Get Reference to Chart Object

FusionCharts Suite XT supports 3 ways of getting references to the chart object at runtime. They are:

  • Using the FusionCharts constructor
  • Using the items object

This reference comes in handy if you want to perform operations on the chart like change its properties or chart type once the chart is rendered.

Using the FusionCharts Constructor

The FusionCharts constructor returns a reference to the id of the chart passed to it when it is called without the new keyword.

The following code snippet shows how to get a reference of the chart using this method

<html>
<head>
<script>
FusionCharts.ready(function() {
    var revenueChart = new FusionCharts({
        id: 'revenue-chart',
        type: 'column2d',
        renderAt: 'chart-container',
        dataFormat: 'json'
        dataSource: {
              // Chart data goes here
        }
        });

    revenueChart.render();
    revenueChart = FusionCharts('revenue-chart');
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="chart-container">FusionCharts will render here</div>
</body>
</html>

Here the revenueChart variable contains a reference to the chart object.

Using the Items Object

When the FusionCharts library is used and charts are rendered on a page, an items object contains references to all the charts used in the page. The FusionCharts items object returns a reference to the id of the chart passed to it.

The following code snippet shows how to get a reference of the chart using this method. revenueChart contains the object reference we are looking at.

<html>
<head>
<script>
FusionCharts.ready(function() {
    var revenueChart = new FusionCharts({
        id: 'revenue-chart',
        type: 'column2d',
        renderAt: 'chart-container',
        dataFormat: 'json'
        dataSource: {
             // Chart data goes here
      }
        });
    revenueChart.render();
    revenueChart = FusionCharts.items['revenue-chart'];
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="chart-container">FusionCharts will render here</div>
</body>
</html>