Creating bullet charts

Note: Where possible, use qlik-embed and qlik/api rather than this framework.

The bullet chart displays a gauge with extended options. Bullet charts can be used to visualize and compare performance of a measure to a target value and to a qualitative scale, such as poor, average, and good.

Learn more about the bullet chart, or review the bullet chart API specification.

In the example below, the sales in different quarters are compared using a bullet chart.

// Configure nucleus
const nuked = window.stardust.embed(app, {
  context: { theme: "light" },
  types: [
    {
      name: "bullet-chart",
      load: () => Promise.resolve(window["sn-bullet-chart"]),
    },
  ],
});

// Rendering a simple bullet chart
nuked.render({
  element: document.querySelector(".bullet"),
  type: "bullet-chart",
  fields: ["Quarter", "=Sum(Sales)"],
  properties: {
    title: "Sales by Quarters",
  },
});

You can create a bullet chart with one dimension and one measure, or no dimension and multiple measures.

Dimensions	Measures	Results
1	1	A bullet chart with columns corresponding to different values in the dimension
0	n	A bullet chart with columns corresponding to the measures, aggregated over the dimension.

Requirements

Requires @nebula.js/stardust version 1.2.0 or later.

Installing

If you use npm: npm install @nebula.js/sn-bullet-chart. You can also load through the script tag directly from https://unpkg.com.

More examples

Horizontal bullet chart with common range

Sometime it is easier for the eyes to perceive the information from a bullet chart if it is horizontal and its measure has a common range.

// Render a bullet chart horizontally, and with common range
nuked.render({
  element: document.querySelector(".bullet"),
  type: "bullet-chart",
  fields: ["Quarter", "=Sum(Sales)"],
  properties: {
    title: "Sales by Quarters",
    orientation: "horizontal",
    measureAxis: {
      commonRange: true,
      dock: "near",
    },
  },
});

Adding target

By adding targets, you can compare not only the sales between different quarters but also the sale of each quarter to its sale target.

// Rendering a bullet chart with targets
nuked.render({
  element: document.querySelector(".bullet"),
  type: "bullet-chart",
  fields: ["Quarter"],

  // Define `qMeasures` in `properties` instead of in `fields`
  properties: {
    title: "Sales by Quarters",
    qHyperCubeDef: {
      qMeasures: [
        {
          qDef: {
            qDef: "Sum(Sales)",
            target: "Sum([Sale targets])",
          },
          qSortBy: {
            qSortByNumeric: -1,
          },
          qAttributeExpressions: [
            {
              qExpression: "Sum([Sale targets])",
              id: "bullet-target",
            },
          ],
        },
      ],
      qInitialDataFetch: [
        {
          qLeft: 0,
          qTop: 0,
          qWidth: 15,
          qHeight: 500,
        },
      ],
    },

    // Horizontal, with common range
    orientation: "horizontal",
    measureAxis: {
      commonRange: true,
      dock: "near",
    },
  },
});

Add color segments

You can also add color segments to the chart to show poor/normal/good performance. Here two limits are added, splitting the range into three segments: red (lower than 90% of the target), yellow (within 90-110% of the target), and green (higher than 110% of the target).

// Rendering a bullet chart with segments
nuked.render({
  element: document.querySelector(".bullet"),
  type: "bullet-chart",

  // Define all `fields` in `properties`
  properties: {
    title: "Sales by Quarters",

    qHyperCubeDef: {
      qDimensions: [
        {
          qDef: {
            qFieldDefs: ["Quarter"],
            qSortCriterias: [{ qSortByAscii: 1 }],
          },
        },
      ],
      qMeasures: [
        {
          qDef: {
            qDef: "Sum(Sales)",
            target: "Sum([Sale targets])",
            conditionalColoring: {
              segments: {
                limits: [
                  {
                    value: {
                      qValueExpression: {
                        qExpr: "Sum([Sale targets])*0.9",
                      },
                    },
                  },
                  {
                    value: {
                      qValueExpression: {
                        qExpr: "Sum([Sale targets])*1.1",
                      },
                    },
                  },
                ],
                paletteColors: [
                  {
                    color: "#7c4345",
                  },
                  {
                    color: "#e0db4d",
                  },
                  {
                    color: "#53ad55",
                  },
                ],
              },
            },
          },
          qSortBy: {
            qSortByNumeric: -1,
          },
          qAttributeExpressions: [
            {
              id: "bullet-target",
              qExpression: "Sum([Sale targets])",
            },

            {
              id: "bullet-segment",
              qExpression: "Sum([Sale targets])*0.9",
            },
            {
              id: "bullet-segment",
              qExpression: "Sum([Sale targets])*1.1",
            },
          ],
        },
      ],
      qInitialDataFetch: [
        {
          qLeft: 0,
          qTop: 0,
          qWidth: 15,
          qHeight: 500,
        },
      ],
      qInterColumnSortOrder: [0, 1],
    },

    // Horizontal, with common range
    orientation: "horizontal",
    measureAxis: {
      commonRange: true,
      dock: "near",
    },
  },
});

Multiple measures, no dimension

The bullet chart can also be defined with no dimension and multiple measures. Each bar represents corresponding measure aggregate over the dimension.

// Rendering a bullet chart with three measures and no dimension
nuked.render({
  element: document.querySelector(".bullet"),
  type: "bullet-chart",
  fields: ["=Sum(Coffee)", "=Sum(Tea)", "=Sum(Sales)"],
  properties: {
    title: "Sales of Coffe, Tea, and Total",
  },
});

Bullet chart plugins

A plugin can be passed into a bullet chart to add or modify its capability or visual appearance. A plugin needs to be defined before it can be rendered together with the chart.

// Step 1: define the plugin

// Modifying the look and the position of the major axis
const majorAxisPlugin = {
  info: {
    name: 'major-axis-plugin',
    type: 'component-definition',
  },
  fn: ({ keys, layout }) => {
    const componentDefinition = {
      type: 'axis',

      // Provide the same name as the exisiting component to override it
      key: keys.COMPONENT.MAJOR_AXIS,
      settings: {
        labels: {
          fontFamily: 'Tahoma, san-serif',
          fontSize: '15px',
          fill: 'darkred',
        },
      },
    };
    return componentDefinition;
  },
};

// Step 2: passing the plugin definition into the render function

// Rendering a bullet chart with plugins
    nuked.render({
      element: document.getElementById('object'),
      type: 'sn-bullet-chart',
      plugins: [majorAxisPlugin],
      properties,
    });
});

The plugin definition is an object, with two properties info and fn. The fn returns a picasso.js component. To build this component, some important chart internals are passed into the argument object of fn.

// Structure of the argument object of fn
const pluginArgs = {
  layout,
  keys: {
    SCALE: {
      MAIN: {
        MAJOR: KEYS.SCALE.MAIN.MAJOR,
        MINOR: KEYS.SCALE.MAIN.MINOR,
      },
    },
    COMPONENT: {
      BAR: KEYS.COMPONENT.BAR,
      MAJOR_AXIS: KEYS.COMPONENT.MAJOR_AXIS,
      MAJOR_AXIS_TITLE: KEYS.COMPONENT.MAJOR_AXIS_TITLE,
      BULLET_AXIS: KEYS.COMPONENT.BULLET_AXIS,
    },
    COLLECTION: {
      MAIN,
    },
  },
};

With plugins, you can either add new components or modify existing components of the bullet chart.

Add new components

The new component can be a standard Picasso component or a custom Picasso component. Below is a standard reference line component.

// Adding reference line at the mean of the targets
const meanReferenceLinePlugin = {
  info: {
    name: "mean-reference-line-plugin",
    type: "component-definition",
  },
  fn: ({ keys, layout }) => {
    const targets = layout.qHyperCube.qDataPages[0].qMatrix.map(
      (item) => item[1].qAttrExps.qValues[0].qNum
    );
    const averageOfTargets =
      targets.reduce(
        (accumulator, currentValue) => accumulator + currentValue
      ) / targets.length;
    const componentDefinition = {
      key: "mean-reference-line",
      type: "ref-line",
      layout: { displayOrder: 3 },
      lines: {
        x: [
          {
            line: {
              stroke: "darkblue",
              strokeWidth: 3,
            },
            scale: keys.SCALE.MAIN.MINOR,
            value: averageOfTargets,
            label: {
              text: `Mean of the targets`,
              fontSize: "15px",
              background: { fill: "white", opacity: 0.8 },
              showValue: false,
            },
          },
        ],
      },
    };
    return componentDefinition;
  },
};

Modify existing components

As an example, the positions and the appearance of the axes can be modified completely by plugins.

To override an existing component, fn should returns a picasso.js component that has the same key as the existing component (keys.COMPONENT.BULLET_AXIS in this example).

// Modifying the look and the position of the bullet axis
const bulletAxisPlugin = {
  info: {
    name: "bullet-axis-plugin",
    type: "component-definition",
  },
  fn: ({ keys, layout }) => {
    const componentDefinition = {
      type: "box-axis",

      // Provide the same name as the exisiting component to override it
      key: keys.COMPONENT.BULLET_AXIS,
      settings: {
        labels: {
          fontFamily: "Tahoma, san-serif",
          fontSize: "15px",
          fill: "darkblue",
        },
        line: { stroke: "gray" },
      },
    };
    return componentDefinition;
  },
};

Plugins disclaimer

• The plugins API is still experimental.
• It is not guaranteed that the chart is compatible with all different settings, especially when modifying existing components.