Skip to content

Dynamic Axis Labels (Ticks) Misalignment with Data Points and Rangeslider #2426

Open
@yananeuenschwander

Description

@yananeuenschwander

Description:

In my Plotly chart with a rangeslider, I'm facing a dilemma with axis labels (ticks). Without using tickvals, the chart incorrectly displays Sunday as the start of the week. When using tickvals to correct this, the axis labels don't dynamically adjust when zooming out, leading to overcrowding.

Expected Behavior:

  • The x-axis should consistently display Monday as the start of each week.
  • When zooming out, the axis should dynamically adjust to a coarser interval (e.g., every month, every quarter, or every year) to maintain readability.
  • The rangeslider should allow smooth navigation while preserving appropriate tick density at different zoom levels.

Actual Behavior:

  1. Without tickvals:
  • The chart incorrectly uses Sunday as the start of the week.

  • Zooming functions work as expected, with appropriate tick density at different zoom levels.

Image

  1. With tickvals:
  • The chart correctly displays Monday as the start of the week.

  • When zooming out, the axis doesn't adjust to a more appropriate interval, resulting in overcrowded and illegible labels.

Image

Reproducible Example:

library(shiny)
library(plotly)
library(lubridate)
library(dplyr)

# Example data
data <- data.frame(
  date = seq(as.Date("2024-01-01"), Sys.Date(), by = "day"),  
  value = runif(length(seq(as.Date("2024-01-01"), Sys.Date(), by = "day")), 10, 100)  
)

# Aggregate data by week
data_weekly <- data %>%
  mutate(week = floor_date(date, unit = "week", week_start = 1)) %>%
  group_by(week) %>% 
  summarise(value = sum(value)) 

# Create a plot with the week start as the x-axis
fig <- plot_ly(data = data_weekly,
               x = ~week,  
               y = ~value,  
               type = 'bar') %>%
  layout(xaxis = list(
    range = c(floor_date(max(data$date) - months(3) + days(4),
                         unit = "week", week_start = 1),  # Set the x-axis range starting 3 months before the latest date
              max(data$date + days(4))),  # Extend the range to the maximum date (with 4 extra days for buffer)
    tickvals = data_weekly$week  # Use the start of each week as the ticks on the x-axis
  )
  )


fig %>%
  config(displayModeBar = FALSE) %>%
  layout(xaxis = list(rangeslider = list(visible = TRUE)))  # Add a range slider for the x-axis

Additional Notes:

  • The issue arises from the need to use tickvals to enforce Monday as the week start, which then prevents Plotly's automatic tick adjustment.
  • An ideal solution would combine correct week start representation (Monday) with dynamic tick adjustment when zooming.

System info

R version: 4.3.3 (2024-02-29)
Plotly version: 4.10.4
Operating System: Linux 5.15.173.1-1.cm2

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    No labels
    No labels

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions