@devdatalab/ddl-charts

D3-based charting library for publication-quality, OWID-inspired interactive data visualizations.

Installation

npm install @devdatalab/ddl-charts

Usage

import { TrajectoryChart } from '@devdatalab/ddl-charts';
// The stylesheet is not auto-imported — include it once in your app:
import '@devdatalab/ddl-charts/styles/ddl-theme.css';

const chart = createLineChart(d3.select('#chart'), data, {
  initialHighlights: ['USA', 'CHN', 'IND'],
  showLegend: true,
  showLabels: true,
});

The library ships three charts — see the Charts catalogue below: a multi-series LineChart, a single-track BeeswarmChart, and the TrajectoryChart.

Architecture

src/
├── core/           # Foundation utilities
│   ├── scales.js   # D3 scale factories (log, linear, time)
│   ├── axes.js     # OWID-styled axis generators
│   ├── colors.js   # Color palettes, country/region highlighting
│   ├── utils.js    # Formatting, data processing, debounce
│   └── layout.js   # Label de-collision, beeswarm packing, nearest-point
├── components/     # Reusable UI elements
│   ├── Tooltip.js  # Smart-positioned hover tooltips
│   ├── Legend.js   # Interactive legend with state
│   ├── SearchFilter.js  # Search input with filtering
│   └── Container.js     # Responsive SVG containers
├── charts/         # Chart implementations
│   ├── LineChart.js        # Multi-series interactive line chart
│   ├── BeeswarmChart.js    # Single-track 1D beeswarm (dot strip)
│   └── TrajectoryChart.js  # GDP vs PM2.5 trajectory visualization
└── styles/
    └── ddl-theme.css  # DDL / OWID-inspired theming

Core Modules

Scales (core/scales.js)

• createLogScale(domain, range, options) - Logarithmic scales for GDP, population
• createLinearScale(domain, range, options) - Linear scales with padding
• createTimeScale(domain, range, options) - Temporal scales

Axes (core/axes.js)

• createXAxis(scale, options) - Horizontal axis with grid lines
• createYAxis(scale, options) - Vertical axis with grid lines

Colors (core/colors.js)

• createColorManager(highlights) - Dynamic country highlighting
• createRegionColorManager() - Region-based color assignment
• Built-in palettes: PRIMARY_COLORS, CONTINENT_COLORS, REGION_COLORS, HIGHLIGHT_COLORS (default categorical), OKABE_ITO (colorblind-safe categorical; opt in via a chart's palette option)

Utilities (core/utils.js)

• formatNumber(n, precision?) - Compact SI notation (45K, 2B); integer results omit decimals, others use precision (default 2, so 1500000 → 1.50M)
• formatPercentage(n, decimals?) - Percentage with trailing % (45%, 4.5%)
• formatLocaleNumber(n) - Full value with thousands separators (1,234,567)
• formatCurrency(n) - Dollar formatting
• formatPM25(n) - µg/m³ formatting
• smoothValues(arr, window) - Rolling average

Behavior change (unreleased): formatNumber now prints whole-number SI results without trailing zeros — formatNumber(45000) returns "45K" instead of "45.00K". Non-integer results are unchanged. Warrants a version bump before any release that consumers depend on.

Layout (core/layout.js)

• resolveCollisions(positions, minGap) - Space out crowded label Y positions
• beeswarmLayout(values, xScale, dotRadius, centerY, rowSpacing?) - Deterministic 1D beeswarm packing (O(n²); fine for n ≤ 250)
• nearestPoint(points, mouseX, mouseY, snapRadius) - Nearest-point hit testing for hover (linear scan)

Components

Tooltip

import { createTooltip, showTooltip, hideTooltip } from '@devdatalab/ddl-charts';

const tooltip = createTooltip(container);
showTooltip(tooltip, x, y, content);

Legend

import { createLegend } from '@devdatalab/ddl-charts';

const legend = createLegend(container, items, {
  onItemClick: (item) => console.log('clicked', item),
  onItemHover: (item) => console.log('hovered', item)
});

SearchFilter

import { createSearchFilter } from '@devdatalab/ddl-charts';

const search = createSearchFilter(container, {
  placeholder: 'Search cities...',
  onFilter: (query) => filterData(query)
});

Charts catalogue

Every chart is an imperative factory — create*(parent, data, options) — that builds the DOM with D3 and returns an instance object with update methods. parent is a d3.Selection (e.g. d3.select('#chart')).

