How can I preserve the view state of the plot?

[neilyoung]

I'm providing new x, y and z values on a time based manner to the plot. As expected the plot is newly rendered, since the values are pushed through the state Now I would like to preserve the previous zoom, pan, tilt and apply it at render time, so that e.g. an outer rotation is not reverted by the redraw. How can I achieve this?

[nicolaskruchten]

You'll need to implement the pattern from here: https://github.com/plotly/react-plotly.js#state-management

[neilyoung]

Tried that, but

onUpdate={(figure) => this.setState(figure)}

setState(figure) causes and infinite loop

[neilyoung]

OK, maybe the infinite loop was my bad... But whatsoever I do with my data arrays, I can't make them draw the plot with new data. I tried to manipulate datarevision in layout, this seems to work: A new plot is drawn on every data update, but each pose is lost (rotation, zoom, tilt, pan). I also tried top-level property revision but altering this seems to make no difference at all.

Clueless...

[neilyoung]

Beat me, but this component behaves weird. It updates and keeps the zoom now. But rotation and pan are lost. Giving up for now :(

[neilyoung]

Best: If the pan/rotation happens between two data updates, the rotation is kept... This, BTW, also explains, why I had the impression, zoom would be kept. You simply do not notice (if you don't try) that the zoom is reset in between a zoom in / out...

I need to prevent data updates while manipulating the position of the plot. Ideas?

[nicolaskruchten]

If you could provide a sample of what you're trying to do, e.g. in a CodePen or something, it would be easier for me to try to help you, as I'm having trouble understanding what's happening here for you :)

[neilyoung]

Thanks for the offer. I will consider that. I simply need to draw a timely changing series of x, y and z values. This works somehow. Think about drawing the track of a plane or pedestrian in time (maybe for performance reasons just a little span of time). As said, this works somehow. Unfortunately the camera view is with every data update reset to something shown in the screenshot.

So it contradicts the intention of the user, who might want to view the scene from different angles. If my data update interval is large enough to complete a camera scene change, then everything is OK and the next data update doesn't change it back to the initial view. Unfortunately this is not possible to achieve with data update intervals in millisecond range.

It would be great if the component would not accept redraws forced by data update while in a rotation or pan or zoom. I'm sure this is a "defect" of the original library and has nothing to do with the react wrap

[neilyoung]

OK, here is my sample code, which works somehow. If I change the rotation in between the two seconds of update, everything is fine, but please set the interval to 250 and try again...

import React, { Component } from 'react'
import { hot } from 'react-hot-loader'

let Plot
if (typeof document !== 'undefined') {
  Plot = require('react-plotly.js')
}

class App extends Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props)

    this.x = [1, 2, 3]
    this.y = [2, 3, 1]
    this.z = [5, 7, 8]

    this.tick = this.tick.bind(this)
    this.state = {
      data: [{
        x: this.x,
        y: this.y,
        z: this.z,
        type: 'scatter3d',
        mode: 'bars',
        marker: { color: 'red' },
      }],
      layout: {
        width: 1024,
        height: 768,
        autoSize: true,
        staticPlot: true,
        title: 'Plot',
      },
      frames: [],
      config: {}
    }
  }

  componentDidMount() {
    this.timer = setInterval(this.tick, 2000)
  }

  componentWillUnmount() {
    clearInterval(this.tick)
  }

  tick() {

    let data = this.state.data
    let x = data[0].x.slice()
    let y = data[0].y.slice()
    let z = data[0].z.slice()

    x.push(Math.floor((Math.random() * 100) + 1))
    y.push(Math.floor((Math.random() * 100) + 1))
    z.push(Math.floor((Math.random() * 100) + 1))

    data[0].x = x
    data[0].y = y
    data[0].z = z


    this.setState({
      config: {}
    })
  }

  render() {
    return (
      <div className="App">

        {typeof document !== 'undefined' &&
          <Plot
            data={this.state.data}
            layout={this.state.layout}
            frames={this.state.frames}
            config={this.state.config}
            onInitialized={(figure) => this.setState(figure)}
            onUpdate={(figure) => { this.setState(figure) }}
          />
        }
      </div>
    )
  }
}

export default hot(module)(App)

[nicolaskruchten]

Ah I understand the problem... That's an interesting one, I'll have to chat with the plotly.js team to see what they think/if this works outside of the Plotly.react() context. Thanks for sharing!

[neilyoung]

Thanks for dealing with this. Have a nice weekend.

[etpinard]

So yeah 3D doesn't behave the same way as cartesian subplots when dragging+updating data at once.

See comparison in:

• https://codepen.io/etpinard/pen/mjPrZN
• https://codepen.io/etpinard/pen/wxGzVM

where 3D drag update layout.scene.camera only on mouseup which results in a "camera block" in short interval loops. In cartesian, we currently attempt to prevent competing redraws calls during drag.

Unfortunately, the cartesian implementation is full of bugs too for example: plotly/plotly.js#2643 and plotly/plotly.js#2644

I think the easiest way to fix this problem (before plotly.js v2) would be to make a push for plotly/plotly.js#2606 and listen to the upcoming plotly_relayouting event to update the state properly.

[neilyoung]

@etpinard @nicolaskruchten No issue. Thanks for your efforts. I have left plotly now in favor of visjs 3d. Works for me.

[Goran216]

I have the same problem. And I gave up this framework and had to use visjs. So sad and frustrating.

[nicolaskruchten]

We have a new plotly.js feature coming soon for maintaining UI state!

[nicolaskruchten]

plotly/plotly.js#3236