Skip to content

full_figure_for_development #2737

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
merged 7 commits into from
Sep 2, 2020
Merged
Show file tree
Hide file tree
Changes from all commits
Commits
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension


Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion .circleci/config.yml
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ jobs:
- checkout
- run:
name: Install black
command: "sudo pip install black"
command: "sudo pip install black==19.10b0"
- run:
name: Check formatting with black
command: "black --check ."
Expand Down
3 changes: 2 additions & 1 deletion CHANGELOG.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -4,8 +4,9 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).

## [4.10.0] - unreleased

### Added

## [4.9.1] - unreleased
- Added `plotly.io.full_figure_for_development()` and `plotly.graph_objects.Figure.full_figure_for_development()` ([#2737](https://github.com/plotly/plotly.py/pull/2737))


## [4.9.0] - 2020-07-16
Expand Down
175 changes: 175 additions & 0 deletions doc/python/figure-introspection.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -0,0 +1,175 @@
---
jupyter:
jupytext:
notebook_metadata_filter: all
text_representation:
extension: .md
format_name: markdown
format_version: '1.2'
jupytext_version: 1.4.2
kernelspec:
display_name: Python 3
language: python
name: python3
language_info:
codemirror_mode:
name: ipython
version: 3
file_extension: .py
mimetype: text/x-python
name: python
nbconvert_exporter: python
pygments_lexer: ipython3
version: 3.7.7
plotly:
description: How to dig into and learn more about the figure data structure.
display_as: file_settings
language: python
layout: base
name: Introspecting Figures
order: 35
page_type: u-guide
permalink: python/figure-introspection/
thumbnail: thumbnail/violin.jpg
---

### The Figure Lifecycle

As explained in the [Figure Data Structure documentation](/python/figure-structure/), when building a figure object with Plotly.py, it is not necessary to populate every possible attribute. At render-time, figure objects (whether generated via [Plotly Express](/python/plotly-express/) or [Graph Objects](/python/graph-objects/) are passed from Plotly.py to [Plotly.js](/javascript/), which is the Javascript library responsible for turning JSON descriptions of figures into graphical representations.

As part of this rendering process, Plotly.js will determine, based on the attributes that have been set, which other attributes require values in order to draw the figure. Plotly.js will then apply either static or dynamic defaults to all of the remaining required attributes and render the figure. A good example of a static default would be the text font size: if unspecified, the default value is always the same. A good example of a dynamic default would be the range of an axis: if unspecified, the default will be computed based on the range of the data in traces associated with that axis.


### Introspecting Plotly Express Figures

Figure objects created by [Plotly Express](/python/plotly-express/) have a number of attributes automatically set, and these can be introspected using the Python `print()` function, or in JupyterLab, the special `fig.show("json")` renderer, which gives an interactive drilldown interface with search:

```python
import plotly.express as px

fig = px.scatter(x=[10, 20], y=[20, 10], height=400, width=400)
fig.show()
print(fig)
```

We can learn more about the attributes Plotly Express has set for us with the Python `help()` function:

```python
help(fig.data[0].__class__.mode)
```

### Accessing Javascript-Computed Defaults

_new in 4.10_

The `.full_figure_for_development()` method provides Python-level access to the default values computed by Plotly.js. This method requires [the Kaleido package](/python/static-image-export/), which is easy to install and also used for [static image export](/python/static-image-export/).

By way of example, here is an extremely simple figure created with [Graph Objects](/python/graph-objects/) (although it could have been made with [Plotly Express](/python/plotly-express/) as well just like above) where we have disabled the default template for maximum readability. Note how in this figure the text labels on the markers are clipped, and sit on top of the markers.

```python
import plotly.graph_objects as go

fig = go.Figure(
data=[go.Scatter(
mode="markers+text",
x=[10,20],
y=[20, 10],
text=["Point A", "Point B"]
)],
layout=dict(height=400, width=400, template="none")
)
fig.show()
```

Let's print this figure to see the very small JSON object that is passed to Plotly.js as input:

```python
print(fig)
```

Now let's look at the "full" figure after Plotly.js has computed the default values for every necessary attribute.

