Obsolete Warning

The initial work demonstrated here is now getting on for several years old with no signficant updates. There is now likely much better ways of achieving these objectives and I strongly suggest not using this as a base. HighCharts now provides details on their recommended approach to render entirely on the server.

node-highcharts

An example library demonstrating how a browser based JavaScript graphing library (Highcharts) can be used from Node.

Usage

var fs = require('fs'),
	highcharts = require('node-highcharts'),
	options = {
		chart: {
			width: 300,
			height: 300,
			defaultSeriesType: 'bar'
		},
		legend: {
			enabled: false
		},
		title: {
			text: 'Highcharts rendered by Node!'
		},
		series: [{
			data: [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ]
		}]
	};

highcharts.render(options, function(err, data) {
	if (err) {
		console.log('Error: ' + err);
	} else {
		fs.writeFile('chart.png', data, function() {
			console.log('Written to chart.png');
		});
	}
});

Todo

There's a few bits to do before the library will be ready for use.

1. Cleanup jsdom window instance correctly.
2. Cache window so we don't load jQuery+highcharts for every render.
3. Use a local jQuery.
4. Update to latest Highcharts version.
5. Investigate using CanVG and node-canvas to render with no dependencies on the environment.