D3 Installation Getting started with D3 that is installing and configuring your environment system to run a D3 program The essential components you need to get up and running are D3 Library e g either downloading the d3 js directly or referencing it via CDN link Editor any text editor as long as it support standard unformatted text UTF8 Web browser run and test your implementations Web server while not totally crucial for download streaming data through to a web page this is usually easier using a web server due to security constrains with opening running files locally on a web page Putting the pieces together img src https notebook xbdev net var images pieces2 jpg style margin 0 width 100 D3 Library You need to include the D3 library d3 js in all your HTML webpages in order to use D3 to create data visualization solutions There are two main ways of including D3 in your program 1 Download and include the d3 js library in your project folder 2 Or include a references to the d3 js library from the CDN Content Delivery Network Downloading D3 Since D3 is a free and open source library the source code and distributions are available online at D3 Webpage https d3js org https d3js org If you go to the D3 website you can download the latest version of D3 d3 min js As of now the latest version is v7 0 0 min builds The min in the js filename means it is a minified version of the javascript file The script will have every name translated keeping the same relationships and stuff This is useful because the file size will be much lower meaning faster downloads and less bandwidth used for the hosting servers After you ve downloaded the latest version of D3 you should have a d3 min js file Create a project folder which you ll use to run test your first D3 program Then make sur eyou copy the d3 min js file to this folder d3 min js If you re including your D3 file locally be sure to include library file in any future project folders you create so you can access run the D3 library if you forget to include the d3 library your program won t run For example create a js folder and include d3 min js and then you ll include and reference D3 as shown in the HTML example below DOCTYPE html html lang en head script src js d3 min js script head body script this is where you ll write your D3 code script body html D3 is a JavaScript library so all of your code should be written between script tags You may also manpulate the existing page configuration that is the DOM elements so you want to keep your D3 code inbetween the body tags i e between the opening body tag and the closing body tag Including D3 Library from CDN If you prefer not to download the js library to your project folder instead you can link directly to a version of the d3 min js online One such popular reference is the Content Delivery Network CDN The CDN offers a collection of servers which host files for users also take into acount geographic location for speed Taking advantage of this means you don t need to keep copies of the D3 library not to mention it could be faster for users to download the library from the CDN network versus your hosting To includ the D3 library using the CDN URL https cdnjs cloudflare com ajax libs d3 7 0 0 d3 min js https cdnjs cloudflare com ajax libs d3 7 0 0 d3 min js CDNJS You can also vsit https cdnjs com https cdnjs com website directly and search for hosted versions of files available For example you may wish to search and link to a specific version of D3 Homepage also provides a link to the latest builds of D3 https d3js org d3 v7 min js https d3js org d3 v7 min js An example is given below which uses the CDN link for including D3 in your webpage DOCTYPE html html lang en head script src https cdnjs cloudflare com ajax libs d3 7 0 0 d3 min js script head body script this is where you ll write your D3 code script body html D3 Editor You need some sort of editor to get started writing your own D3 programs Luckly there are lots of great editors available free and full of powerful features Some editors go above and beyond basic text visualzation but also offer intelligent word prediction itelisense auto indentation and error checking These more complex editors are often refered to as IDEs Integrated Development Environments Some examples include Visual Studio Code WebStorm Eclipse Submlime Text Some IDEs will also support a variety of JavaScript frameworks and offer advanced features Of course you don t have to use a complex IDE you can still always use a simple text editor such as Notepad or VI Web Browser D3 runs on all modern browsers Chrome Firefox Edge and so on Web Server While you can run D3 in a local browser without problems to access data resources you ll want to host your web page online This is to prevent you hiting certain restrictions when it comes to loading data for your visualization projects As you ll learn usually you ll store your data seperate from your main D3 program in files like CSV or JSON formats that you ll load on the fly For your web hosting any web server is fine ISS Apache Python Running Viewing your Page Once you ve got your web server up and running to view your web page i e open your HTML in your browser all you need to do is to navigate to your page URL address If you re hosting your server locally then you would open your web browser and type the URL http localhost to access and view your page
t folder instead you can link directly to a version of the d3 min js online One such popular reference is the Content Delivery Network CDN The CDN offers a collection of servers which host files for users also take into acount geographic location for speed Taking advantage of this means you don t need to keep copies of the D3 library not to mention it could be faster for users to download the library from the CDN network versus your hosting To includ the D3 library using the CDN URL https cdnjs cloudflare com ajax libs d3 7 0 0 d3 min js https cdnjs cloudflare com ajax libs d3 7 0 0 d3 min js CDNJS You can also vsit https cdnjs com https cdnjs com website directly and search for hosted versions of files available For example you may wish to search and link to a specific version of D3 Homepage also provides a link to the latest builds of D3 https d3js org d3 v7 min js https d3js org d3 v7 min js An example is given below which uses the CDN link for including D3 in your webpage DOCTYPE html html lang en head script src https cdnjs cloudflare com ajax libs d3 7 0 0 d3 min js script head body script this is where you ll write your D3 code script body html D3 Editor You need some sort of editor to get started writing your own D3 programs Luckly there are lots of great editors available free and full of powerful features Some editors go above and beyond basic text visualzation but also offer intelligent word prediction itelisense auto indentation and error checking These more complex editors are often refered to as IDEs Integrated Development Environments Some examples include Visual Studio Code WebStorm Eclipse Submlime Text Some IDEs will also support a variety of JavaScript frameworks and offer advanced features Of course you don t have to use a complex IDE you can still always use a simple text editor such as Notepad or VI Web Browser D3 runs on all modern browsers Chrome Firefox Edge and so on Web Server While you can run D3 in a local browser without problems to access data resources you ll want to host your web page online This is to prevent you hiting certain restrictions when it comes to loading data for your visualization projects As you ll learn usually you ll store your data seperate from your main D3 program in files like CSV or JSON formats that you ll load on the fly For your web hosting any web server is fine ISS Apache Python Running Viewing your Page Once you ve got your web server up and running to view your web page i e open your HTML in your browser all you need to do is to navigate to your page URL address If you re hosting your server locally then you would open your web browser and type the URL http localhost to access and view your page