@finos/perspective-viewer

The `<perspective-viewer>` Custom Element, frontend for Perspective.js

Usage no npm install needed!

<script type="module">
  import finosPerspectiveViewer from 'https://cdn.skypack.dev/@finos/perspective-viewer';
</script>

README

@finos/perspective-viewer

Module for the <perspective-viewer> custom element. This module has no (real) exports, but importing it has a side effect: the PerspectiveViewerElementclass is registered as a custom element, after which it can be used as a standard DOM element.

Though <perspective-viewer> is written mostly in Rust, the nature of WebAssembly's compilation makes it a dynamic module; in order to guarantee that the Custom Elements extension methods are registered synchronously with this package's import, we need perform said registration within this wrapper module. As a result, the API methods of the Custom Elements are all async (as they must await the wasm module instance).

The documentation in this module defines the instance structure of a <perspective-viewer> DOM object instantiated typically, through HTML or any relevent DOM method e.g. document.createElement("perspective-viewer") or document.getElementsByTagName("perspective-viewer").

Table of contents

Classes

Interfaces

Type aliases

Properties

Functions

Type aliases

PerspectiveViewerConfig

Ƭ PerspectiveViewerConfig: perspective.ViewConfig & { plugin?: string ; plugin_config?: any ; settings?: boolean }

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:20

Properties

default

default: Object

Type declaration

Name Type
HTMLPerspectiveViewerElement typeof HTMLPerspectiveViewerElement
HTMLPerspectiveViewerPluginElement typeof HTMLPerspectiveViewerPluginElement

Functions

convert

convert(old, options?): Record<string, unknown> | ArrayBuffer | string

A migration utility for @finos/perspective-viewer and @finos/perspective-workspace persisted state objects. If you have an application which persists tokens returned by the .save() method of a Perspective Custom Element, and you want to upgrade Perspective to the latest version, this module is for you! You know who you are!

Say you have a <perspective-viewer> Custom Element from @finos/perspective-viewer>=0.8.3, and have persisted an arbitrary persistence token object:

const old_elem = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
const old_token = await old_elem.save();

To migrate this token to the version of @finos/perspective-migrate itself:

import {convert} from "@finos/perspective-viewer`;

// ...

const new_elem = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
const new_token = convert(old_token);
await new_elem.restore(new_token);

convert can also be imported in node for converting persisted tokens outside the browser.

const {convert} = require("@finos/perspective-viewer/dist/cjs/migrate.js");

Parameters

Name Type Description
old string | ArrayBuffer | Record<string, unknown> the layout to convert, in <perspective-viewer> or <perspective-workspace> format.
options PerspectiveConvertOptions a PerspectiveConvertOptions object specifying the convert options for this call.

Returns

Record<string, unknown> | ArrayBuffer | string

a layout for either <perspective-viewer> or <perspective-workspace>, updated to the perspective version of this script's package.

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/migrate.ts:52

Class: HTMLPerspectiveViewerElement

The Custom Elements implementation for <perspective-viewer>, as well at its API. PerspectiveViewerElement should not be constructed directly (like its parent class HTMLElement); instead, use document.createElement() or declare your <perspective-viewer> element in HTML. Once instantiated, <perspective-viewer> works just like a standard HTMLElement, with a few extra perspective-specific methods.

example

const viewer = document.createElement("perspective-viewer");

example

document.body.innerHTML = `
    <perspective-viewer id="viewer"></perspective-viewer>
`;
const viewer = document.body.querySelector("#viewer");

Hierarchy

  • HTMLElement

    HTMLPerspectiveViewerElement

Table of contents

Data Methods

Other Methods

Persistence Methods

Plugin Methods

UI Action Methods

Util Methods

Data Methods

getTable

getTable(wait_for_table?): Promise<Table>

Returns the perspective.Table() which was supplied to load()

example Share a Table

const viewers = document.querySelectorAll("perspective-viewer");
const [viewer1, viewer2] = Array.from(viewers);
const table = await viewer1.getTable();
await viewer2.load(table);

Parameters

Name Type Description
wait_for_table? boolean Whether to await load() if it has not yet been invoked, or fail immediately.

