Issue with plotOptions

[venkateshkandasamy]

Expected behaviour

Should create a stacked column chart

Actual behaviour

PhantomJs crashes with the below error message

error when performing chart generation: please check your input data
uncaughtException: TypeError: Cannot read property 'data' of undefined
at doDone (/home/ec2-user/downloads/node_modules/highcharts-export-server/lib/phantompool.js:119:20)
at ChildProcess. (/home/ec2-user/downloads/node_modules/highcharts-export-server/lib/phantompool.js:152:9)
at emitTwo (events.js:125:13)
at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:213:7)
at maybeClose (internal/child_process.js:887:16)
at Socket.stream.socket.on (internal/child_process.js:340:11)
at emitOne (events.js:115:13)
at Socket.emit (events.js:210:7)
at Pipe._handle.close [as _onclose] (net.js:546:12)

Reproduction steps

I am using node v8.0.0 and phantomjs 2.1.1 in linux ami

The below export settings works well in http://export.highcharts.com/ and in my local setup without any changes but behaves differently in AWS linux environment. I traced the problem to plotOptions. When the plotOptions is either {} or disabled, it works.

{ type: 'png',
options:
{ chart: { type: 'column', height: 600, width: 600 },
title: { text: '' },
credits: { enabled: false },
colors: [ '#666699', '#674273', '#7600c4' ],
xAxis:
{ categories: [ 'FY 2017 to 2017-11-2', 'FY 2018 to 2018-11-2' ],
labels: { style: { fontSize: '15px' } } },
yAxis:
{ min: 0,
title: { text: 'Millions(USD)', style: { fontSize: '15px' } },
stackLabels: { enabled: true, style: { fontSize: '16px' } },
labels: { style: { fontSize: '15px' } } },
legend:
{ align: 'center',
verticalAlign: 'bottom',
symbolHeight: 18,
symbolWidth: 18,
symbolRadius: 18,
itemStyle: { fontSize: '15px', fontWeight: '' } },
tooltip:
{ headerFormat: '${point.x}B
',
pointFormat: '{series.name}: ${point.y}B
Total: {point.stackTotal}' },
plotOptions:
{ column:
{ stacking: 'normal',
dataLabels:
{ enabled: true,
format: '${y}M',
color: 'black',
style: { fontSize: 16, fontWeight: '' },
x: 95 } } },
series:
[ { name: 'AE', data: [ 30, 467 ] },
{ name: 'AY', data: [ 585, 101 ]},
{ name: 'DE LS AY', data: [ 30, null ] },
{ name: 'NY', data: [ 63, 196 ] } ] } }

[KacperMadej]

+1

[cvasseng]

Hi,

have you installed phantom manually, or have you let the export server install it as a dependency? If you've done the former, there may be a versioning conflict, as it will install it automatically when running npm install.

Does it work if you pass an empty object to plotOptions.column? What if you only set stacking, and not dataLabels?

As a side note, we're running export.highcharts.com on AWS, without any issues like this (Amazon Linux v3.1.0).

[cvasseng]

Oh, and are you using the export server as a node module, or running it out-of-the-box with a global npm install?

And lastly - are you using the HTTP server, or are you using the CLI or chart.export interfaces?

[venkateshkandasamy]

Yes. I am using the export server as a node module. I did a global npm install and using the http server for generating images.

It works when I pass an empty object to plotOptions.column but fails when I enable the stacking (without data labels).

[cvasseng]

Just to clarify - are you installing the export server via. npm and starting it via. e.g. highcharts-export-server --enableServer 1 in a terminal, or are you using it in your node app by doing e.g. const exportServer = require('highcharts-export-server')?

[venkateshkandasamy]

Sorry for the confusion. Using it as the later one. eg: const exportServer = require('highcharts-export-server')

[cvasseng]

I'm sorry to say that we have still not been able to reproduce this on any configuration.

If you have any additional information, that would be most helpful.

