Indicator

Overview

The indicator trace type is used to create key performance indicator (KPI) visualizations, allowing you to display single or aggregated values in a gauge or numeric format. Indicators are great for showing metrics like progress, performance, or key values at a glance.

You can customize the gauge, delta values, colors, and text annotations to represent your data effectively. Indicator plots are widely used in dashboards and reporting.

Common Uses

• KPI Dashboards: Displaying key metrics, progress, or performance indicators.
• Gauges: Visualizing values as a gauge to track goals or targets.
• Highlighting Change: Showing the difference between two points in time.

Check out the Attributes for the full set of configuration options

Examples

Common Configurations

Simple Numeric IndicatorGauge IndicatorDelta Indicator with Comparison

Here's a simple indicator plot displaying a single numeric value:

You can copy this code below to create this chart in your project:

models:
  - name: indicator-data
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        value
        75
traces:
  - name: Simple Numeric Indicator
    model: ${ref(indicator-data)}
    columns:
      val: value
      sign: case when value > 0 then '<sup>+</sup>' else '<sup>-</sup>' end
    props:
      type: indicator
      mode: "number"
      value: column(val)[0]
      number: 
        suffix: '<sub>hrs</sub>'
        prefix: column(sign)[0]
        font: 
          size: 100
charts:
  - name: Simple Numeric Indicator Chart
    traces:
      - ${ref(Simple Numeric Indicator)}
    layout:
      title:
        text: Simple Numeric Indicator<br><sub>Displaying a Single Value</sub>
    margin: 
      l: 0
      r: 0
      b: 50 

This example shows a gauge indicator to represent a value and its progress toward a goal:

Here's the code:

models:
  - name: indicator-data-gauge
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        value
        65
traces:
  - name: Gauge Indicator
    model: ${ref(indicator-data-gauge)}
    columns: 
      val: value
    props:
      type: indicator
      mode: "gauge+number"
      value: column(val)[0]
      gauge:
        axis:
          range: [0, 100]
        bar:
          color: "#17becf"
charts:
  - name: Gauge Indicator Chart
    traces:
      - ${ref(Gauge Indicator)}
    layout:
      title:
        text: Gauge Indicator<br><sub>Progress Towards a Target</sub>

This example demonstrates an indicator plot with delta values, comparing the current value to a previous value:

Here's the code:

models:
  - name: indicator-data-delta
    args:
      - echo
      - |
        sort,value
        3,85
        2,75
        1,65
        0,55
traces:
  - name: Delta Indicator with Comparison
    model: ${ref(indicator-data-delta)}
    columns: 
      val: value 
    props:
      type: indicator
      mode: "number+delta"
      value: column(val)[0]
      delta:
        reference: column(val)[1]
    order_by: 
      - ?{sort desc}
charts:
  - name: Delta Indicator with Comparison Chart
    traces:
      - ${ref(Delta Indicator with Comparison)}
    layout:
      title:
        text: Delta Indicator with Comparison<br><sub>Showing Change from Previous Value</sub>

A schema to validate plotly trace properties

Attributes

These attributes apply to traces where trace.props.type is set to indicator. You would configure these attributes on the trace with the trace.props object.

