About
-----

Flot is a Javascript plotting library for jQuery. Read more at the
website:

  http://code.google.com/p/flot/

Take a look at the examples linked from above, they should give a good
impression of what Flot can do and the source code of the examples is
probably the fastest way to learn how to use Flot.
  

Installation
------------

Just include the Javascript file after you've included jQuery.

Note that you need to get a version of Excanvas (I currently suggest
you take the one bundled with Flot as it contains a bugfix for drawing
filled shapes) which is canvas emulation on Internet Explorer. You can
include the excanvas script like this:

  <!--[if IE]><script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="excanvas.pack.js"></script><![endif]-->

If it's not working on your development IE 6.0, check that it has
support for VML which excanvas is relying on. It appears that some
stripped down versions used for test environments on virtual machines
lack the VML support.
  
Also note that you need at least jQuery 1.2.1.


Basic usage
-----------

Create a placeholder div to put the graph in:

   <div id="placeholder"></div>

You need to set the width and height of this div, otherwise the plot
library doesn't know how to scale the graph. You can do it inline like
this:

   <div id="placeholder" style="width:600px;height:300px"></div>

You can also do it with an external stylesheet. Make sure that the
placeholder isn't within something with a display:none CSS property -
in that case, Flot has trouble measuring label dimensions which
results in garbled looks and might have trouble measuring the
placeholder dimensions which is fatal (it'll throw an exception).

Then when the div is ready in the DOM, which is usually on document
ready, run the plot function:

  $.plot($("#placeholder"), data, options);

Here, data is an array of data series and options is an object with
settings if you want to customize the plot. Take a look at the
examples for some ideas of what to put in or look at the reference
in the file "API.txt". Here's a quick example that'll draw a line from
(0, 0) to (1, 1):

  $.plot($("#placeholder"), [ [[0, 0], [1, 1]] ], { yaxis: { max: 1 } });

The plot function immediately draws the chart and then returns a Plot
object with a couple of methods.


What's with the name?
---------------------

First: it's pronounced with a short o, like "plot". Not like "flawed".

So "Flot" is like "Plot".

And if you look up "flot" in a Danish-to-English dictionary, some up
the words that come up are "good-looking", "attractive", "stylish",
"smart", "impressive", "extravagant". One of the main goals with Flot
is pretty looks. Flot is supposed to be "flot".


Frequently asked questions
--------------------------

Q: Can I export the graph?

A: This is a limitation of the canvas technology. There's a hook in
the canvas object for getting an image out, but you won't get the tick
labels. And it's not likely to be supported by IE. At this point, your
best bet is probably taking a screenshot, e.g. with PrtScn.


Q: Flot doesn't work with [framework xyz]!

A: The problem is most likely within the framework, or your use of the
framework.

The only non-standard thing used by Flot is the canvas tag; otherwise
it is simply a series of absolute positioned divs within the
placeholder tag you put in. If this is not working, it's probably
because the framework you're using is doing something weird with the
DOM. As a last resort, you might try replotting and see if it helps.

If you find there's a specific thing we can do to Flot to help, feel
free to submit a bug report. Otherwise, you're welcome to ask for help
on the mailing list, but please don't submit a bug report to Flot -
try the framework instead.