[KacperMadej]

After further testing it looks like axis stack labels are the problem - they are causing the error. I'm unable to recreate the issue, but @venkateshkandasamy were able to test different chart's and were able to find the problematic option.

Have you tried with the stack labels enabled @cvasseng ? Here's a demo with chart's config that's showing the error while not using the plotOptions: http://jsfiddle.net/BlackLabel/pu095v9n/9/

As a workaround - use another series instead of axis stack labels: http://jsfiddle.net/BlackLabel/pu095v9n/10/

[cvasseng]

@KacperMadej: yes - I'm unable to reproduce it at all both locally and on the live export server. Pasting the code from http://jsfiddle.net/BlackLabel/pu095v9n/9/ into export.highcharts.com gives me this:

..which looks fine to me unless I'm missing something?

[venkateshkandasamy]

@cvasseng As you said, it works for me in my local system as well as in export.highcharts.com but not in the instance (node v8.0.0, phantomjs 2.1.1) that I am using. Does a phantomJs crash report or any specific log file could be of any use?

[cvasseng]

Any information or logs would be useful, as we're not able to reproduce it on any system or configuration.

It's such a specific thing that it makes me think it's either Phantom or Highcharts itself, or a combination of the Phantom version and Highcharts. But unless you've installed phantom yourself, that shouldn't be the case.

[vishvajitgirase]

i am also facing same issue this app works perfectly fine when we create demo but as soon as we call the function for graph generation in respond to http call then it stops working

[PaulDalek]

Hi @vishvajitgirase

Thank you for contacting us and reporting this issue. Please, provide us with more information about the error that you encounter, the way how exporting is triggered (through CLI, as a HTTP request, as a node module, etc.) and how the export server is installed (globally or as a dependency) and configured. Thanks.

[vishvajitgirase]

hello @PaulDalek
I am using hapiJs for developend of api which will return pdf and for now i am running on localhost. i have design a function which will return a pdf document which contains graphs.
sample code:-

const pdf=()=>{

        first();
        generateGraph(); //this will contain highchart export server which will export graph as svg and again by reading it it will saved in pdf;
         ... code for other pages of pdf
  return doc;

  }

i think the function which exports the graph i.e chartExporter.export is asynchronous in nature so my document is returning before the completion of execution of that function

[PaulDalek]

@vishvajitgirase

It is hard to say much based on the information that you provided and without knowing what is happening in the generateGraph but yes, the exporting process is asynchronous and you need to wait until the chart is generated. Take a look at the export function in the API. As you can read there, the second argument is a callback that triggers after export is complete. You can for example create a Promise and call the resolve function in that callback. I have posted a simple code below to show you how it can be done.

app.js

// Load the generateGraph function
const { generateGraph } = require('./generate-graph.js');

// Export settings
var exportSettings = {
    type: 'pdf',
    outfile: 'chart.pdf',
    async: true,
    options: {
        series: [{
            data: [9, 3, 2, 6, 1]
        }, {
            type: 'column',
            data: [9, 3, 2, 6, 1]
        }, {
            type: 'scatter',
            data: [8, 5, 2, 1, 5]
        }]
    }
};

(async function asyncPDF() {
    await generateGraph(exportSettings);
    console.log('EXPORTING PROCESS IS DONE.');
    process.exit(0);
})();

generate-graph.js

// Include the exporter module
const exporter = require('../../lib/index.js');

module.exports.generateGraph = options => {
    return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
        // Set log level
        exporter.logLevel(4);

        // Set up a pool of PhantomJS workers
        exporter.initPool({
            maxWorkers: 1
        });

        // Perform an export
        exporter.export(options, function (err, res) {
            if (err) {
                return reject(err);
            }
            console.log(res);

            // Kill the pool when we're done with it, and exit the application
            exporter.killPool();
            return resolve();
        });
    });
};

[PaulDalek]

Closing issue due to inactivity.