Flex Chart Zoom Window
This code will show you how to create zoom functionality on your flex charts, as shown here: (click and drag on the chart to create the zoom window)
Before I get to the code, there’s a couple of notes:
You will notice that the data tips don’t show up, even if you enable showDataTips. This is a known bug, caused by disabling filterData on the chart series. filterData forces the chart to render all data points, even if they’re not shown on the current chart view. This is important, because if those points aren’t rendered, the chart doesn’t draw the lines that extend to those points.
If you’re worried that rendering unnecessary data points will cause performance issues, you can extend your series class and override the updateFilter method. You’ll need to rewrite it so that it excludes/includes the proper data points.
If you’re not worried about the effects of filterData, and you’d like a quick work-around for showing data tips, you’ll still need to extend your series class, but its a bit more simple. You just need to override findDataPoints with some minor adjustments, and add the private function formatDataTip. Here’s a link with the edited class: FilterLineSeries.as I copied the code directly from the LineSeries source, and made some minor adjustments.
Now on to the important stuff…
main.mxml:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | <?xml version="1.0"?> <mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" xmlns:local="com.*" initialize="init()" width="600" height="520"> <mx:Panel title="Line Chart"> <mx:LineChart id="chart1" mouseDown="startDraw(event)" mouseUp="finishDraw(event)" mouseMove="showDraw(event)" width="510"> <!-- zoom window is drawn here --> <mx:annotationElements> <mx:CartesianDataCanvas id="chartCanvas"/> </mx:annotationElements> <mx:horizontalAxis> <mx:LinearAxis id="haxis"/> </mx:horizontalAxis> <mx:verticalAxis> <mx:LinearAxis id="vaxis"/> </mx:verticalAxis> <mx:series> <mx:LineSeries filterData="false" id="series1" xField="month" yField="profit" displayName="Profit" dataProvider="{profits}"/> </mx:series> </mx:LineChart> </mx:Panel> <mx:Button label="Reset Zoom" click="resetZoom()" /> </mx:Application> |
actionscript:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 | [Bindable] private var profits:Array; private var dragStart:Point; private var dragEnd:Point; private var zooming:Boolean; // initializes the data provider with random data private function init():void{ profits = new Array({month: 0, profit: 15}); for(var i:int=1; i<40; i++) profits.push({month: i, profit: Math.round(Math.random()*25-10)+profits[i-1].profit}); } // sets the start point of the zoom window private function startDraw(e:MouseEvent):void{ zooming = true; dragStart = new Point(series1.mouseX, series1.mouseY); } // draws the zoom window as your mouse moves private function showDraw(e:MouseEvent):void{ if(zooming){ dragEnd = new Point(series1.mouseX, series1.mouseY); // finds the top-left and bottom-right ponits of the zoom window var TL:Point = new Point(); // top-left point var BR:Point = new Point(); // bottom-right point if(dragStart.x < dragEnd.x){ TL.x = dragStart.x; BR.x = dragEnd.x; } else{ TL.x = dragEnd.x; BR.x = dragStart.x; } if(dragStart.y < dragEnd.y){ TL.y = dragStart.y; BR.y = dragEnd.y; } else{ TL.y = dragEnd.y; BR.y = dragStart.y; } // prevents the zoom window from going off the canvas if(TL.x < 0) TL.x = 0; if(BR.x > chartCanvas.width-1) BR.x = chartCanvas.width-1; if(TL.y < 0) TL.y = 0; if(BR.y > chartCanvas.height-1) BR.y = chartCanvas.height-1; // draw the actual zoom window chartCanvas.graphics.clear(); chartCanvas.graphics.lineStyle(1, 0x000000, 0.25); chartCanvas.graphics.beginFill(0xd4e3f0,0.5); chartCanvas.graphics.drawRect(TL.x, TL.y, BR.x-TL.x, BR.y-TL.y); chartCanvas.graphics.endFill(); } } // clears the drawing canvas and sets the new max/mins private function finishDraw(e:MouseEvent):void{ zooming = false; chartCanvas.clear(); // converts the drag coordinates into axis data points var chartValStart:Array = chartCanvas.localToData(dragStart); var chartValEnd:Array = chartCanvas.localToData(dragEnd); // sets the new maximum and minimum for both axes haxis.minimum = (chartValStart[0] < chartValEnd[0]) ? chartValStart[0] : chartValEnd[0]; haxis.maximum = (chartValStart[0] < chartValEnd[0]) ? chartValEnd[0] : chartValStart[0]; vaxis.minimum = (chartValStart[1] < chartValEnd[1]) ? chartValStart[1] : chartValEnd[1]; vaxis.maximum = (chartValStart[1] < chartValEnd[1]) ? chartValEnd[1] : chartValStart[1]; } // resets the axis max/mins private function resetZoom():void{ haxis.minimum = NaN; haxis.maximum = NaN; vaxis.minimum = NaN; vaxis.maximum = NaN; } |
I know there seems to be a lot of unnecessary code in the showDraw function, but it serves a good purpose. Your user isn’t always going to start their zoom at the top-left corner and drag down to the bottom-right. The code distinguishes where the corners are, and draws the box accordingly.
EDIT (11/2/2010): Here’s how it would be done if you’re using a DateTimeAxis for your horizontal axis:
main.mxml:
13 14 15 | <mx:horizontalAxis> <mx:DateTimeAxis id="haxis"/> </mx:horizontalAxis> |
actionscript:
70 71 72 73 74 75 | var ds:Date = new Date(chartValStart[0]); var de:Date = new Date(chartValEnd[0]); haxis.minimum = (ds < de ? ds:de); haxis.maximum = (ds < de ? de:ds); vaxis.minimum = (chartValStart[1] < chartValEnd[1]) ? chartValStart[1] : chartValEnd[1]; vaxis.maximum = (chartValStart[1] < chartValEnd[1]) ? chartValEnd[1] : chartValStart[1]; |
77 78 79 80 81 82 | private function resetZoom():void{ haxis.minimum = null; haxis.maximum = null; vaxis.minimum = NaN; vaxis.maximum = NaN; } |