Quickstart¶

Introduction¶

Bokeh is a Python interactive visualization library that targets modern web browsers for presentation providing elegant, concise construction of novel graphics with high-performance interactivity over very large or streaming datasets in a quick and easy way.

Offering both powerful and flexible features to enable very advanced customizations in one hand and simplicity on the other, Bokeh exposes different interface levels to the users:

• a low-level bokeh.models interface that provides the most flexibility to application developers.
• an intermediate-level bokeh.plotting interface that is centered around composing visual glyphs.
• a high-level bokeh.charts interface that can be used to build complex statistical plots as quickly and as simply as possible.

This Quickstart focuses on the bokeh.plotting interface.

Quick Installation¶

There are a few different ways to install Bokeh.

If you are using the Anaconda Python distribution (which is recommended), enter this command at a Bash or Windows command prompt:

conda install bokeh

This installs all the dependencies that you need to be ready to run Bokeh and we strongly recommend using it. It reduces the installation effort to nearly zero on any platform and configuration (including Windows). It also installs the examples into the examples/ subdirectory of your Anaconda (or miniconda) installation directory.

If you are confident that you have dependencies such as NumPy, Pandas, and Redis installed, then you can also use pip at the command line:

pip install bokeh

Getting Started¶

Bokeh is a large library that exposes many capabilities, so this section is only a quick tour of some common Bokeh use-cases and workflows. For more detailed information please consult the full User Guide.

Let’s begin with some examples.

Plotting some data in basic Python lists as a line chart including zoom, pan, resize, save, and other tools is simple and straightforward:

from bokeh.plotting import figure, output_file, show

# prepare some data
x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
y = [6, 7, 2, 4, 5]

# output to static HTML file
output_file("lines.html", title="line plot example")

# create a new plot with a title and axis labels
p = figure(title="simple line example", x_axis_label='x', y_axis_label='y')

# add a line renderer with legend and line thickness
p.line(x, y, legend="Temp.", line_width=2)

# show the results
show(p)

When you execute this script, you will see that a new output file "lines.html" is created, and that a browser automatically opens a new tab to display it. (For presentation purposes we have included the plot output directly inline in this document.)

The basic steps to creating plots with the bokeh.plotting interface are:

1. Prepare some data (in this case plain python lists).
2. Tell Bokeh where to generate output (in this case using output_file(), with "lines.html" as the filename to save as).
3. Call figure() to create a plot with some overall options like title, tools and axes labels.
4. Add renderers (in this case, Figure.line) for our data, with visual customizations like colors, legends and widths to the plot.
5. Ask Bokeh to show() or save() the results.

Steps three and four can be repeated to create more than one plot. See some examples of this below.

The bokeh.plotting interface is also quite handy if we need to customize the output a bit more by adding more data series, glyphs, logarithmic axis, etc. It’s also possible to easily combine multiple glyphs together on one plot as shown below:

from bokeh.plotting import figure, output_file, show

# prepare some data
x = [0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0]
y0 = [i**2 for i in x]
y1 = [10**i for i in x]
y2 = [10**(i**2) for i in x]

# output to static HTML file
output_file("log_lines.html")

# create a new plot
p = figure(
   tools="pan,box_zoom,reset,save",
   y_axis_type="log", y_range=[0.001, 10**11], title="log axis example",
   x_axis_label='sections', y_axis_label='particles'
)

# add some renderers
p.line(x, x, legend="y=x")
p.circle(x, x, legend="y=x", fill_color="white", size=8)
p.line(x, y0, legend="y=x^2", line_width=3)
p.line(x, y1, legend="y=10^x", line_color="red")
p.circle(x, y1, legend="y=10^x", fill_color="red", line_color="red", size=6)
p.line(x, y2, legend="y=10^x^2", line_color="orange", line_dash="4 4")

# show the results
show(p)

Jupyter Notebooks¶

At this point we should mention Jupyter (formerly IPython) notebooks.

Jupyter notebooks are a fantastic tool for exploratory data analysis, and they are widely used across the “PyData” community. Bokeh integrates seamlessly with Jupyter notebooks. To view the above examples in a notebook, you would only change output_file() to a call to output_notebook() instead.

A large number of static examples may be viewed directly online at the Bokeh NBViewer Gallery.

The Bokeh GitHub repository also has a number of example notebooks in the examples/plotting/notebook/ directory. After cloning the repository, navigate there and run:

ipython notebook

You can open and interact with any of the notebooks listed in the index page that automatically opens up. In particular, you might check out the interact_basic and interact_numba examples that show how Bokeh can be used together with Jupyter interactive widgets.

Other Languages¶

Bokeh’s architecture makes it easy to create bindings for Bokeh in other languages, and in fact several already exist. We are obviously big Python fans, but having many language options is a compelling feature. Here are some of the other ways to use Bokeh:

• Bokeh for R
• Bokeh for Scala
• Bokeh for Julia

Sample Data¶

Some of the examples included in the Bokeh source make use of sample data files that are distributed separately. To download this data, execute the following commands at a Bash or Windows command prompt:

python -c "import bokeh.sampledata; bokeh.sampledata.download()"

Concepts¶

Let’s consider the plots above, and use them to help define some core concepts.

p = figure(x_range=[0,10], y_range=(10, 20))

More examples¶

Here are a few more examples to demonstrate other common tasks and use-cases with the bokeh.plotting interface.

