Chart.js available, after a false start

Chart.js's website – now restored to the web On 18 March, Nick Downie posted his new Chart.js library to its own web site. Chart.js allows developers to create client-side graphs in HTML5 browsers and supports line charts, bar charts, radar charts, pie charts, polar area charts and doughnut charts. Each graph supports a wide range of customisations and options, including animation on reveal. It draws on HTML5 canvas elements and supports all modern browsers. The library is also compact (4.5K minified and gzipped), depends on no other libraries, and has detailed documentation.

The library was developed as Downie's final year university project and he said the initial reaction to the open source release of it was "overwhelming". But on 19 March, he had to take it down and post "An apology to open source" where he explained: "due to concerns from my employer regarding intellectual property and similarities in projects I've worked on, I've been asked to take down the site". What appeared to be a tussle over intellectual property triggered some anger on the internet, with Downie's employer being misidentified in comments. It was defused when, later that same day, Downie announced that he had "misunderstood some issues I wrote about earlier today" and that the Chart.js library was back online and MIT-licensed.

The Chart.js code is available from the project's GitHub repository.

(djwm)