Getting started in EJ2 TypeScript Chart control

3 Nov 202324 minutes to read

This section explains how to create a simple Chart and configure its available functionalities in TypeScript using Essential JS 2 quickstart seed repository.

This application is integrated with the webpack.config.js configuration and uses the latest version of the webpack-cli. It requires node v14.15.0 or higher. For more information about webpack and its features, refer to the webpack documentation.

Dependencies

Below is the list of minimum dependencies required to use the Chart.

|-- @syncfusion/ej2-charts
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-base
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-data
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-pdf-export
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-file-utils
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-compression
    |-- @syncfusion/ej2-svg-base

Set up development environment

Open the command prompt from the required directory, and run the following command to clone the Syncfusion JavaScript (Essential JS 2) quickstart project from GitHub.

git clone https://github.com/SyncfusionExamples/ej2-quickstart-webpack- ej2-quickstart

After cloning the application in the ej2-quickstart folder, run the following command line to navigate to the ej2-quickstart folder.

cd ej2-quickstart

Add Syncfusion JavaScript packages

Syncfusion JavaScript (Essential JS 2) packages are available on the npmjs.com public registry. You can install all Syncfusion JavaScript (Essential JS 2) controls in a single @syncfusion/ej2 package or individual packages for each control.

The quickstart application is preconfigured with the dependent @syncfusion/ej2 package in the ~/package.json file. Use the following command to install the dependent npm packages from the command prompt.

npm install

Add Chart to the Project

Open the application in Visual Studio Code and add the Syncfusion JavaScript UI controls.

Add the HTML div tag with its id attribute as element in your ~/src/index.html file to initialize the Chart.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 Animation</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    ....
    ....
</head>

<body>
     <!--container which is going to render the Chart-->
     <div id='element'>
     </div>
</body>

</html>

Now import the Chart component into your app.ts to instantiate a chart and append the chart instance to the #element [src/app/app.ts]

import { Chart } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';

// initialize Chart component
let chart: Chart = new Chart();

// render initialized Chart
chart.appendTo('#element');

Now use the npm run start command to run the application in the browser.

npm run start

The below example shows a basic Chart.

import { Chart } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';

let chart: Chart = new Chart();

chart.appendTo('#element');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 Animation</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="index.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div id='element'></div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Module Injection

Chart component are segregated into individual feature-wise modules. In order to use a particular feature, you need to inject its feature module using Chart.Inject() method. In the current application, we are going to modify the above basic chart to visualize sales data for a particular year. For this application we are going to use line series, tooltip, data label, category axis and legend feature of the chart. Please find relevant feature module name and description as follows.

  • LineSeries - Inject this provider to use line series.
  • Legend - Inject this provider to use legend feature.
  • Tooltip - Inject this provider to use tooltip feature.
  • DataLabel - Inject this provider to use data label feature.
  • Category - Inject this provider to use category feature.

Now import the above mentioned modules from chart package and inject it into the Chart component using
Chart.Inject method.

import { Chart, LineSeries, Legend, Category, Tooltip } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
Chart.Inject(LineSeries, Legend, DataLabel, Tooltip, Category);

Populate Chart With Data

This section explains how to plot below JSON data to the chart.

let chartData: any[] = [
      { month: 'Jan', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Feb', sales: 28 },
      { month: 'Mar', sales: 34 }, { month: 'Apr', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'May', sales: 40 }, { month: 'Jun', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'Jul', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Aug', sales: 55 },
      { month: 'Sep', sales: 38 }, { month: 'Oct', sales: 30 },
      { month: 'Nov', sales: 25 }, { month: 'Dec', sales: 32 }
];

Add a series object to the chart by using series property. Now map the field names month and sales in the JSON data to the xName and yName properties of the series, then set the JSON data to dataSource property.

Since the JSON contains category data, set the valueType for horizontal axis to Category. By default, the axis valueType is Numeric.

import { Chart, LineSeries, Category } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
Chart.Inject(LineSeries, Category);
let chartData: any[] = [
      { month: 'Jan', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Feb', sales: 28 },
      { month: 'Mar', sales: 34 }, { month: 'Apr', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'May', sales: 40 }, { month: 'Jun', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'Jul', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Aug', sales: 55 },
      { month: 'Sep', sales: 38 }, { month: 'Oct', sales: 30 },
      { month: 'Nov', sales: 25 }, { month: 'Dec', sales: 32 }
];
let chart: Chart = new Chart({
    primaryXAxis: {
        valueType: 'Category'
    },
    series:[{
        // dataSource for chart series
        dataSource: chartData,
        xName: 'month',
        yName: 'sales',
        type: 'Line'
    }]
}, '#element');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 Animation</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="index.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div id='element'></div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

The sales data are in thousands, so format the vertical axis label by adding $ as a prefix and K as a suffix to each label. This can be achieved by setting the ${value}K to the labelFormat property of axis. Here, {value} act as a placeholder for each axis label.

import { Chart, LineSeries, Category } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
Chart.Inject(LineSeries, Category);
let chartData: any[] = [
      { month: 'Jan', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Feb', sales: 28 },
      { month: 'Mar', sales: 34 }, { month: 'Apr', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'May', sales: 40 }, { month: 'Jun', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'Jul', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Aug', sales: 55 },
      { month: 'Sep', sales: 38 }, { month: 'Oct', sales: 30 },
      { month: 'Nov', sales: 25 }, { month: 'Dec', sales: 32 }
];
let chart: Chart = new Chart({
    primaryXAxis: {
        valueType: 'Category',
    },
    primaryYAxis: {
        // label format for axis
        labelFormat: '${value}K'
    },
    series:[{
        dataSource: chartData,
        xName: 'month',
        yName: 'sales',
        type: 'Line'
    }]
}, '#element');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 Animation</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="index.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div id='element'></div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Add Chart Title