align: any
customdata: array
customdatasrc: 'string' #(1)!
delta:
  decreasing:
    color: any
    symbol: 'string' #(2)!
  font:
    color: any
    family: 'string' #(3)!
    lineposition: any
    shadow: 'string' #(4)!
    size: number
    style: any
    textcase: any
    variant: any
    weight: integer
  increasing:
    color: any
    symbol: 'string' #(5)!
  position: any
  prefix: 'string' #(6)!
  reference: number
  relative: boolean
  suffix: 'string' #(7)!
  valueformat: 'string' #(8)!
domain:
  column: integer
  row: integer
  x: array
  y: array
gauge:
  axis:
    exponentformat: any
    minexponent: number
    nticks: integer
    range: array
    separatethousands: boolean
    showexponent: any
    showticklabels: boolean
    showtickprefix: any
    showticksuffix: any
    tickangle: number
    tickcolor: any
    tickfont:
      color: any
      family: 'string' #(9)!
      lineposition: any
      shadow: 'string' #(10)!
      size: number
      style: any
      textcase: any
      variant: any
      weight: integer
    tickformat: 'string' #(11)!
    tickformatstops: array
    ticklabelstep: integer
    ticklen: number
    tickmode: any
    tickprefix: 'string' #(12)!
    ticks: any
    ticksuffix: 'string' #(13)!
    ticktext: array
    ticktextsrc: 'string' #(14)!
    tickvals: array
    tickvalssrc: 'string' #(15)!
    tickwidth: number
    visible: boolean
  bar:
    color: any
    line:
      color: any
      width: number
    thickness: number
  bgcolor: any
  bordercolor: any
  borderwidth: number
  shape: any
  steps: array
  threshold:
    line:
      color: any
      width: number
    thickness: number
    value: number
ids: array
idssrc: 'string' #(16)!
legend: string
legendgrouptitle:
  font:
    color: any
    family: 'string' #(17)!
    lineposition: any
    shadow: 'string' #(18)!
    size: number
    style: any
    textcase: any
    variant: any
    weight: integer
  text: 'string' #(19)!
legendrank: number
legendwidth: number
metasrc: 'string' #(20)!
mode: string
name: 'string' #(21)!
number:
  font:
    color: any
    family: 'string' #(22)!
    lineposition: any
    shadow: 'string' #(23)!
    size: number
    style: any
    textcase: any
    variant: any
    weight: integer
  prefix: 'string' #(24)!
  suffix: 'string' #(25)!
  valueformat: 'string' #(26)!
stream:
  maxpoints: number
  token: 'string' #(27)!
title:
  align: any
  font:
    color: any
    family: 'string' #(28)!
    lineposition: any
    shadow: 'string' #(29)!
    size: number
    style: any
    textcase: any
    variant: any
    weight: integer
  text: 'string' #(30)!
type: indicator
uid: 'string' #(31)!
value: number
visible: any

1. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for customdata.
2. Sets the symbol to display for increasing value
3. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
4. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
5. Sets the symbol to display for increasing value
6. Sets a prefix appearing before the delta.
7. Sets a suffix appearing next to the delta.
8. Sets the value formatting rule using d3 formatting mini-languages which are very similar to those in Python. For numbers, see: https://github.com/d3/d3-format/tree/v1.4.5#d3-format.
9. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
10. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
11. Sets the tick label formatting rule using d3 formatting mini-languages which are very similar to those in Python. For numbers, see: https://github.com/d3/d3-format/tree/v1.4.5#d3-format. And for dates see: https://github.com/d3/d3-time-format/tree/v2.2.3#locale_format. We add two items to d3's date formatter: %h for half of the year as a decimal number as well as %{n}f for fractional seconds with n digits. For example, 2016-10-13 09:15:23.456 with tickformat %H~%M~%S.%2f would display 09~15~23.46
12. Sets a tick label prefix.
13. Sets a tick label suffix.
14. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for ticktext.
15. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for tickvals.
16. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for ids.
17. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
18. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
19. Sets the title of the legend group.
20. Sets the source reference on Chart Studio Cloud for meta.
21. Sets the trace name. The trace name appears as the legend item and on hover.
22. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
23. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
24. Sets a prefix appearing before the number.
25. Sets a suffix appearing next to the number.
26. Sets the value formatting rule using d3 formatting mini-languages which are very similar to those in Python. For numbers, see: https://github.com/d3/d3-format/tree/v1.4.5#d3-format.
27. The stream id number links a data trace on a plot with a stream. See https://chart-studio.plotly.com/settings for more details.
28. HTML font family - the typeface that will be applied by the web browser. The web browser can only apply a font if it is available on the system where it runs. Provide multiple font families, separated by commas, to indicate the order in which to apply fonts if they aren't available.
29. Sets the shape and color of the shadow behind text. auto places minimal shadow and applies contrast text font color. See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/text-shadow for additional options.
30. Sets the title of this indicator.
31. Assign an id to this trace, Use this to provide object constancy between traces during animations and transitions.