While there are other options for chart creation, I began using Chart.js and am getting more and more accostomed to its quirks. That said, it is nearly impossible, IMHO, to find a dedicated support forum. There is no shortage of ‘example charts’ , but most are regurgitations of basic charts that can easily be found on the chart.js webpage.
So, my question is this: Would SitePoint consider beginning a Chart.js support forum?
I ask because SP offers a Chart.js tutorial as seen here. The author would be a great forum admin. Just a thought.
There does seem to be almost 10,000 discussions flagged with that product on Stack Overflow, from their “Ecosystem” link on the web page - perhaps they’re another that prefers to direct discussions to that platform.
I don’t know whether or not we get sufficient posts on the subject to justify a dedicated section of the forums, but we could certainly add a “Chart.js” tag, which would make it easier to locate such posts.
Any decision on new categories or sub-categoroies would lie with SitePoint HQ, I think. @mrlagmer?
Edit: A search of the JS forum for Chart.js topics came up with a total of seventeen over a period of about six years. They do seem to be getting more frequent.
Once again, sorry for my late response, but I never seem to get notification of new posts. ( Just checked my creds and Notifications had not been activated. I guess it this needs to be done every time I log in. Not certain of this.)
Back on topic: To my knowledge there is one book on Chart.js that I have been able to find. There is one course on Chart.js (that I am aware of), but these go over the basics in minute detail. I need more than that. I struggled and struggled to send MySQL database data to a webpage to create a chart with.
I was fortunate to find a demo on saving Arduino sensor data to a database and then creating a chart with that data. This coder did not use Chart.js, which was not a problem. I just had to understand his script and eventually come up with a php file to query and select my own database data.
That said, what I did should not have been that difficult, but everyone on the planet who demo’s Chart.js on their webpage uses static data. And a LOT of the time I note that their demo uses someone else’s code.
What would be great is to find a book (or course) on ‘advanced’ Chart.js. I will keep looking.
My hope for beginning this thread was that if the forum could be created that it would be monitored by a knowledgable team of Chart.js coders. IMO, Chart.js is not difficult, what is difficult is trying to visualize the data on the chart the way that you want.
It shouldn’t be. I log out frequently and my preferences don’t change. From your profile, got to Preferences > Emails and set the three options as required. Each has a choice of “Always”, “Never” or “Only when away”.
@James_Hibbard: do you know if this is something SP is, or would be interested in, working on?
For the blog, my initial response would be a rather noncommittal “probably not”. Advanced charting is quite a niche subject, whereas we try to aim for content with a broader appeal (page views being an important success metric).
I can’t really speak for Premium, however. Maybe @Simon_Mackie could offer some insight.
The best way to learn about a library is to look at the source code. The wonderful thing about open source projects is all the source code is readily available online normally in github. if you are vested in chart.js it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of the underlying code of the library.
Thanks for your comments. I have done exactly as you have suggested. I have set all Email options to ‘always’. Time will tell if this works for me or not.
It’s not something we’re planning on covering right now, we have other priorities that would place ahead of this for the moment. I will note the interest, though.