Returns

Promise<Table>

A Promise which resolves to a perspective.Table

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:187


getView

getView(): Promise<View>

Returns the underlying perspective.View currently configured for this <perspective-viewer>. Because ownership of the perspective.View is mainainted by the <perspective-viewer> it was created by, this View may become deleted (invalidated by calling delete()) at any time - specifically, it will be deleted whenever the PerspectiveViewConfig changes. Because of this, when using this API, prefer calling getView() repeatedly over caching the returned perspective.View, especially in async contexts.

example Collapse grid to root

const viewer = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
const view = await viewer.getView();
await view.set_depth(0);

Returns

Promise<View>

A Promise which ressolves to a perspective.View.

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:211


load

load(table): Promise<void>

Load a perspective.Table. If load or update have already been called on this element, its internal perspective.Table will not be deleted, but it will bed de-referenced by this <perspective-viewer>.

example Load perspective.table

const my_viewer = document.getElementById('#my_viewer');
const tbl = perspective.table("x,y\n1,a\n2,b");
my_viewer.load(tbl);

example Load Promise<perspective.table>

const my_viewer = document.getElementById('#my_viewer');
const tbl = perspective.table("x,y\n1,a\n2,b");
my_viewer.load(tbl);

Parameters

Name Type
table Table | Promise<Table>

Returns

Promise<void>

A promise which resolves once the data is loaded, a perspective.View has been created, and the active plugin has rendered.

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:119


Other Methods

resetThemes

resetThemes(themes): Promise<void>

Sets the theme names available via the <perspective-viewer> status bar UI. Typically these will be auto-detected simply by including the theme .css in a <link> tag; however, auto-detection can fail if the <link> tag is not a same-origin request due to CORS. For servers configured to allow cross-origin requests, you can use the crossorigin attribute to enable detection, e.g. <link crossorigin="anonymous" .. >. If for whatever reason auto-detection still fails, you may set the themes via this method. Note the theme .css must still be loaded in this case - the resetThemes() method only lets the <perspective-viewer> know what theme names are available.

example

const viewer = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
await viewer.resetThemes(["Material Light", "Material Dark"]);

Parameters

Name Type
themes string[]

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:417


Persistence Methods

reset

reset(all?): Promise<void>

Reset's this element's view state and attributes to default. Does not delete this element's perspective.table or otherwise modify the data state.

example

const viewer = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
await viewer.reset();

Parameters

Name Type Default value Description
all boolean false Should expressions param be reset as well, defaults to

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:330


restore

restore(config): Promise<void>

Restore this element to a state as generated by a reciprocal call to save. In json (default) format, PerspectiveViewerConfig's fields have specific semantics:

  • When a key is missing, this field is ignored; <perspective-viewer> will maintain whatever settings for this field is currently applied.
  • When the key is supplied, but the value is undefined, the field is reset to its default value for this current View, i.e. the state it would be in after load() resolves.
  • When the key is defined to a value, the value is applied for this field.

This behavior is convenient for explicitly controlling current vs desired UI state in a single request, but it does make it a bit inconvenient to use restore() to reset a <perspective-viewer> to default as you must do so explicitly for each key; for this case, use reset() instead of restore.

As noted in save(), this configuration state does not include the Table or its Schema. In order for restore() to work correctly, it must be called on a <perspective-viewer> that has a Table already load()-ed, with the same (or a type-compatible superset) Schema`. It does not need have the same rows, or even be populated.

example Restore a viewer from localStorage

const viewer = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
const token = localStorage.getItem("viewer_state");
await viewer.restore(token);

Parameters

Name Type Description
config string | PerspectiveViewerConfig | ArrayBuffer returned by save(). This can be any format returned by save(); the specific deserialization is chosen by typeof config.

