Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Help

Where can I get help using Highcharts Core for Python?

This documentation is a great place to start, but we’re here to help!

The Highcharts for Python Toolkit comes with all of the great support that you are used to from working with the Highcharts JavaScript libraries. When you license the toolkit, you are welcome to use any of the following channels to get help using the toolkit. In particular, you can:

FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.highchartspython.com/get-help

Licensing

Is Highcharts Core for Python free?

If you are evaluating the Highcharts for Python Toolkit, you are welcome to install this library and use it free of charge.

However, if you are using it for professional purposes - either to use Highcharts for your work, or to build an application that integrates the library - then you have to pay for both Highcharts Core (JS) itself and for your right to use the Highcharts for Python Toolkit.

You can purchase licenses for both from Highsoft A/S at: https://shop.highcharts.com/.

How much does Highcharts for Python cost?

As a paid add-on to the Highcharts JavaScript libraries, the Highcharts for Python Toolkit toolkit is priced at 30% of the price you pay for your Highcharts JavaScript license/support contract.

How do I license the Highcharts for Python Toolkit?

Licensing is super easy! You can go to https://shop.highcharts.com and fill out the form, and that’s it!

Open Source

Is Highcharts for Python open source?

Yes. The Highcharts for Python Toolkit toolkit is open source (but not free - see licensing above).

You are welcome to review the source code for any library in the toolkit on Github, including for Highcharts Core for Python.

Can I fork the toolkit or a library in the toolkit?

Warning

Remember that if you fork the library and make modifications to the source code, that means that we will not be able to provide support or technical assistance for you should you run into trouble. So you will ultimately depend on forks at your own risk!

Yes. You are welcome to fork any of our repositories from Github, provided that you adhere to the terms of our Terms and Conditions for the Highcharts for Python Toolkit License.

Tip

Bear in mind that if you fork the repository, that does not mean you are allowed to use it for professional purposes. Even if forked, you still need a license to do so. You can purchase a license here.

Can I contribute to the Highcharts for Python Toolkit?

Absolutely! We encourage contributions to the toolkit from the community! For more information, please read our Contributor Guide.

Running into Issues

In Jupyter Notebook, I keep getting an error that says “Something went wrong with the Highcharts.js script.” What gives?

This is a known issue affecting Jupyter Notebook users, but it can be caused by multiple different things:

Network Connectivity. When calling Chart.display(), Highcharts for Python will attempt to load the required Highcharts (JS) JavaScript libraries into the environment where where Jupyter Notebook is running. By default, Highcharts for Python tries for 5 seconds. But if the relevant scripts have not (yet) loaded in 5 seconds, it will display an error. You can tell Jupyter to wait longer by adjusting the retries and interval properties on the .display() method. For example:

# To wait for 7 seconds
my_chart.display(retries = 7, interval = 1000)

# To wait for 10 seconds
my_chart.display(retries = 10)

Incorrect IPython, Jupyter Notebook, or Jupyter Lab versions. Please be sure to check the versions of IPython, Jupyter Notebook, and Jupyter Lab that you are using in your runtime environment. You can do this by running:

$ pip list

and then finding the entries for ipython, notebook, and jupyterlab. Please check those versions against our (soft) dependencies:

Note

Highcharts Core for Python has several types of dependencies:

  • “hard” dependencies, without which you will not be able to use the library at all,

  • “soft” dependencies, which will not produce errors but which may limit the value you get from the library,

  • “developer” dependencies that contributors will need in their local environment, and

  • “documentation” dependencies that are necessary if you wish to generate this documentation

Warning

If these hard dependencies are not available in the environment where Highcharts Core for Python is running, then the library will simply not work. Besides Highcharts Core (JS) itself, all of the other hard dependencies are automatically installed when installing Highcharts Core for Python using:

$ pip install highcharts-core

  • Highcharts Core v.10.2 or higher

    Note

    Not technically a Python dependency, but obviously Highcharts Core for Python will not work properly if your rendering layer does not leverage Highcharts Core (JS).

  • esprima-python v.4.0 or higher

  • requests v.2.31 or higher

  • validator-collection v.1.5 or higher

If you are using older versions, you can upgrade it by executing:

$ pip install --upgrade ipython notebook jupyterlab

VSCode Extension Conflict. This is the most pernicious cause of this behavior. When you are running Jupyter Notebook within VSCode and have various Jupyter Notebook-related extensions installed/enabled, those extensions can sometimes cause this error. Unfortunately, it is not consistent, and the same extensions in two different environments may or may not produce this behavior. However, users report that disabling those extensions, restarting VSCode, and then re-enabling those extensions seems to solve that problem. However, to reproduce this very inconsistent error, we’d appreciate if you could comment in the relevant Github issue to let us know which extensions you have installed when this problem occurs.

I’m getting a Highcharts error about boost/turbo mode - what does that mean?

Highcharts (JS) supports two similar features called “boost mode” and “turbo mode” that accelerate rendering of the visualization in your users’ browsers. However, these modes work best when your chart’s data is represented as a primitive array instead of as a full object:

Primitive Array

Full Object

 
[
    [1, 23],
    [2, 34],
    [3, 45]
]

[
    {'x': 1, 'y': 23},
    {'x': 2, 'y': 34},
    {'x': 3, 'y': 45}
]

When rendering a chart whose data is contained in full objects, by default Highcharts (JS) disables boost/turbo mode if there are more data points than a configurable threshold. You can adjust the thresholds using various options, including .turbo_threshold, .boost_threshold and the configuration of chart-level Boost options.

See also