>
</body>

</html>

The above chart has been rendered using the following steps:

  1. Include the fusioncharts.php file which contains functions to embed the charts.

  2. Include the necessary libraries and components using <script> tags. For example, fusioncharts.js, fusioncharts.theme.fusion.js.

  3. Store the chart data in the JSON file.

  4. Store the chart configuration in a JSON object. In the JSON object:

    • Set the chart type as column2d. Find the complete list of chart types with their respective alias here.
    • Set the width and height of the chart in pixels.
    • Set the dataFormat as JSON.
    • Embed the json data as the value of dataSource.

  5. To set the datasource using URL:

    • Set the value of the dataFormat to jsonurl.
    • Set the static URL to dataSource to render the above chart.

  6. Create a chart container to render the chart.

When rendering your charts locally (without a web server, even if on the localhost), you will not be able to load data from XML or JSON files present on your hard-drive. This is due to security restrictions enforced by most modern browsers.

Load data using XML as URL

The XML representation for the above chart looks as shown below:

<chart caption='Countries With Most Oil Reserves [2017-18] ' subcaption='In MMbbl = One Million barrels ' xaxisname='Country ' yaxisname='Reserves (MMbbl) ' numberprefix='K ' theme='fusion '>
    <set label='Venezuela ' value='290 ' />
    <set label='Saudi ' value='260 ' />
    <set label='Canada ' value='180 ' />
    <set label='Iran ' value='140 ' />
    <set label='Russia ' value='115 ' />
    <set label='UAE ' value='100 ' />
    <set label='US ' value='30 ' />
    <set label='China ' value='30 ' />
</chart>

Copy this into a file called oilReserves.xml and store it in the same folder as your HTML page.

If you are using multilingual characters in your XML, make sure you save the XML data with UTF-8 encoding.

The full code of the above sample is:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<?php
    /* Include the `../src/fusioncharts.php` file that contains functions to embed the charts.*/
    include("../includes/fusioncharts.php");
?>
<html>

<head>
    <title>FusionCharts | Chart using data from XML URL</title>
    <!-- FusionCharts Library -->
    <script type="text/javascript" src="//cdn.fusioncharts.com/fusioncharts/latest/fusioncharts.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="//cdn.fusioncharts.com/fusioncharts/latest/themes/fusioncharts.theme.fusion.js"></script>
</head>

<body>

    <?php
      // chart object
      $Chart = new FusionCharts("column2d", "chart-1" , "700", "400", "chart-container", "xmlurl", "oilReserves.xml");
      // Render the chart
      $Chart->render();
?>
    <h3>Chart using data from XML URL</h3>
    <div id="chart-container">Chart will render here!</div>
</body>

</html>

The above chart has been rendered using the following steps:

  1. Include the fusioncharts.php file which contains functions to embed the charts.

  2. Include the necessary libraries and components using <script> tags. For example, fusioncharts.js, fusioncharts.theme.fusion.js.

  3. Store the chart data in the XML file.

  4. Store the chart configuration in a XML object. In the XML object:

    • Set the chart type as column2d. Find the complete list of chart types with their respective alias here.
    • Set the width and height of the chart in pixels.
    • Set the dataFormat as XML.
    • Embed the xml data as the value of dataSource.

  5. To set the datasource using URL:

    • Set the value of the dataFormat to xmlurl.
    • Set the static URL to dataSource to render the above chart.

  6. Create a chart container to render the chart.