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Add Annotations

Annotations are graphical elements (different types of shapes, custom text, and so on) that you can render on your chart to make it more informative while making it visually appealing.

In this article, we'll create a Spline chart and add annotations to highlight a particular anchor along with text using the FusionCharts JSP wrapper. A sample chart is shown below:

FusionCharts will load here..
{
    "chart": {
        "caption": "Average Monthly Temperature in Texas",
        "yAxisName": "Average Monthly Temperature",
        "anchorradius": "5",
        "plotToolText": "Average temperature in $label is <b>$dataValue</b>",
        "showHoverEffect": "1",
        "showvalues": "0",
        "numberSuffix": "°C",
        "theme": "fusion",
        "anchorBgColor": "#72D7B2",
        "paletteColors": "#72D7B2"
    },
    "annotations": {
        "groups": [
            {
                "id": "anchor-highlight",
                "items": [
                    {
                        "id": "high-star",
                        "type": "circle",
                        "x": "$dataset.0.set.7.x",
                        "y": "$dataset.0.set.7.y",
                        "radius": "12",
                        "color": "#cc0000",
                        "border": "2",
                        "borderColor": "#0075c2"
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "label",
                        "type": "text",
                        "text": "Hottest Month",
                        "fillcolor": "#0075c2",
                        "rotate": "90",
                        "x": "$dataset.0.set.7.x+75",
                        "y": "$dataset.0.set.7.y-2"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    },
    "data": [
        {
            "label": "Jan",
            "value": "1"
        },
        {
            "label": "Feb",
            "value": "5"
        },
        {
            "label": "Mar",
            "value": "10"
        },
        {
            "label": "Apr",
            "value": "12"
        },
        {
            "label": "May",
            "value": "14"
        },
        {
            "label": "Jun",
            "value": "16"
        },
        {
            "label": "Jul",
            "value": "20"
        },
        {
            "label": "Aug",
            "value": "22"
        },
        {
            "label": "Sep",
            "value": "20"
        },
        {
            "label": "Oct",
            "value": "16"
        },
        {
            "label": "Nov",
            "value": "7"
        },
        {
            "label": "Dec",
            "value": "2"
        }
    ]
}

The full code for the above sample is given below:

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
    pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%>
    <%@page import="fusioncharts.FusionCharts" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<title>FusionCharts | Using Annotations On Chart</title>
<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 style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial; font-size: 16px;">
<h3>Using Annotations On Chart</h3>
<div id="chart"></div>
<div><span><a href="../Index.jsp">Go Back</a></span></div>
<%
        String jsonData;
        jsonData = "{"chart":{"caption":"Average Monthly Temperature in Texas","yAxisName":"Average Monthly Temperature","anchorradius":"5","plotToolText":"Average temperature in $label is <b>$dataValue<\/b>","showHoverEffect":"1","showvalues":"0","numberSuffix":"°C","theme":"fusion","anchorBgColor":"#72D7B2","paletteColors":"#72D7B2"},"annotations":{"groups":[{"id":"anchor-highlight","items":[{"id":"high-star","type":"circle","x":"$dataset.0.set.7.x","y":"$dataset.0.set.7.y","radius":"12","color":"#cc0000","border":"2","borderColor":"#0075c2"},{"id":"label","type":"text","text":"Hottest Month","fillcolor":"#0075c2","rotate":"90","x":"$dataset.0.set.7.x+75","y":"$dataset.0.set.7.y-2"}]}]},"data":[{"label":"Jan","value":"1"},{"label":"Feb","value":"5"},{"label":"Mar","value":"10"},{"label":"Apr","value":"12"},{"label":"May","value":"14"},{"label":"Jun","value":"16"},{"label":"Jul","value":"20"},{"label":"Aug","value":"22"},{"label":"Sep","value":"20"},{"label":"Oct","value":"16"},{"label":"Nov","value":"7"},{"label":"Dec","value":"2"}]}";
        FusionCharts spline_chart = new FusionCharts(
              "spline",
              "spline_chart",
              "700", 
              "400",
              "chart",
              "json",
              jsonData                    
                );
      %>

        <%=spline_chart.render()%>
</body>
</html>

The sample code provided above corresponds to the following tasks:

  1. Import and resolve the dependency fusioncharts.FusionCharts

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

  3. Within the <body>:

    • Include a <div> tag with id same as the value of the renderAt attribute of the instance of FusionCharts (explained in the next step), within which the chart will be rendered.

    • Include a <% %> tag, where:

      • Declare a string jsonData and use it to assign the chart configuration as a JSON string.

      • Create a new instance named spline_chart of the FusionCharts constructor, and pass the values of its arguments:

        • Set the chart type as spline. Find the complete list of chart types with their respective alias here.

        • Set the id as spline_chart.

        • Set the width and height of the chart in pixels. You can also provide them as percentages.

        • Set the renderAt as chart.

        • Set the dataFormat as json.

        • Set the dataSource to jsonData which has been declared and defined above.

    • Include a <%= %> tag that contains spline_chart.render().

Refer to Spline chart for more information on the configuration and data for this chart type.