HighchartsPHP

HighchartsPHP is a PHP library that works as a wrapper for the Highchart js library (http://www.highcharts.com) and it was built with flexibility and maintainability in mind. It isn't a simple port of the JavaScript library to PHP, it was designed in a way that mimics the JavaScript counterpart API, so that the developer only needs to learn one API.

The companion webpage can be found at https://goncaloqueiros.net/highcharts.php

Setup

The recommended way to install HighchartsPHP is through Composer. Just create a composer.json file and run the php composer.phar install command to install it:

{
    "require": {
        "ghunti/highcharts-php": "^4"
    }
}

Current package version supports PHP >= 8.0. For compatibility with older PHP versions, use the 3.x tag.

Usage

Simple

You can create a highchart or highstock chart using one of the three js engine available (jQuery, mootools, and prototype), using the Highchart constructor.

//This will create a highchart chart with the jquery js engine
$chart = new Highchart();

//To create a highstock chart with the jquery js engine
$stockChart = new Highchart(Highchart::HIGHSTOCK);

//Create a highchart chart with the mootools js engine
$chartWithMootools = new Highchart(null, Highchart::ENGINE_MOOTOOLS);

Now that there's a valid $chart object the developer only needs to add elements to it as if it was writing them in JavaScript.

$chart->title = array('text' => 'Monthly Average Temperature', 'x' => -20);
or
$chart->title->text = 'Monthly Average Temperature';
$chart->title->x = -20;

You can also create simple arrays

$chart->series[] = array('name' => 'Tokyo', 'data' => array(7.0, 6.9, 9.5));
or
$chart->series[0] = array('name' => 'Tokyo', 'data' => array(7.0, 6.9, 9.5));
or
$chart->series[0]->name = 'Tokyo';
$chart->series[0]->data = array(7.0, 6.9, 9.5);

Render

To get all the script necessary to render your chart you can use the printScripts() method:

$chart->printScripts();

Or if you don't want to directly echo the scripts and rather the function to return the script string:

$chart->printScripts(true);

And finally to render the chart object use the render() method:

echo $chart->render("chart");

The first (optional) argument passed to render method is the var name to be used by JavaScript and the second (optional) argument is the callback to be passed to the Highcharts.Chart method. The third and last (optional) argument flags that you want your script already wrapped around HTML script tags.

Its also possible to render the chart options only by calling the renderOptions() method. Useful for times where the chart is used inside a $.getJson call for example

$.getJSON('http://www.highcharts.com/samples/data/jsonp.php?filename=range.json&callback=?', function(data) {
    $('#container').highcharts(<?php echo $chart->renderOptions(); ?>)});

Javascript expressions

If one of the chart options must be a JavaScript expression, you can't assign a simple string to it, otherwise it will be printed as a simple JavaScript string also. For that you must use the special HighchartJsExpr object:

$chart->tooltip->formatter = new HighchartJsExpr("function() {
        return '' + this.series.name + this.x + ': ' + this.y + '°C';
    }"
);

Empty javascript object {}

If you wish to render an empty javascript object {}, just assign the variable you want with new stdClass()

Extra scripts

To manually include a script for render use the addExtraScript function:

$chart->addExtraScript('export', 'http://code.highcharts.com/modules/', 'exporting.js');

To include an extra script use the key that's on the config file or that was given manually via addExtraScript

$chart->includeExtraScripts(array('export'));

To include more than one script just add it to the array

$chart->includeExtraScripts(array('export', 'highcharts-more'));

If no arguments are passed, it will include all the extra scripts

$chart->includeExtraScripts();

If you want to add any extra script to the default config file, feel free to open a PR. Here is the list of the current extra scripts available:

• Highcharts 3.0 charts
• Exporting module

Use new Highcharts 3.0 charts

Highcharts 3.0 introduced a new set of charts that require an additional javascript file highcharts-more.js.

To include this extra script you need to call the includeExtraScripts method with the highcharts-more key.

$chart = new Highchart();
$chart->includeExtraScripts(array('highcharts-more'));

Render only some options

If you need to render a small portion of options, you can use the HighchartOptionRenderer::render($options) method.

A good example of this can be found at clock demo

$backgroundOptions = new HighchartOption();
$backgroundOptions->radialGradient = array(
    'cx' => 0.5,
    'cy' => -0.4,
    'r' => 1.9
);
...
$chart->pane->background[] = array(
    new stdClass(),
    array('backgroundColor' => new HighchartJsExpr('Highcharts.svg ? ' .
        HighchartOptionRenderer::render($backgroundOptions) . ' : null')
    )
);

This way it is possible to include option rendering inside a javascript expression

Set up a general configuration

There are cases where a configuration is not created only for a chart, but for all the charts on the page (lang and global) are examples of this.

To set a general option, just create a new HighchartOption (not chart) and send it to Highchart::setOptions() method.

The Highchart::setOptions() must be placed before the chart render

$option = new HighchartOption();
$option->global->useUTC = false;
echo Highchart::setOptions($option);

Themes

Theme creation follows the same process for a general option. You create a new HighchartOption object, use it has if it was a chart and then call Highchart::setOptions() method.

$theme = new HighchartOption();
//Code your theme as if this was a chart
$theme->colors = array('#058DC7', '#50B432', '#ED561B');
...
echo Highchart::setOptions($theme);

Configuration

By default HighchartsPHP library comes with configurations to work out of the box. If you wish to change the path of any js library loaded, have a look at src/config.php. In case you need to change some of this values you should use the setConfigurations method:

$chart = new Highchart();
$chart->setConfigurations(
    array(
        'jQuery' => array(
            'name' => 'anotherName'
        )
    )
);

Demos

All the Highcharts and Highstocks live demos present on http://www.highcharts.com under the demo gallery were reproduced using this library and you can find them on the demos folder or see a live example on https://goncaloqueiros.net/highcharts/demos.php

Tests

You can run the unit tests with the following command:

$ cd path/to/HighchartsPHP/
$ composer install
$ vendor/bin/phpunit

License

The HighchartsPHP package is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.