``svg.charts`` - Package for generating SVG Charts in Python
============================================================

.. contents::

Status and License
------------------

``svg.charts`` is a pure-python library for generating charts and graphs
in SVG, originally based on the SVG::Graph Ruby package by Sean E. Russel.

``svg.charts`` supercedes ``svg_charts`` 1.1 and 1.2.

``svg.charts`` is written by Jason R. Coombs.  It is licensed under an
`MIT-style permissive license
<https://py-svg.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/py-svg/trunk/docs/license.txt>`_.

You can install it with ``easy_install svg.charts``, or from the
`subversion repository
<https://py-svg.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/py-svg/trunk#egg=svg.charts-dev>`_ with
``easy_install svg.charts==dev``.

Acknowledgements
----------------

``svg.charts`` depends heavily on lxml and cssutils. Thanks to the
contributors of those projects for stable, performant, standards-based
packages.

Sean E. Russel for creating the SVG::Graph Ruby package from which this
Python port was originally derived.

Leo Lapworth for creating the SVG::TT::Graph package which the Ruby
port was based on.

Stephen Morgan for creating the TT template and SVG.

Getting Started
---------------

``svg.charts`` has some examples (taken directly from the reference implementation)
in `tests/testing.py <https://py-svg.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/py-svg/trunk/tests/testing.py>`_.
These examples show sample usage of the various chart types. They should provide a
good starting point for learning the usage of the library.

An example of using ``svg.charts`` in a `CherryPy
<http://www.cherrypy.org/>`_ web app can be found in `jaraco.site.charts
<https://svn.jaraco.com/jaraco/python/jaraco.site/trunk/jaraco/site/charts.py>`_.
If the site is working, you can see the `rendered output here
<http://www.jaraco.com/charts/plot>`_.

Upgrade Notes
-------------

Upgrading from 1.x to 2.0

I suggest removing SVG 1.0 from the python installation.  This involves removing the SVG directory (or svg_chart*) from site-packages.

Change import statements to import from the new namespace.

from SVG import Bar
Bar.VerticalBar(...)
becomes
from svg.charts.bar import VerticalBar
VerticalBar(...)

More To-Dos
-----------

-  Documentation! This package desperately needs some high-level,
   tutorial-style how-tos, and not just links to example code.
-  Implement javascript-based animation (See JellyGraph for a Silverlight example of what simple animation can do for a charting library).

Reporting Bugs and Getting Help
-------------------------------

This project is `hosted at sourceforge
<https://sourceforge.net/projects/py-svg/>`_. Please use that site for
reporting bugs and requesting help. Patches are also welcome.

Changes
-------

2.0.5
~~~~~

* Altered the way CSS files are loaded, so they can be more easily
  customized by subclasses (and less dependent on the class names).

2.0.4
~~~~~

* A small attempt to improve the documentation - added links to examples
  that already exist.

2.0.3
~~~~~

* Fix IndexError in ``svg.charts.plot.Plot.field_size`` when there are
  only two values returned by float_range (in the case there are only
  two different 'y' values in the data) and scale_y_integers == True.
  Credit to `Jean Schurger <http://schurger.org/>`_ for the patch.
* Fixed problem in setup.py installing on Unix OS (case sensitivity of 
  readme.txt). Credit to Luke Miller and Jean Schurger for supplying
  a patch for this issue.

2.0.2
~~~~~

* Updated cssutils dependency to 0.9.6 (currently in beta) to require the CSS profiles support.
* Completed an SVG CSS profile according to the SVG 1.1 spec.

2.0.1
~~~~~

* Added preliminary SVG CSS profile, suitable for stock CSS properties.

2.0
~~~~~

* First major divergence from the Ruby reference implementation
* Now implemented as a namespace package (svg.charts instead of svg_charts)
* Changed XML processor to lxml
* Enabled extensible css support using cssutils, greatly reducing static CSS
* Renamed modules and methods to be more consistent with PEP-8 naming convention

1.2
~~~

* Bug fixes

1.1
~~~

* First public release