Getting started

Requirements

Lightweight Charts™ is a client-side library that is not designed to work on the server side, for example, with Node.js.

The library code targets the ES2020 language specification. Therefore, the browsers you work with should support this language revision. Consider the following table to ensure the browser compatibility.

To support previous revisions, you can set up a transpilation process for the lightweight-charts package in your build system using tools such as Babel. If you encounter any issues, open a GitHub issue with detailed information, and we will investigate potential solutions.

Installation

To set up the library, install the lightweight-charts npm package:

npm install --save lightweight-charts

The package includes TypeScript declarations, enabling seamless integration within TypeScript projects.

Build variants

The library ships with the following build variants:

Dependencies included	Mode	ES module	IIFE (window.LightweightCharts)
No	PROD	lightweight-charts.production.mjs	N/A
No	DEV	lightweight-charts.development.mjs	N/A
Yes (standalone)	PROD	lightweight-charts.standalone.production.mjs	lightweight-charts.standalone.production.js
Yes (standalone)	DEV	lightweight-charts.standalone.development.mjs	lightweight-charts.standalone.development.js

License and attribution

The Lightweight Charts™ license requires specifying TradingView as the product creator. You should add the following attributes to a public page of your website or mobile application:

• Attribution notice from the NOTICE file
• The https://www.tradingview.com link

Creating a chart

As a first step, import the library to your file:

import { createChart } from 'lightweight-charts';

To create a chart, use the createChart function. You can call the function multiple times to create as many charts as needed:

import { createChart } from 'lightweight-charts';

// ...
const firstChart = createChart(document.getElementById('firstContainer'));
const secondChart = createChart(document.getElementById('secondContainer'));

As a result, createChart returns an IChartApi object that allows you to interact with the created chart.

Creating a series

When the chart is created, you can display data on it.

The basic primitive to display data is a series. The library supports the following series types:

• Area
• Bar
• Baseline
• Candlestick
• Histogram
• Line

To create a series, use the addSeries method from IChartApi. As a parameter, specify a series type you would like to create:

import { AreaSeries, BarSeries, BaselineSeries, createChart } from 'lightweight-charts';

const chart = createChart(container);

const areaSeries = chart.addSeries(AreaSeries);
const barSeries = chart.addSeries(BarSeries);
const baselineSeries = chart.addSeries(BaselineSeries);
// ...

Note that a series cannot be transferred from one type to another one, since different series types require different data and options types.

Setting and updating a data

When the series is created, you can populate it with data. Note that the API calls remain the same regardless of the series type, although the data format may vary.

Setting the data to a series

To set the data to a series, you should call the ISeriesApi.setData method:

const chartOptions = { layout: { textColor: 'black', background: { type: 'solid', color: 'white' } } };
const chart = createChart(document.getElementById('container'), chartOptions);
const areaSeries = chart.addSeries(AreaSeries, {
    lineColor: '#2962FF', topColor: '#2962FF',
    bottomColor: 'rgba(41, 98, 255, 0.28)',
});
areaSeries.setData([
    { time: '2018-12-22', value: 32.51 },
    { time: '2018-12-23', value: 31.11 },
    { time: '2018-12-24', value: 27.02 },
    { time: '2018-12-25', value: 27.32 },
    { time: '2018-12-26', value: 25.17 },
    { time: '2018-12-27', value: 28.89 },
    { time: '2018-12-28', value: 25.46 },
    { time: '2018-12-29', value: 23.92 },
    { time: '2018-12-30', value: 22.68 },
    { time: '2018-12-31', value: 22.67 },
]);

const candlestickSeries = chart.addSeries(CandlestickSeries, {
    upColor: '#26a69a', downColor: '#ef5350', borderVisible: false,
    wickUpColor: '#26a69a', wickDownColor: '#ef5350',
});
candlestickSeries.setData([
    { time: '2018-12-22', open: 75.16, high: 82.84, low: 36.16, close: 45.72 },
    { time: '2018-12-23', open: 45.12, high: 53.90, low: 45.12, close: 48.09 },
    { time: '2018-12-24', open: 60.71, high: 60.71, low: 53.39, close: 59.29 },
    { time: '2018-12-25', open: 68.26, high: 68.26, low: 59.04, close: 60.50 },
    { time: '2018-12-26', open: 67.71, high: 105.85, low: 66.67, close: 91.04 },
    { time: '2018-12-27', open: 91.04, high: 121.40, low: 82.70, close: 111.40 },
    { time: '2018-12-28', open: 111.51, high: 142.83, low: 103.34, close: 131.25 },
    { time: '2018-12-29', open: 131.33, high: 151.17, low: 77.68, close: 96.43 },
    { time: '2018-12-30', open: 106.33, high: 110.20, low: 90.39, close: 98.10 },
    { time: '2018-12-31', open: 109.87, high: 114.69, low: 85.66, close: 111.26 },
]);

chart.timeScale().fitContent();

 

You can also use setData to replace all data items.

Updating the data in a series

If your data is updated, for example in real-time, you may also need to refresh the chart accordingly. To do this, call the ISeriesApi.update method that allows you to update the last data item or add a new one.

import { AreaSeries, CandlestickSeries, createChart } from 'lightweight-charts';

const chart = createChart(container);

const areaSeries = chart.addSeries(AreaSeries);
areaSeries.setData([
    // Other data items
    { time: '2018-12-31', value: 22.67 },
]);

const candlestickSeries = chart.addSeries(CandlestickSeries);
candlestickSeries.setData([
    // Other data items
    { time: '2018-12-31', open: 109.87, high: 114.69, low: 85.66, close: 111.26 },
]);

// ...

// Update the most recent bar
areaSeries.update({ time: '2018-12-31', value: 25 });
candlestickSeries.update({ time: '2018-12-31', open: 109.87, high: 114.69, low: 85.66, close: 112 });

// Creating the new bar
areaSeries.update({ time: '2019-01-01', value: 20 });
candlestickSeries.update({ time: '2019-01-01', open: 112, high: 112, low: 100, close: 101 });

We do not recommend calling ISeriesApi.setData to update the chart, as this method replaces all series data and can significantly affect the performance.