> Heads-up: the full figure is quite long and intimidating, and this page is meant to help demystify things so **please read on**!

Please also note that the `.full_figure_for_development()` function is really meant for interactive learning and debugging, rather than production use, hence its name and the warning it produces by default, which you can see below, and which can be supressed with `warn=False`.

```python
full_fig = fig.full_figure_for_development()
print(full_fig)
```

As you can see, Plotly.js does a lot of work filling things in for us! Let's look at the examples described at the top of the page of static and dynamic defaults. If we look just at `layout.font` and `layout.xaxis.range` we can see that the static default font size is 12 and that the dynamic default range is computed to be a bit beyond the data range which was 10-20:

```python
print("full_fig.layout.font.size: ", full_fig.layout.font.size)
print("full_fig.layout.xaxis.range: ", full_fig.layout.xaxis.range)
```

### Learning About Attributes


What else can we use this `full_fig` for? Let's start by looking at the first entry of the `data`

```python
print(full_fig.data[0])
```

We see that this is an instance of `go.Scatter` (as expected, given the input) and that it has an attribute we've maybe never heard of called `cliponaxis` which by default seems to be set to `True` in this case. Let's find out more about this attribute using the built-in Python `help()` function

```python
help(go.Scatter.cliponaxis)
```

Aha! This explains why in our original figure above, the text was cut off by the edge of the plotting area! Let's try forcing that to `False`, and let's also use the attribute `textposition` which we see in the full figure is by default set to `"middle center"` to get our text off of our markers:

```python
fig.update_traces(cliponaxis=False, textposition="top right")
fig.show()
```

We can use this technique (of making a figure, and querying Plotly.js for the "full" version of that figure, and then exploring the attributes that are automatically set for us) to learn more about the range of possibilities that the figure schema makes available. We can drill down into `layout` attributes also:

```python
help(go.layout.XAxis.autorange)
```

### More about Layout

In the figure we introspected above, we had added [a `scatter` trace](/python/line-and-scatter/), and Plotly.js automatically filled in for us the `xaxis` and `yaxis` values of that trace object to be `x` and `y`, and then also filled out the corresponding `layout.xaxis` and `layout.yaxis` objects for us, complete with their [extensive set of defaults for gridlines, tick labels and so on](/python/axes/).

If we create a figure with [a `scattergeo` trace](/python/scatter-plots-on-maps/) instead, however, Plotly.js will fill in a totally different set of objects in `layout`, corresponding to [a `geo` subplot, with all of its defaults for whether or not to show rivers, lakes, country borders, coastlines etc](https://plotly.com/python/map-configuration/).

```python
import plotly.graph_objects as go

fig = go.Figure(
data=[go.Scattergeo(
mode="markers+text",
lat=[10, 20],
lon=[20, 10],
text=["Point A", "Point B"]
)],
layout=dict(height=400, width=400,
margin=dict(l=0,r=0,b=0,t=0),
template="none")
)
fig.show()
full_fig = fig.full_figure_for_development()
print(full_fig)
```

If I then set `showrivers=True` and re-query the full figure, I see that new keys have appeared in the `layout.geo` object for `rivercolor` and `riverwidth`, showing the dynamic nature of these defaults.

```python
fig.update_geos(showrivers=True)
full_fig = fig.full_figure_for_development()
print(full_fig.layout.geo)
```

### Reference

You can learn more about [all the available attributes in the plotly figure schema](/python/reference/) (and read about its [high-level structure](/python/figure-structure/)) or about [all the classes and functions in the `plotly` module](/python-api-reference/).

```python

```
2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion doc/python/figure-structure.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ Attributes are referred to in text and in the [Figure Reference](/python/referen

