Coco Charton is a modular data visualization framework designed for analytics teams who need flexible, high-performance charts without heavy dependencies. It emphasizes declarative configuration, responsive rendering, and straightforward integration into modern JavaScript stacks.
Built with accessibility and theming in mind, Coco Charton helps organizations standardize dashboard design while giving analysts fine-grained control over scales, axes, and interactions. The following sections outline its core concepts, components, and practical guidance.
| Feature | Description | Default | Customization Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chart Types | Line, area, bar, scatter, and combo charts | Line & Bar | High |
| Theming | Light/dark presets and token-based palette editing | Light | Very High |
| Interactivity | Zoom, tooltip, crosshair, and selection handlers | Enabled | High |
| Performance | Canvas and virtualized rendering for large datasets | Auto | Configurable |
| Accessibility | ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, color contrast checks | Basic | Moderate |
Getting Started with Coco Charton
Install Coco Charton via your package manager and import the core provider and chart components. Configuration objects define scales, axes, legends, and tooltips in a single cohesive schema.
Use the composition API to layer multiple chart types inside a shared coordinate system, which makes it easier to build dashboards with linked views and synchronized brushing.
Data Binding and Transforms
Declarative Data Pipelines
Bind data using a straightforward mapping from fields to channels such as x, y, color, and size. Optional transforms like filter, aggregate, and window allow on-the-fly summarization without pre-processing in many common cases.
Performance Considerations
For very large datasets, enable canvas rendering and chunked loading. Indexing by categorical keys improves interaction responsiveness, especially when using linked highlights across multiple chart instances.
Design System and Theming
Token-Driven Styling
Coco Charton exposes a token system for spacing, typography, and color that aligns with design systems used by product teams. Override tokens at the global or instance level to maintain brand consistency across applications.
Responsive Behavior
Charts automatically adapt to container size changes, and you can specify layout constraints for minimum widths, aspect ratios, and legend placement to optimize readability on different screens.
Advanced Integration Patterns
Embedding in Frameworks
Official wrappers are available for React, Vue, and vanilla TypeScript projects. These wrappers expose lifecycle hooks that let you react to selection events, tooltip shows, and transition completions in a type-safe manner.
Server-Side Rendering
Generate static SVG snapshots on the server for initial paint speed, then hydrate on the client to preserve interactivity. Keep heavy computation off the main thread by using Web Workers for data preprocessing.
Scaling Analytics with Coco Charton
Adopt a core set of chart templates, token themes, and data contracts to keep dashboards coherent across teams. Combine strong documentation, shared libraries, and performance budgets to maintain fast, accessible visualizations at scale.
- Standardize on a small set of chart types for consistency.
- Leverage token theming to align with brand guidelines.
- Enable performance flags for large datasets early in development.
- Document data schemas and transform pipelines for team reuse.
- Automate accessibility audits in your CI workflow.
- Plan for progressive enhancement with server-side SVG exports.
FAQ
Reader questions
How do I handle missing or irregular time series data?
Use the built-in time scale with gapThreshold and interpolation settings. You can also preprocess your stream to insert null points or hide segments where data is unavailable.
Can Coco Charton render directly to a PDF for reports?
Yes, enable the export module to render charts to vector PDF output. This is useful for scheduled reports and high-quality printable dashboards without relying on external screenshot tools.
What are the browser compatibility requirements?
Supported browsers include the latest two major versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. Legacy browsers may require polyfills for ES2019 features used by the framework.
How do I contribute a custom chart type to the project?
Follow the extension guidelines in the repository, implement the required channel interface, and submit a pull request with unit tests and accessibility checks. Maintainers review contributions on a regular release cycle.