Returns

Promise<void>

A promise which resolves when the changes have been applied and rendered.

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:254


save

save(): Promise<PerspectiveViewerConfig>

Serialize this element's attribute/interaction state, but not the perspective.Table or its Schema. save() is designed to be used in conjunction with restore() to persist user settings and bookmarks, but the PerspectiveViewerConfig object returned in json format can also be written by hand quite easily, which is useful for authoring pre-conceived configs.

example Save a viewer to localStorage

const viewer = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
const token = await viewer.save("string");
localStorage.setItem("viewer_state", token);

Returns

Promise<PerspectiveViewerConfig>

a serialized element in the chosen format.

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:281

save(format): Promise<PerspectiveViewerConfig>

Parameters

Name Type
format "json"

Returns

Promise<PerspectiveViewerConfig>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:282

save(format): Promise<ArrayBuffer>

Parameters

Name Type
format "arraybuffer"

Returns

Promise<ArrayBuffer>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:283

save(format): Promise<string>

Parameters

Name Type
format "string"

Returns

Promise<string>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:284


Plugin Methods

getAllPlugins

getAllPlugins(): Promise<HTMLElement[]>

Get all plugin custom element instances, in order of registration.

If no plugins have been registered (via registerPlugin()), calling getAllPlugins() will cause perspective-viewer-plugin to be registered as a side effect.

Returns

Promise<HTMLElement[]>

An Array of the plugin instances for this <perspective-viewer>.

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:526


getPlugin

getPlugin(name?): Promise<HTMLElement>

Get the currently active plugin custom element instance, or a specific named instance if requested. getPlugin(name) does not activate the plugin requested, so if this plugin is not active the returned HTMLElement will not have a parentElement.

If no plugins have been registered (via registerPlugin()), calling getPlugin() will cause perspective-viewer-plugin to be registered as a side effect.

Parameters

Name Type Description
name? string Optionally a specific plugin name, defaulting to the current active plugin.

Returns

Promise<HTMLElement>

The active or requested plugin instance.

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:509


registerPlugin

Static registerPlugin(name): Promise<void>

Register a new plugin via its custom element name. This method is called automatically as a side effect of importing a plugin module, so this method should only typically be called by plugin authors.

example

customElements.get("perspective-viewer").registerPlugin("my-plugin");

Parameters

Name Type Description
name string The name of the custom element to register, as supplied to the customElements.define(name) method.

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:91


UI Action Methods

copy

copy(flat): Promise<void>

Copies this element's view data (as a CSV) to the clipboard. This method must be called from an event handler, subject to the browser's restrictions on clipboard access. See https://www.w3.org/TR/clipboard-apis/#allow-read-clipboard.

example

const viewer = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
const button = document.querySelector("button");
button.addEventListener("click", async () => {
    await viewer.copy();
});

Parameters

Name Type Description
flat boolean Whether to use the element's current view config, or to use a default "flat" view.

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:379


download

download(flat): Promise<void>

Download this element's data as a CSV file.

Parameters

Name Type Description
flat boolean Whether to use the element's current view config, or to use a default "flat" view.

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:356


toggleConfig

toggleConfig(force?): Promise<void>

Opens/closes the element's config menu, equivalent to clicking the settings button in the UI. This method is equivalent to viewer.restore({settings: force}) when force is present, but restore() cannot toggle as toggleConfig() can, you would need to first read the settings state from save() otherwise.

Calling toggleConfig() may be delayed if an async render is currently in process, and it may only partially render the UI if load() has not yet resolved.

example

await viewer.toggleConfig();

Parameters

Name Type Description
force? boolean If supplied, explicitly set the config state to "open" (true) or "closed" (false).

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:489


Util Methods

delete

delete(): Promise<void>

Deletes this element and clears it's internal state (but not its user state). This (or the underlying perspective.view's equivalent method) must be called in order for its memory to be reclaimed, as well as the reciprocal method on the perspective.table which this viewer is bound to.