The [`plotly.graph_objects` module contains an automatically-generated hierarchy of Python classes](/python/graph-objects/) which represent non-leaf attributes in the figure schema and provide a Pythonic API for them. When [manipulating a `plotly.graph_objects.Figure` object](/python/creating-and-updating-figures/), attributes can be set either directly using Python object attributes e.g. `fig.layout.title.font.family="Open Sans"` or using [update methods and "magic underscores"](/python/creating-and-updating-figures/#magic-underscore-notation) e.g. `fig.update_layout(title_font_family="Open Sans")`

When building a figure, it is *not necessary to populate every attribute* of every object. At render-time, the JavaScript layer will compute default values for each required unspecified attribute, depending upon the ones that are specified, as documented in the [Figure Reference](/python/reference/). An example of this would be `layout.xaxis.range`, which may be specified explicitly, but if not will be computed based on the range of `x` values for every trace linked to that axis. The JavaScript layer will ignore unknown attributes or malformed values, although the `plotly.graph_objects` module provides Python-side validation for attribute values. Note also that if [the `layout.template` key is present (as it is by default)](/python/templates/) then default values will be drawn first from the contents of the template and only if missing from there will the JavaScript layer infer further defaults. The built-in template can be disabled by setting `layout.template="none"`.
When building a figure, it is *not necessary to populate every attribute* of every object. At render-time, [the JavaScript layer will compute default values](/python/figure-introspection/) for each required unspecified attribute, depending upon the ones that are specified, as documented in the [Figure Reference](/python/reference/). An example of this would be `layout.xaxis.range`, which may be specified explicitly, but if not will be computed based on the range of `x` values for every trace linked to that axis. The JavaScript layer will ignore unknown attributes or malformed values, although the `plotly.graph_objects` module provides Python-side validation for attribute values. Note also that if [the `layout.template` key is present (as it is by default)](/python/templates/) then default values will be drawn first from the contents of the template and only if missing from there will the JavaScript layer infer further defaults. The built-in template can be disabled by setting `layout.template="none"`.

### The Top-Level `data` Attribute

Expand Down
1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions doc/requirements.txt
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -25,3 +25,4 @@ python-frontmatter
datashader
pyarrow
cufflinks==0.17.3
kaleido
31 changes: 30 additions & 1 deletion packages/python/plotly/plotly/basedatatypes.py
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -1104,7 +1104,7 @@ def _add_annotation_like(
if refs[0].subplot_type != "xy":
raise ValueError(
"""
Cannot add {prop_singular} to subplot at position ({r}, {c}) because subplot
Cannot add {prop_singular} to subplot at position ({r}, {c}) because subplot
is of type {subplot_type}.""".format(
prop_singular=prop_singular,
r=row,
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -2896,6 +2896,35 @@ def to_json(self, *args, **kwargs):

return pio.to_json(self, *args, **kwargs)

def full_figure_for_development(self, warn=True, as_dict=False):
"""
Compute default values for all attributes not specified in the input figure and
returns the output as a "full" figure. This function calls Plotly.js via Kaleido
to populate unspecified attributes. This function is intended for interactive use
during development to learn more about how Plotly.js computes default values and is
not generally necessary or recommended for production use.

Parameters
----------
fig:
Figure object or dict representing a figure

warn: bool
If False, suppress warnings about not using this in production.

as_dict: bool
If True, output is a dict with some keys that go.Figure can't parse.
If False, output is a go.Figure with unparseable keys skipped.

