Plotly's image-exporting utilities
npm install orca
Orca is an Electron app that generates images and reports of Plotly things like
plotly.js graphs, dash apps, dashboards from the command line. Additionally,
Orca is the backbone of Plotly's Image Server. Orca is also an acronym for
Open-source Report Creator App.
Visit plot.ly to learn more or visit the Plotly forum.
Follow @plotlygraphs on Twitter for Orca announcements.
$ conda install -c plotly plotly-orca
which makes the
executable available on the path of current conda
environment.$3
If you have Node.js installed (recommended v8.x), you can easily install Orca
using npm as:`
$ npm install -g electron@6.1.4 orca
which makes the
executable available in your path.$3
`
$ docker pull quay.io/plotly/orca
#### Usage
If no arguments are specified, it starts an Orca server on port 9091.
You can publish the port to the outside world the usual way:
$ docker run -d -p 9091:9091 quay.io/plotly/orca
If the first argument is ,
it executes the command line application orca graph:
`
$ docker run -i quay.io/plotly/orca graph --help
$3
Alternatively, you can download the standalone Orca binaries corresponding to
your operating system from the
release page. Then, on
#### Mac OS
- Unzip the
file.
- Double-click on the orca-X.Y.Z.dmg file. This will open an installation window.
- Drag the orca icon into the Applications folder.
- Open finder and navigate to the Applications/ folder.
- Right-click on the orca icon and select _Open_ from the context menu.
- A password dialog will appear asking for permission to add orca to your system PATH.
- Enter you password and click _OK_.
- This should open an _Installation Succeeded_ window.
- Open a new terminal and verify that the orca executable is available on your PATH.`
$ which orca
/usr/local/bin/orca$ orca --help
Plotly's image-exporting utilities
Usage: orca [--version] [--help] []
...
#### Windows
- Extract the
file.
- In the release folder, double-click on orca Setup X.Y.Z, this will create an orca icon on your Desktop.
- Right-click on the orca icon and select _Properties_ from the context menu.
- From the _Shortcut_ tab, copy the directory in the _Start in_ field.
- Add this _Start in_ directory to you system PATH (see below).
- Open a new Command Prompt and verify that the orca executable is available on your PATH.`
> orca --help
Plotly's image-exporting utilities Usage: orca [--version] [--help] []
...
##### Windows References
- How to set the path and environment variables in Windows: https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000549.htm
#### Linux
- Make the orca AppImage executable.
$ chmod +x orca-X.Y.Z-x86_64.AppImage
- Create a symbolic link named
somewhere on your PATH that points
to the AppImage.`
$ ln -s /path/to/orca-X.Y.Z-x86_64.AppImage /somewhere/on/PATH/orca
- Open a new terminal and verify that the orca executable is available on your
.`
$ which orca
/somewhere/on/PATH/orca$ orca --help
Plotly's image-exporting utilities
Usage: orca [--version] [--help] []
...
##### Linux Troubleshooting: Cannot open shared object
The Electron runtime depends a several common system libraries. These
libraries are pre-installed in most desktop Linux distributions
(e.g. Ubuntu), but are not pre-installed on some server Linux distributions
(e.g. Ubuntu Server). If a shared library is missing, you will see an error
message like:
$ orca --help
orca: error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0:
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
These additional dependencies can be satisfied by installing:
- The
and libgconf-2-4 packages from your distribution's
software repository.
- The chromium-browser package from your distribution's
software repository.##### Linux Troubleshooting: Headless server configuration
The Electron runtime requires the presence of an active X11 display server,
but many server Linux distributions (e.g. Ubuntu Server) do not include X11
by default. If you do not wish to install X11 on your server, you may
install and run orca with Xvfb instead.
On Ubuntu Server, you can install Xvfb like this:
`
$ sudo apt-get install xvfb
To run orca under Xvfb, replace the symbolic link suggested above with a shell
script that runs the orca AppImage executable using the
command.`
#!/bin/bash
xvfb-run -a /path/to/orca-X.Y.Z-x86_64.AppImage "$@"
Name this shell script
and place it somewhere on your system PATH.##### Linux References
- How to add directory to system path in Linux: https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001647.htm
- AppImage: https://appimage.org/
- Xvfb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xvfb
Quick start
From the command line:
Unix/MacOS:
`
$ orca graph '{ "data": [{"y": [1,2,1]}] }' -o fig.png
Windows:
orca graph "{ \"data\": [{\"y\": [1,2,1]}] }" -o fig.png
generates a PNG from the inputted plotly.js JSON attributes. Or,
$ orca graph https://plot.ly/~empet/14324.json --format svg
generates an SVG from a plotly.js JSON hosted on plot.ly.
When running
To print info about the supported arguments, run:
$ orca --help
$ orca --help
To call
from a Python script:`python
from subprocess import call
import json
import plotlyfig = {"data": [{"y": [1,2,1]}]}
call(['orca', 'graph', json.dumps(fig, cls=plotly.utils.PlotlyJSONEncoder)])
`To call
from an R script:`R
library(plotly)p <- plot_ly(x = 1:10, y = 1:10, color = 1:10)
orca(p, "plot.svg")
`API usage
Using the
npm module allows developers to build their own
Plotly exporting tool. We export two Electron app creator methods run and
serve. Both methods return an Electron app object (which is an event
listener/emitter).To create a _runner_ app:
`js
// main.jsconst orca = require('orca/src')
const app = orca.run({
component: 'plotly-graph',
input: 'path-to-file' || 'glob' || url || '{data: [], layout: {}}' || [/ array of those */],
debug: true
})
app.on('after-export', (info) => {
fs.writeFile('output.png', info.body, (err) => console.warn(err))
})
// other available events:
app.on('after-export-all', () => {})
app.on('export-error', () => {})
app.on('renderer-error', () => {})
`then launch it with
Or, to create a _server_ app:
js
// main.jsconst orca = require('orca/src')
const app = orca.serve({
port: 9090,
component: 'component name ' || [{
name: 'plotly-graph',
path: / path to module if none given, tries to resolve ${name} /,
route: / default to same as ${name} /,
// other options passed to component methods
options: {
plotlyJS: '',
mathjax: '',
topojson: '',
mapboxAccessToken: ''
}
}, {
// other component
}, {
// other component ...
}],
debug: false || true
})
app.on('after-export', (info) => {
console.log(info)
})
// other available events:
app.on('after-connect', () => {})
app.on('export-error', () => {})
app.on('renderer-error', () => {})
`then launch it with
Plotly's image server
Plotly's image server is dockerized and deployed here. See the
README for more info.System dependencies
If you don't care about exporting EPS or EMF you can skip this section.
The environment you're installing this into may require Poppler for EPS exports and Inkscape for EMF exports.
#### Poppler installation via Aptitude (used by some \*nix/BSD, e.g. Ubuntu)
$ apt-get install poppler-utils (requires or root privileges)
`#### Poppler installation via Homebrew (third-party package manager for Mac OS X)
$ brew install poppler
#### Inkscape installation via Aptitude (used by some \*nix/BSD, e.g. Ubuntu)
$ apt-get install inkscape (requires or root privileges)
`#### Inkscape installation via Homebrew (third-party package manager for Mac OS X)
$ brew install inkscape
See
CONTRIBUTING.md.
You can also contact us if you
would like a specific feature added.
| Tests and Linux builds | Mac OS build | Windows build | Docker build |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  |  |  |  |
Code released under the MIT ©
License.