import numpy as np

from bokeh.plotting import figure, output_file, show

# prepare some data
N = 4000
x = np.random.random(size=N) * 100
y = np.random.random(size=N) * 100
radii = np.random.random(size=N) * 1.5
colors = [
    "#%02x%02x%02x" % (int(r), int(g), 150) for r, g in zip(50+2*x, 30+2*y)
]

# output to static HTML file (with CDN resources)
output_file("color_scatter.html", title="color_scatter.py example", mode="cdn")

TOOLS="resize,crosshair,pan,wheel_zoom,box_zoom,reset,box_select,lasso_select"

# create a new plot with the tools above, and explicit ranges
p = figure(tools=TOOLS, x_range=(0,100), y_range=(0,100))

# add a circle renderer with vectorized colors and sizes
p.circle(x,y, radius=radii, fill_color=colors, fill_alpha=0.6, line_color=None)

# show the results
show(p)

import numpy as np
from bokeh.plotting import *

# prepare some data
N = 100
x = np.linspace(0, 4*np.pi, N)
y0 = np.sin(x)
y1 = np.cos(x)
y2 = np.sin(x) + np.cos(x)

# output to static HTML file
output_file("linked_panning.html")

# create a new plot
s1 = figure(width=250, plot_height=250, title=None)
s1.circle(x, y0, size=10, color="navy", alpha=0.5)

# NEW: create a new plot and share both ranges
s2 = figure(width=250, height=250, x_range=s1.x_range, y_range=s1.y_range, title=None)
s2.triangle(x, y1, size=10, color="firebrick", alpha=0.5)

# NEW: create a new plot and share only one range
s3 = figure(width=250, height=250, x_range=s1.x_range, title=None)
s3.square(x, y2, size=10, color="olive", alpha=0.5)

# NEW: put the subplots in a gridplot
p = gridplot([[s1, s2, s3]], toolbar_location=None)

# show the results
show(p)

import numpy as np
from bokeh.plotting import *
from bokeh.models import ColumnDataSource

# prepare some date
N = 300
x = np.linspace(0, 4*np.pi, N)
y0 = np.sin(x)
y1 = np.cos(x)

# output to static HTML file
output_file("linked_brushing.html")

# NEW: create a column data source for the plots to share
source = ColumnDataSource(data=dict(x=x, y0=y0, y1=y1))

TOOLS = "pan,wheel_zoom,box_zoom,reset,save,box_select,lasso_select"

# create a new plot and add a renderer
left = figure(tools=TOOLS, width=350, height=350, title=None)
left.circle('x', 'y0', source=source)

# create another new plot and add a renderer
right = figure(tools=TOOLS, width=350, height=350, title=None)
right.circle('x', 'y1', source=source)

# put the subplots in a gridplot
p = gridplot([[left, right]])

# show the results
show(p)

import numpy as np

from bokeh.plotting import figure, output_file, show
from bokeh.sampledata.stocks import AAPL

# prepare some data
aapl = np.array(AAPL['adj_close'])
aapl_dates = np.array(AAPL['date'], dtype=np.datetime64)

window_size = 30
window = np.ones(window_size)/float(window_size)
aapl_avg = np.convolve(aapl, window, 'same')

# output to static HTML file
output_file("stocks.html", title="stocks.py example")

# create a new plot with a a datetime axis type
p = figure(width=800, height=350, x_axis_type="datetime")

# add renderers
p.circle(aapl_dates, aapl, size=4, color='darkgrey', alpha=0.2, legend='close')
p.line(aapl_dates, aapl_avg, color='navy', legend='avg')

# NEW: customize by setting attributes
p.title = "AAPL One-Month Average"
p.legend.location = "top_left"
p.grid.grid_line_alpha=0
p.xaxis.axis_label = 'Date'
p.yaxis.axis_label = 'Price'
p.ygrid.band_fill_color="olive"
p.ygrid.band_fill_alpha = 0.1

# show the results
show(p)

Bokeh Plot Server¶

Bokeh also comes with an optional server component, the bokeh-server. It possible to create many interesting and interactive visualizations without using the Bokeh server, as we have seen above. However, the Bokeh server affords many novel and powerful capabilities, including:

• UI widgets and plot selections driving computations and plot updates.
• Intelligent server-side downsampling of large datasets.
• Streaming data automatically updating plots.
• Sophisticated glyph re-writing and transformations for “Big Data”.
• Plot and dashboard publishing for wider audiences.

Details of Bokeh server usage require more space than a Quickstart allows, but you can see (and interact with) a simple Bokeh server app below:

More examples of hosted Bokeh applications can be found in the Server App Examples section of the Gallery. For information about how to use the server and write Bokeh server plots and apps, consult the Running a Bokeh Server section of the User Guide.

What’s next?¶

This Quickstart barely scratches the surface of Bokeh capability.

For more information about the different plotting APIs Bokeh offers, using the Bokeh server, and how to embed Bokeh plots in your own apps and documents, check out the User Guide. For detailed information about all modules, classes, models, and objects, consult the Reference Guide. If you are interested in learning how to build and develop Bokeh, or for information about how to create a new language binding, see the Developer Guide.

To see ready-made examples of how you might use Bokeh with your own data, check out the Gallery. To see detailed examples and walkthroughs as well as find exercises for learning Bokeh by doing, work through the Tutorials.

For questions and technical assistance, come join the Bokeh mailing list.

Visit the Bokeh GitHub repository and try the examples.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter @bokehplots, as well as on Vine, and Youtube!