LineChart

Multi-series interactive line chart. Highlighted series are drawn in full colour, raised, and labelled at the line end (de-collided via resolveCollisions); the rest are muted. Hover snaps to the nearest series point for a marker + tooltip. A single-series chart is just the N=1 case (showLegend: false, showLabels: false).

import * as d3 from 'd3';
import { createLineChart } from '@devdatalab/ddl-charts';

const chart = createLineChart(d3.select('#chart'), data, {
  height: 480,
  initialHighlights: ['USA', 'CHN', 'IND'],
  showLegend: true,
  showLabels: true,
  curve: 'linear',            // 'linear' | 'cardinal'
  yTickFormat: (d) => `${d}%`,
});

chart.toggleHighlight('BRA'); // programmatic highlight toggle

Data format

{
  "metadata": { "title": "...", "xAxisLabel": "Year", "yAxisLabel": "Urban population (%)" },
  "series": [
    {
      "id": "USA",
      "name": "United States",
      "points": [
        { "year": 1975, "value": 73.7 },
        { "year": 2020, "value": 82.7 }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Options

Option	Default	Description
height	500	Chart height in px.
margin	{top:30,right:140,bottom:50,left:70}	Chart margins.
xKey / yKey	'year' / 'value'	Accessor keys on each point.
showLegend	true	Clickable legend (toggles highlights).
showLabels	true	De-collided end-of-line labels for highlighted series.
showGrid	true	Axis grid lines.
initialHighlights	first 3 series	Series ids highlighted on load.
palette	HIGHLIGHT_COLORS	Categorical palette for highlighted series.
yZeroBaseline	false	Force the y-domain to start at 0.
curve	'linear'	Line interpolation ('linear' or 'cardinal').
hoverSnapRadius	40	Max px distance for hover snapping.
xTickFormat / yTickFormat	—	Custom tick formatters.

Returns { container, svg, colorManager, toggleHighlight, updateAll }.

See examples/line_chart.html.

BeeswarmChart

Single horizontal track that packs one value per entity into stacked rows (beeswarmLayout, O(n²), fine for n ≤ 250). A handful of entities can be highlighted (coloured + raised); the rest render as muted background dots. Optional median reference line; hover snaps to the nearest dot for a tooltip. Compose multi-track figures by stacking several instances.

import * as d3 from 'd3';
import { createBeeswarmChart } from '@devdatalab/ddl-charts';

const chart = createBeeswarmChart(d3.select('#chart'), data, {
  height: 290,
  dotRadius: 3.5,
  rowSpacing: 8,
  highlights: ['USA', 'CHN', 'IND', 'BRA', 'NGA'],
  showMedian: true,
});

chart.setHighlights(['USA', 'IND']); // replace the highlighted set

Data format

{
  "metadata": { "title": "...", "axisLabel": "Night lights (nW/cm²/sr)" },
  "items": [
    { "id": "USA", "name": "United States", "value": 41.2 }
  ]
}

Options

Option	Default	Description
height	240	Chart height in px.
margin	{top:30,right:30,bottom:56,left:30}	Chart margins.
valueKey / idKey / nameKey	'value' / 'id' / 'name'	Accessor keys on each item.
label	metadata.axisLabel	Axis label.
dotRadius	3	Dot radius in px.
rowSpacing	dotRadius * 2.2	Vertical row spacing (passed to beeswarmLayout).
highlights	[]	Ids to highlight.
showMedian	true	Draw a median reference line.
hoverSnapRadius	13	Max px distance for hover snapping.
palette	HIGHLIGHT_COLORS	Categorical palette for highlights.
valueFormat / tickFormat	—	Custom value / tick formatters.

Non-finite values are filtered (with a console.warn) before layout. Returns { container, svg, setHighlights, update }.

See examples/beeswarm.html.

TrajectoryChart

The original chart implementation showing city GDP vs PM2.5 trajectories over time, with country/region highlighting, search, and an interactive legend.

import * as d3 from 'd3';
import { createTrajectoryChart } from '@devdatalab/ddl-charts';

const chart = createTrajectoryChart(d3.select('#chart'), data, {
  initialHighlights: ['CHN', 'IND', 'USA'],
  showSearch: true,
  showLegend: true,
  showLegendControls: true,
  showGrid: true
});

Data Format

{
  "metadata": {
    "title": "City GDP vs PM2.5",
    "xAxisLabel": "GDP per capita (USD)",
    "yAxisLabel": "PM2.5 (µg/m³)",
    "yearRange": [2013, 2023]
  },
  "bounds": {
    "xMin": 100, "xMax": 100000,
    "yMin": 1, "yMax": 200
  },
  "cities": [
    {
      "id": "IND_Mumbai",
      "name": "Mumbai",
      "country": "India",
      "iso3": "IND",
      "region": "South Asia",
      "trajectory": [
        { "year": 2013, "x": 5000, "y": 45 },
        { "year": 2023, "x": 8000, "y": 35 }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Development

npm install
npm run dev      # Start dev server
npm test         # Run tests
npm run build    # Build for production

Regenerating README visuals

The chart screenshots in this README are rendered headlessly from the example HTML so they stay reproducible:

npm install --no-save playwright   # heavy, build-time only — not a runtime dep
npx playwright install chromium    # one-time browser download
npm run render:examples            # writes docs/assets/*.png

Examples

The example HTML files import the library source directly (an import map resolves d3 to a CDN ESM build), so they run on any static server or via npm run dev:

• examples/line_chart.html — multi-series LineChart.
• examples/beeswarm.html — single-track BeeswarmChart.
• examples/city_gdp_pm25.html — TrajectoryChart with 205+ cities.

License

MIT