You can add a title using title property to the chart to provide quick information to the user about the data plotted in the chart.

import { Chart, LineSeries } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
import { Legend, Category, Tooltip } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
Chart.Inject(LineSeries, Legend, Category, Tooltip);
let chartData: any[] = [
      { month: 'Jan', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Feb', sales: 28 },
      { month: 'Mar', sales: 34 }, { month: 'Apr', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'May', sales: 40 }, { month: 'Jun', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'Jul', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Aug', sales: 55 },
      { month: 'Sep', sales: 38 }, { month: 'Oct', sales: 30 },
      { month: 'Nov', sales: 25 }, { month: 'Dec', sales: 32 }
];
let chart: Chart = new Chart({
    // Title for chart
    title: 'Sales Analysis'
    primaryXAxis: {
        valueType: 'Category',
        title: 'Month'
    },
    primaryYAxis: {
        labelFormat: '${value}K'
    },
    series:[{
        dataSource: chartData,
        name:'Sales',
        xName: 'month',
        yName: 'sales',
        type: 'Line'
    }],
}, '#element');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 Animation</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="index.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div id='element'></div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Enable Legend

You can use legend for the chart by setting the visible property to true in legendSettings object and by injecting the Legend module using Chart.Inject(Legend) method.

import { Chart, LineSeries, Category } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
import { Legend } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
Chart.Inject(LineSeries, Legend, Category);
let chartData: any[] = [
      { month: 'Jan', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Feb', sales: 28 },
      { month: 'Mar', sales: 34 }, { month: 'Apr', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'May', sales: 40 }, { month: 'Jun', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'Jul', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Aug', sales: 55 },
      { month: 'Sep', sales: 38 }, { month: 'Oct', sales: 30 },
      { month: 'Nov', sales: 25 }, { month: 'Dec', sales: 32 }
];
let chart: Chart = new Chart({
    // Legend for chart
    legendSettings: {
        visible: true
    },
    primaryXAxis: {
        valueType: 'Category',
    },
    primaryYAxis: {
        labelFormat: '${value}K'
    },
    series:[{
        dataSource: chartData,
        name:'Sales',
        xName: 'month',
        yName: 'sales',
        type: 'Line'
    }],
    title: 'Sales Analysis'
}, '#element');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 Animation</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="index.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div id='element'></div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Add Data Label

You can add data labels to improve the readability of the chart. This can be achieved by setting the visible property to true in the dataLabel object and by injecting DataLabel module using Chart.Inject(DataLabel) method. Now, the data labels are arranged smartly based on series.

import { Chart, LineSeries, Category } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
import { DataLabel, Legend } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
Chart.Inject(LineSeries, DataLabel, Category, Legend);
let chartData: any[] = [
      { month: 'Jan', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Feb', sales: 28 },
      { month: 'Mar', sales: 34 }, { month: 'Apr', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'May', sales: 40 }, { month: 'Jun', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'Jul', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Aug', sales: 55 },
      { month: 'Sep', sales: 38 }, { month: 'Oct', sales: 30 },
      { month: 'Nov', sales: 25 }, { month: 'Dec', sales: 32 }
];
let chart: Chart = new Chart({
    primaryXAxis: {
        valueType: 'Category',
    },
    primaryYAxis: {
        labelFormat: '${value}K'
    },
    series:[{
        dataSource: chartData,
        xName: 'month',
        name:'Sales',
        yName: 'sales',
        type: 'Line',
        marker: {
            // Data label for chart series
            dataLabel: {
                visible: true
            }
        }
    }],
    legendSettings: {visible: true},
    title: 'Sales Analysis'
}, '#element');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 Animation</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="index.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div id='element'></div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Enable Tooltip

The tooltip is useful when you cannot display information by using the data labels due to space constraints. You can enable tooltip by setting the enable property as true in tooltip object and by injecting Tooltip module using Chart.Inject(Tooltip) method.

import { Chart, LineSeries, Tooltip } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
import { Legend, Category, DataLabel } from '@syncfusion/ej2-charts';
Chart.Inject(LineSeries, Legend, Category, Tooltip, DataLabel);
let chartData: any[] = [
      { month: 'Jan', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Feb', sales: 28 },
      { month: 'Mar', sales: 34 }, { month: 'Apr', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'May', sales: 40 }, { month: 'Jun', sales: 32 },
      { month: 'Jul', sales: 35 }, { month: 'Aug', sales: 55 },
      { month: 'Sep', sales: 38 }, { month: 'Oct', sales: 30 },
      { month: 'Nov', sales: 25 }, { month: 'Dec', sales: 32 }
];
let chart: Chart = new Chart({
    // Tooltip for chart
    tooltip: {
        enable: true
    },
    primaryXAxis: {
        valueType: 'Category',
    },
    primaryYAxis: {
        labelFormat: '${value}K'
    },
   series:[{
        dataSource: chartData,
        name:'Sales',
        xName: 'month',
        yName: 'sales',
        type: 'Line',
        marker: {
            // Data label for chart series
            dataLabel: {
                visible: true
            }
        }
    }],
    legendSettings: {visible: true},
    title: 'Sales Analysis'
}, '#element');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>EJ2 Animation</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="index.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>Loading....</div>
    <div id='container'>
        <div id='element'></div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

You can refer to our JavaScript Charts feature tour page for its groundbreaking feature representations. You can also explore our JavaScript Charts example that shows various chart types and how to represent time-dependent data, showing trends in data at equal intervals.