Returns
-------
plotly.graph_objects.Figure or dict
The full figure
"""
import plotly.io as pio

return pio.full_figure_for_development(self, warn, as_dict)

def write_json(self, *args, **kwargs):
"""
Convert a figure to JSON and write it to a file or writeable
Expand Down
4 changes: 3 additions & 1 deletion packages/python/plotly/plotly/io/__init__.py
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
import sys

if sys.version_info < (3, 7):
from ._kaleido import to_image, write_image
from ._kaleido import to_image, write_image, full_figure_for_development
from . import orca, kaleido
from ._json import to_json, from_json, read_json, write_json
from ._templates import templates, to_templated
Expand All @@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
"renderers",
"show",
"base_renderers",
"full_figure_for_development",
]
else:
__all__, __getattr__, __dir__ = relative_import(
Expand All @@ -33,6 +34,7 @@
[
"._kaleido.to_image",
"._kaleido.write_image",
"._kaleido.full_figure_for_development",
"._json.to_json",
"._json.from_json",
"._json.read_json",
Expand Down
59 changes: 57 additions & 2 deletions packages/python/plotly/plotly/io/_kaleido.py
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
from __future__ import absolute_import
from six import string_types
import os
import json
import plotly
from plotly.io._utils import validate_coerce_fig_to_dict

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -120,7 +121,7 @@ def to_image(
"""
Image export using the "kaleido" engine requires the kaleido package,
which can be installed using pip:
$ pip install -U kaleido
$ pip install -U kaleido
"""
)

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -260,4 +261,58 @@ def write_image(
file.write(img_data)


__all__ = ["to_image", "write_image", "scope"]
def full_figure_for_development(fig, warn=True, as_dict=False):
"""
Compute default values for all attributes not specified in the input figure and
returns the output as a "full" figure. This function calls Plotly.js via Kaleido
to populate unspecified attributes. This function is intended for interactive use
during development to learn more about how Plotly.js computes default values and is
not generally necessary or recommended for production use.

Parameters
----------
fig:
Figure object or dict representing a figure

warn: bool
If False, suppress warnings about not using this in production.

as_dict: bool
If True, output is a dict with some keys that go.Figure can't parse.
If False, output is a go.Figure with unparseable keys skipped.

Returns
-------
plotly.graph_objects.Figure or dict
The full figure
"""

# Raise informative error message if Kaleido is not installed
if scope is None:
raise ValueError(
"""
Full figure generation requires the kaleido package,
which can be installed using pip:
$ pip install -U kaleido
"""
)

if warn:
import warnings

warnings.warn(
"full_figure_for_development is not recommended or necessary for "
"production use in most circumstances. \n"
"To suppress this warning, set warn=False"
)

fig = json.loads(scope.transform(fig, format="json").decode("utf-8"))
if as_dict:
return fig
else:
import plotly.graph_objects as go

return go.Figure(fig, skip_invalid=True)


__all__ = ["to_image", "write_image", "scope", "full_figure_for_development"]
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -28,6 +28,12 @@ def test_kaleido_engine_to_image_returns_bytes():
assert result.startswith(b"<svg")


def test_kaleido_fulljson():
empty_fig = dict(data=[], layout={})
result = pio.full_figure_for_development(empty_fig, warn=False, as_dict=True)
assert result["layout"]["calendar"] == "gregorian"


def test_kaleido_engine_to_image():
with mocked_scope() as scope:
pio.to_image(fig, engine="kaleido", validate=False)
Expand Down
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%Produced by poppler pdftops version: 0.65.0 (http://poppler.freedesktop.org)
%Produced by poppler pdftops version: 0.81.0 (http://poppler.freedesktop.org)
%%Creator: Chromium
%%LanguageLevel: 2
%%DocumentSuppliedResources: (atend)
Expand Down
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%Produced by poppler pdftops version: 0.65.0 (http://poppler.freedesktop.org)
%Produced by poppler pdftops version: 0.81.0 (http://poppler.freedesktop.org)
%%Creator: Chromium
%%LanguageLevel: 2
%%DocumentSuppliedResources: (atend)
Expand Down
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%Produced by poppler pdftops version: 0.65.0 (http://poppler.freedesktop.org)
%Produced by poppler pdftops version: 0.81.0 (http://poppler.freedesktop.org)
%%Creator: Chromium
%%LanguageLevel: 2
%%DocumentSuppliedResources: (atend)
Expand Down

Some generated files are not rendered by default. Learn more about how customized files appear on GitHub.

Loading