DataPlotly Basic Usage¶
DataPlotly interface has been designed in order to be simple but, at the same time, complete and with many options and customizations available.
Once you have defined all the settings, x
and y
column, colors, labels, etc,
the plot is not directly shown, but it will be put into the so called Plot Basket.
The Plot Basket will store the plot(s) before they will be rendered. The Plot Basket is very handy when many plots are shown in the plot canvas and you want to remove just one of them.
Add and remove a Plot¶
DataPlotly workflow is pretty straightforward:
- choose the plot type (1)
- set the layer and the field(s) you want to plot (2)
- add the plot(s) to the Plot Basket with the
Add Plot to Basket
button (3) - display the plot(s) in the Plot View with the
Draw Plot
button (4)

To empty the Plot Basket just click on the Empty Basket
button. If you
want to remove just some plot, click on the Plot Basket
tab, select the plot
you want to remove by clicking on the row, and finally click on the Remove
Single Plot From List
button. The plot canvas will be automatically refreshed.
Multi Plots¶
DataPlotly allows the creation of many different plots. Plots can be shown on the same plot canvas (overlapping) or each plot can be drawn in different rows or columns (subplots).
Overlapping Plots¶
You can add as many plots as you want in the same plot view. Plot types can be different and also the source layer can be different.
Note
results can be very strange depending on the plot type and on the fields you choose. Be careful!
To add other plot just repeat the steps of Add and remove a Plot by chosing different plot types and/or just different layer fields, etc..
In the following picture, same plot type (scatterplot) and different fields of the same layer:

The following pictures shows 2 different overlapping plot types (boxplot and scatterplot):

Subplots¶
You can choose to separate the plots in different plot canvas. It is particulary useful when the scales are very different or when overlapping too many data results in a messy plot canvas.
You just have to choose the plots and the fields as described in the section
Add and remove a Plot but you have to specify the SubPlots
parameter from the
combobox and choose if the plots have to be drawn in rows (default parameter)
or in columns.
The following pictures show plots in rows and in columns:


Save Plot¶
Saving a plot, actually the plot canvas, is very simple. You can choose to save
the plot as a png
image or as html
file.
Note
saving the image as html
file will keep the interactivity of the plot
You just have to click on the correct button and choose the path where to save the image, both static or interactive.

Raw Plot Code¶
In addition to saving the plot as image or html file (see Save Plot) you can
also copy the raw html
code of the plot and embed it somewhere else.
A good place where to copy/paste the raw code is the html frame of the print composer of QGIS.
In order to copy the plot code, after the plot creation, just go in the Raw Plot
tab: here you can see a long string. Right Click on the tab and
choose Select All
, then Right Click again and choose Copy
(of course
you can use keyboard shortcuts Ctrl + A
for select all and Ctrl + C
for copy):

Then you have your plot code copied in memory: you just have to choose where to paste it.
In the following example, the html code
is pasted in the html frame of
the print composer:
- open the print composer and add an
html frame
(1) - paste the code in the
Source
space (2) - refresh the
html
code (3) - results will be shown in the frame (4)

Layer fields tips¶
Using Expressions¶
DataPlotly supports all the fields type (integers, floats, text, etc..) and will elaborate the data so that they can be correctly displayed.
Thanks to the QGIS API and custom widget, it is possible to add also Expressions
instead of pure layer fields (e.g. field + 10
, field1 * field2
, etc).
You can use the Expression editor to add complex expressions (e.g. (field1 + 10) * (field2 * 10)
)
or you can type the expression directly in the combo box. Expressions are evaluated
on the fly, so if the string is red, then the expression is not valid.

Use only selected features¶
Another very handy options is to work only with the selected features on the layer.
Just check the Use only selected features
check box and only the attributes
of the selected features will be taken.