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:344


flush

flush(): Promise<void>

Flush any pending modifications to this <perspective-viewer>. Since <perspective-viewer>'s API is almost entirely async, it may take some milliseconds before any method call such as restore() affects the rendered element. If you want to make sure any invoked method which affects the rendered has had its results rendered, call and await flush()

example Flush an unawaited restore()

const viewer = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
viewer.restore({group_by: ["State"]});
await viewer.flush();
console.log("Viewer has been rendered with a pivot!");

Returns

Promise<void>

A promise which resolves when the current pending state changes have been applied and rendered.

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:312


getEditPort

getEditPort(): Promise<number>

Gets the edit port, the port number for which Table updates from this <perspective-viewer> are generated. This port number will be present in the options object for a View.on_update() callback for any update which was originated by the <perspective-viewer>/user, which can be used to distinguish server-originated updates from user edits.

example

const viewer = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
const editport = await viewer.getEditPort();
const table = await viewer.getTable();
const view = await table.view();
view.on_update(obj => {
    if (obj.port_id = editport) {
        console.log("User edit detected");
    }
});

Returns

Promise<number>

A promise which resolves to the current edit port.

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:444


notifyResize

notifyResize(force?): Promise<void>

Redraw this <perspective-viewer> and plugin when its dimensions or visibility has been updated. By default, <perspective-viewer> will auto-size when its own dimensions change, so this method need not be called; when disabled via setAutoSize(false) however, this method must be called, and will not respond to dimension or style changes to its parent container otherwise. notifyResize() does not recalculate the current View, but all plugins will re-request the data window (which itself may be smaller or larger due to resize).

example Bind notfyResize() to browser dimensions

const viewer = document.querySelector("perspective-viewer");
viewer.setAutoSize(false);
window.addEventListener("resize", () => viewer.notifyResize());

Parameters

Name Type Default value Description
force boolean false Whether to re-render, even if the dimenions have not changed. When set to false and auto-size is enabled (the defaults), calling this method will automatically disable auto-size.

Returns

Promise<void>

A Promise<void> which resolves when this resize event has finished rendering.

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:149


restyleElement

restyleElement(): Promise<void>

Restyles the elements and to pick up any style changes. While most of perspective styling is plain CSS and can be updated at any time, some CSS rules are read and cached, e.g. the series colors for @finos/perspective-viewer-d3fc which are read from CSS then reapplied as SVG and Canvas attributes.

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:393


setAutoSize

setAutoSize(autosize?): Promise<void>

Determines the auto-size behavior. When true (the default), this element will re-render itself whenever its own dimensions change, utilizing a ResizeObserver; when false, you must explicitly call notifyResize() when the element's dimensions have changed.

example Disable auto-size

await viewer.setAutoSize(false);

Parameters

Name Type Default value Description
autosize boolean true Whether to re-render when this element's dimensions change.

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:168


setThrottle

setThrottle(value?): Promise<void>

Determines the render throttling behavior. Can be an integer, for millisecond window to throttle render event; or, if undefined, will try to determine the optimal throttle time from this component's render framerate.

example Limit FPS to 1 frame per second

await viewer.setThrottle(1000);

Parameters

Name Type Description
value? number an optional throttle rate in milliseconds (integer). If not supplied, adaptive throttling is calculated from the average plugin render time.

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/viewer.ts:465

Interface: IPerspectiveViewerPlugin

The IPerspectiveViewerPlugin interface defines the necessary API for a <perspective-viewer> plugin, which also must be an HTMLElement via the Custom Elements API or otherwise. Rather than implement this API from scratch however, the simplest way is to inherit from <perspective-viewer-plugin>, which implements IPerspectiveViewerPlugin with non-offensive default implementations, where only the draw() and name() methods need be overridden to get started with a simple plugin.

