Title: Plot Over Time – Extended Author: rdcravens Published: August 2, 2014 Last modified: August 6, 2014 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/plot-over-time-extended/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=959066) This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress. ![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/plot-over-time-extended_fafafa.svg) # Plot Over Time – Extended By [rdcravens](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rdcravens/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/plot-over-time-extended.zip) * [Details](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/plot-over-time-extended/#description) * [Reviews](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/plot-over-time-extended/#reviews) * [Installation](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/plot-over-time-extended/#installation) * [Development](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/plot-over-time-extended/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/plot-over-time-extended/) ## Description I have used Plot Over Time for a long time when found that I needed to put multiple charts on one page and category restrictions. The plugin did not allow it. I am insistent on not needing a new plugin – as this one has worked just fine for me… So, I made changes. My first change is small in user effort, but large in execution… I added an optional parameter for chart_num. This optional parameter is not needed if you are using the plugin for a single chart page. It is only needed to identify what chart you are making on a multi-chart page… **Single chart on a page…** ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate"] ``` **Multi-Chart page…** ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate" chart_num="1"] [plot_ext field1="Blood Pressure" chart_num="2"] ``` Want to see it in action? http://www.ourroadtohealth.com/index.php/data-collection/ total-blood-pressure/ My second change… I added an optional parameter for post category restriction. This optional parameter is not needed if you are pulling from all post categories. It is only needed to identify what 1 post category you want to limit the data to… **Single chart on a page with category selection…** ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate" post_cat="8"] ``` **Let’s Get Started: ** **1. **To get it up and running: first, you’ll need to put data in your posts. So, in a post, go to the section under your post called “Custom Fields”. Create a field you want to track (for instance, “Heart Rate”) and give it a value. **2. **You’ll need at lest two posts with data in them before the plugin can do it’s thing – so add data to another post. **3. **Now that you have at least two posts with data, you can create a post that creates a graph. For this example, you could simply use: ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate"] ``` This will go through all posts that have a custom field called “Heart Rate” and plot them on a nice Google Chart Tools LineChart. Plot Over Time – Extended supports up to 10 fields per graph. If you wanted to work with more points of data (again, up to 10), simply add more Custom Fields: ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate" field2="Weight" field3="Workout Time"] ``` The legend is automatically added, and each datapoint is able to be clicked to get a callout about it’s datapoint. Or you can move the legend around with legend=”left” or legend=”right”. If you want to get rid of the legend: ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate" legend="none"] ``` **Types: **Valid types chart types for Plot Over Time are: AreaChart, LineChart, PieChart (not particularly useful in this implementation), BarChart, and ColumnChart. To use other types of graphs: ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate" type="BarChart"] ``` **Height / Width: **You can set your own width and height for the chart with Width and Height (default: 400 X 300). Don’t change the height or width using the options =”height: “, instead use height=”300” or similar. Changing it in the options that are passed to the graph won’t change the size of the div it exists in. ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate" width="500" height="300"] ``` **Data Limits: **By default, Plot Over Time uses ALL data from all posts and pops it onto a graph. You can limit it with two options: **1. **You can determine the maximum number of days worth of data (starting from now and going backward) with maxdays. This would show a one month span of data: ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate" maxdays="30"] ``` **2. **You can attach a graph to that post’s published date with usepostdate: ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate" usepostdate="true"] ``` So if the post was 3 weeks old, it would only show data from it’s publication date of three weeks ago and older – **this allows you to see changes post by post**! **Dates: **The date format defaults to m/d/y – IE, 12/31/11. You can change it with dateformat. This would instead put 2011-12-31 on the graph: ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate" dateformat="Y-m-d"] ``` **Titles: **This would add a title above your graph that reads “My Graph!”. ``` [plot_ext field1="Heart Rate" options="'title': 'My Graph!'" chart_num="1"] ``` **Wrapping Up: **Don’t like the colors of the graph, or want to add a few new options? No problem – any Google Visualization Tools options is available using the option parameters. **More Info: **For more information on the options available visit the Google Chart Tools homepage: http://code.google.com/apis/chart/index.html **Rules: ** **1. **If you define 5 fields you want to read from, and a post only had four fields? It’s going to ignore you. **2. **It doesn’t do data interpolation. If there’s a gap in your data, it simply ignores it – it doesn’t give it a “0”, it just plain doesn’t plot it. (That’s how he wanted it. Other opinions may differ – mine does not.) **3. **f you tell it you want to see 30 days of data, and you’ve only got three days of data in your posts? It’s only going to show a graph that spans three days. **All data integrity is up to you.** **If you download, please rate the plugin. This is one of the few feedback methods available. If you have a low opinion, please allow me to try to fix it first before leaving a bad review.** ## Screenshots * [[ * Example of AreaGraph formatted data * [[ * Example of LineChart formatted data * [[ * Example of the PieChart formatted data ## Installation 1. Download the Plot Over Time plugin and you will get a directory called “plot_ext” when you unzip the downloaded file. Upload the “plot_ext” directory to your WordPress plugin’s directory (e.g. `/wp-content/plugins/`) 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in the WordPress dashboard. ## FAQ Is it possible to go beyond the 10 field limit? Yes, but it would take code changes. I could do it, but I did not see a need at this time. If you have a need, let me know and I might be able to slip it into the next release. Can you add this / that / the other? Yes, but I have no time lines that I would do it in. I might finish tomorrow, I might finish next month. I gladly take requests as just that, requests… I am not asking for money, so please do not have expectations beyond a free service… Did you write this plugin from scratch? The greatest form of flattery is plagiarism 🙂 I am not the original author of the base plugin – I highly modified an existing one. This is a modified and re-branded version of the Plot Over Time plugin by MidnightRyder: http://www.midnightryder. org ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “Plot Over Time – Extended” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ rdcravens ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rdcravens/) [Translate “Plot Over Time – Extended” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/plot-over-time-extended) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/plot-over-time-extended/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/plot-over-time-extended/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/plot-over-time-extended/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/plot-over-time-extended/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog Version 1.0, July 30, 2014 – Initial Release Version 1.1, July 30, 2014 – Issues with dates solved Version 1.2, July 30, 2014 – Minor issue with width settings Version 1.3, July 30, 2014 – Reduced SQL time, fixed data sorting and limit issues from original plug-in Version 1.4, July 30, 2014 – Fixed post_cat and maxdays issue created by SQL cleanup in previous version ## Meta * Version **1.4.0** * Last updated **12 years ago** * Active installations **10+** * WordPress version ** 3.0 or higher ** * Tested up to **3.9.40** * Language * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/plot-over-time-extended/) * Tags * [chart](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/chart/)[custom fields](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/custom-fields/) [google chart API](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/google-chart-api/)[graph](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/graph/) [weight tracking](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/weight-tracking/) * [Advanced View](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/plot-over-time-extended/advanced/) ## Ratings 5 out of 5 stars. * [ 1 5-star review ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/plot-over-time-extended/reviews/?filter=5) * [ 0 4-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/plot-over-time-extended/reviews/?filter=4) * [ 0 3-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/plot-over-time-extended/reviews/?filter=3) * [ 0 2-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/plot-over-time-extended/reviews/?filter=2) * [ 0 1-star reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/plot-over-time-extended/reviews/?filter=1) [Add my review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/plot-over-time-extended/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/plot-over-time-extended/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ rdcravens ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/rdcravens/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/plot-over-time-extended/)