Invisible traces in 1.17.0+ when using Plotly.redraw

[tim-hutchinson]

In my use of Plotly, I frequently end up with an empty placeholder created while data is retrieved, then update it with new data using Plotly.redraw(). After 1.17, only one trace is drawn in a scatter plot when following this method. The legend and tooltips are created as expected, but the actual trace is missing from the chart. A quick check indicates this is also true if calling through Plotly.update()
CodePen

I've checked past versions and it looks like it's working as of 1.16.3, but not from 1.17.0 - 1.17.2
CodePen working in 1.16.3

[arikfr]

I experienced the same thing. I just didn't know how to describe it... Thanks @tim-hutchinson !

[etpinard]

Thanks very much for the report!

We made numerous changes to the update paths during the animate PR (#802 - release in 1.17.0), so problems like this one don't come as a surprise.

In the meantime, I suggest replacing your Plotly.redraw with (the more robust) Plotly.addTraces as in http://codepen.io/etpinard/pen/VKaVmY

Now that we added a Plotly.update method (that can update both data and layout simultaneously #875, I'm thinking about deprecating Plotly.redraw in v2.0.0. Can I ask what do you find convenient about Plotly.redraw?

[tim-hutchinson]

With Plotly.redraw, I only need to know that the data for the chart changed, not how it changed, which makes it easy to use Plotly with data binding (we're wrapping it into a Polymer component). With methods like addTraces/deleteTraces, I need to know to manage the state to know that I added a new trace, or track which one I'm deleting. Or if I add data to an existing trace, I need to handle that case too. It's all doable, and probably higher performance, just additional overhead of working out what changed.

Are there differences between Plotly.redraw and Plotly.update as they exist today? From the docs, they read like they do the same thing. I'd actually discovered this by updating to 1.17 with the intent of moving to Plotly.update

[etpinard]

With Plotly.redraw, I only need to know that the data for the chart changed, not how it changed, which makes it easy to use Plotly with data binding

I see. Thanks for the info.

Are there differences between Plotly.redraw and Plotly.update as they exist today?

Plotly.update has a access to a few more fast update paths. Plotly.redraw is generally dumb when it comes to updates.

That said, Plotly.update can't add or delete trace objects found in graphDiv.data. It can still hide traces them using { visible: false }, but their corresponding graphDiv.data items will still be present.