Note that plugins are frozen once a <perspective-viewer> has been instantiated, so generally new plugin code must be executed at the module level (if packaged as a library), or during application init to ensure global availability of a plugin.

example

const BasePlugin = customElements.get("perspective-viewer-plugin");
class MyPlugin extends BasePlugin {
    get name() {
        return "My Plugin";
    }
    async draw(view) {
        const count = await view.num_rows();
        this.innerHTML = `View has ${count} rows`;
    }
}

customElements.define("my-plugin", MyPlugin);
const Viewer = customElements.get("perspective-viewer");
Viewer.registerPlugin("my-plugin");

Hierarchy

  • HTMLElement

    IPerspectiveViewerPlugin

Implemented by

Table of contents

Accessors

Methods

Accessors

config_column_names

get config_column_names(): string[]

The named column labels, if desired. Named columns behave differently in drag/drop mode than unnamed columns, having replace/swap behavior rather than insert. If provided, the length of config_column_names must be >= min_config_columns, as this is assumed by the drag/drop logic.

Returns

string[]

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:80


min_config_columns

get min_config_columns(): number

The minimum number of columns required for this plugin to operate. This mostly affects drag/drop and column remove button behavior, preventing the use from applying configs which violate this min.

While this option can technically be undefined (as in the case of @finos/perspective-viewer-datagrid), doing so currently has nearly identical behavior to 1.

Returns

number

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:71


name

get name(): string

The name for this plugin, which is used as both it's unique key for use as a parameter for the plugin field of a ViewerConfig, and as the display name for this plugin in the <perspective-viewer> UI.

Returns

string

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:52


select_mode

get select_mode(): "select" | "toggle"

Select mode determines how column add/remove buttons behave for this plugin. "select" mode exclusively selects the added column, removing other columns. "toggle" mode toggles the column on or off (dependent on column state), leaving existing columns alone.

Returns

"select" | "toggle"

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:60

Methods

clear

clear(): Promise<void>

Clear this plugin, though it is up to the discretion of the plugin author to determine what this means. Defaults to resetting this element's innerHTML, so be sure to override if you want custom behavior.

example

async clear(): Promise<void> {
    this.innerHTML = "";
}

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:124


delete

delete(): Promise<void>

Free any resources acquired by this plugin and prepare to be deleted.

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:159


draw

draw(view): Promise<void>

Render this plugin using the provided View. While there is no provision to cancel a render in progress per se, calling a method on a View which has been deleted will throw an exception.

example

async draw(view: perspective.View): Promise<void> {
    const csv = await view.to_csv();
    this.innerHTML = `<pre>${csv}</pre>`;
}

Parameters

Name Type
view View

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:95


resize

resize(): Promise<void>

Like update(), but for when the dimensions of the plugin have changed and the underlying data has not.

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:130


restore

restore(config): Promise<void>

Restore this plugin to a state previously returned by save().

Parameters

Name Type
config any

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:154


restyle

restyle(): Promise<void>

Notify the plugin that the style environment has changed. Useful for plugins which read CSS styles via window.getComputedStyle().

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:136


save

save(): Promise<any>

Save this plugin's state to a JSON-serializable value. While this value can be anything, it should work reciprocally with restore() to return this plugin's renderer to the same state, though potentially with a different View.

save() should be used for user-persistent settings that are data-agnostic, so the user can have persistent view during refresh or reload. For example, @finos/perspective-viewer-d3fc uses plugin_config to remember the user-repositionable legend coordinates.

Returns

Promise<any>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:149


update

update(view): Promise<void>

Draw under the assumption that the ViewConfig has not changed since the previous call to draw(), but the underlying data has. Defaults to dispatch to draw().

example

async update(view: perspective.View): Promise<void> {
    return this.draw(view);
}

Parameters

Name Type
view View

Returns

Promise<void>

Defined in

rust/perspective-viewer/src/ts/plugin.ts:109