More Chart Types¶

Beyond the common charts, Dataface supports a fixed set of built-in chart types plus registered custom chart types. Built-in types include several Vega-Lite mark-backed families, but arbitrary chart-level mark, encoding, or spec blocks are not part of the authored Dataface schema.

Heatmap¶

Best for: Two-dimensional patterns, matrix data

charts:
  heatmap_example:
    query: _doc_examples.yaml#sales_product_category
    type: heatmap
    title: Revenue Heatmap
    x: product
    y: category
    color: revenue
rows:
  - heatmap_example

▶

Field	Required	Description
`x`	Yes	Column categories
`y`	Yes	Row categories
`color`	Yes	Value to color by

Histogram¶

Best for: Distribution of continuous values

charts:
  histogram_example:
    query: _doc_examples.yaml#sales
    type: histogram
    title: Revenue Distribution
    x: revenue
rows:
  - histogram_example

▶

Field	Required	Description
`x`	Yes	Continuous field to bin
`color`	No	Category grouping

Histograms automatically bin the x-axis values.

Supported Advanced Types¶

Use type with one of the built-in names below, or with a registered custom chart type name. Unknown chart type names fail validation.

Type	Description	Use Case
`bar`	Bar chart	Category comparisons
`line`	Line chart	Time series
`area`	Area chart	Stacked trends
`scatter`	Scatter plot	Scatter plots (canonical; `point` is an alias)
`circle`	Circle plot	Bubble charts
`square`	Square plot	Matrix dots
`tick`	Tick marks	Distribution strips
`rect`	Rectangle	Heatmaps, calendars
`rule`	Rule/line	Reference lines, thresholds
`text`	Text labels	Annotations
`trail`	Trail plot	Paths, connections
`arc`	Arc marks	Pie, donut, radial charts
`geoshape`	Geographic shapes	Maps
`map`	Filled region map	State/country metrics (canonical; `choropleth` is an alias)
`point_map`	Location markers	Plotting locations
`bubble_map`	Sized markers	Location + magnitude
`boxplot`	Box plot	Statistical distribution
`errorbar`	Error bars	Uncertainty visualization
`errorband`	Error bands	Confidence intervals
`image`	Image marks	Image-backed points

Convenience Aliases¶

These aliases map to Vega-Lite marks with sensible defaults:

Alias	Maps To	What It Does
`point`	`scatter`	Scatter plot (alias; `scatter` is canonical)
`choropleth`	`map`	Filled region map (alias; `map` is canonical)
`heatmap`	`rect`	Color-coded matrix
`pie`	`arc`	Pie chart
`donut`	`arc`	Pie with inner radius
`histogram`	`bar`	Auto-binned bar chart

Input Requirements¶

Quick reference for what each chart type needs:

Type	Required	Optional
`bar`	`x`, `y`	`color`, `size`
`line`	`x`, `y`	`color`
`area`	`x`, `y`	`color`
`scatter`	`x`, `y`	`color`, `size`, `shape`
`heatmap`	`x`, `y`, `color`	—
`pie` / `donut`	`theta`, `color`	`inner_radius`
`histogram`	`x`	`color`
`boxplot`	`x`, `y`	`color`
`kpi`	`value`	`label`, `support`, `format`
`table`	—	—

Charts Overview - High-level chart guidance
Maps - Filled-region, point, and bubble maps
Charts Overview - Field reference and styling
Vega-Lite marks documentation: https://vega.github.io/vega-lite/docs/mark.html