Creating a Visualization App Using the Google Charts API and AngularJS – Pt 3

This tutorial demonstrates how to build a data visualization application using the Google Charts API and AngularJS, focusing on two-way data binding. Previous parts covered controllers and directives; this part explores how to dynamically change chart types via a dropdown menu.

Key Features:

• A dropdown menu lets users select chart types (PieChart, BarChart, ScatterChart, LineChart).
• AngularJS's two-way data binding automatically updates the chart's view when the model (selected chart type) changes.
• ngOptions and ngModel efficiently bind the dropdown options and selected value.
• ngChange and $scope.$watch dynamically rerender the chart based on user selection.

Implementing the Dropdown and Data Binding:

The dropdown is added to index.html as a <select></select> element. Instead of hardcoding options, we define chart types in controllers.js using an AngularJS approach:

$scope.chartTypes = [
  {typeName: 'PieChart', typeValue: '1'},
  {typeName: 'BarChart', typeValue: '2'},
  {typeName: 'ColumnChart', typeValue: '3'},
  {typeName: 'LineChart', typeValue: '4'}
];
$scope.chartType = $scope.chartTypes[0];

The index.html <select></select> element uses ng-options and ng-model for data binding:

<select id="chartType" ng-model="chartType" ng-options="c.typeName for c in chartTypes"></select>

The ng-controller directive in index.html should be attached to the body element for proper functionality.

Dynamic Chart Updates:

The selectType function in controllers.js updates the chart type based on the dropdown selection:

$scope.selectType = function(type) {
  $scope.chart.type = type.typeValue;
};

The gChart directive in directives.js uses $scope.$watch to monitor changes in $scope.chart and redraw the chart accordingly:

link: function($scope, elm, attrs) {
  $scope.$watch('chart', function() {
    var type = $scope.chart.type;
    var chart = '';

    // Conditional chart creation based on type
    if (type == '1') { chart = new google.visualization.LineChart(elm[0]); }
    else if (type == '2') { chart = new google.visualization.BarChart(elm[0]); }
    else if (type == '3') { chart = new google.visualization.ColumnChart(elm[0]); }
    else if (type == '4') { chart = new google.visualization.PieChart(elm[0]); }

    chart.draw($scope.chart.data, $scope.chart.options);
  }, true);
}

Remember to start the node server (node scripts/web-server.js) and navigate to http://localhost:8000/app/index.html to see the application. The complete code is available on GitHub (link not provided, as it was not in the input).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): (The FAQs section from the input has been omitted here to keep the response concise. The provided information sufficiently addresses the core functionality of the tutorial.)

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