Flowy

A javascript library to create pretty flowcharts with ease ✨

Dribbble | Twitter | Live demo

Flowy makes creating WebApps with flowchart functionality an incredibly simple task. Build automation software, mind mapping tools, or simple programming platforms in minutes by implementing the library into your project.

Made by Alyssa X

Table of contents

• Features
• Installation
• Running Flowy
  • Initialization
  • Example
• Callbacks
  • On grab
  • On release
  • On snap
  • On rearrange
• Methods
  • Get the flowchart data
  • Import the flowchart data
  • Delete all blocks

Features

Currently, Flowy supports the following:

• Responsive drag and drop
• Automatic snapping
• Block rearrangement
• Delete blocks
• Automatic block centering
• Conditional snapping
• Conditional block removal
• Import saved files
• Mobile support
• Vanilla javascript (no dependencies)
• npm install

You can suggest new features here

Installation

You can install the Flowy package and use it as a module.

1. Install the package: npm install flowy
2. Import the module in your project: import flowy from "flowy" or const flowy = require("flowy")
3. Import styles into your project: import styles from "flowy/engine/index.css"

Adding Flowy to your WebApp is incredibly simple:

1. Run npm run build:web
2. Link dist/flowy.js and dist/flowy.css to your project -- or via CDN:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/alyssaxuu/flowy/flowy.min.css" />
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/alyssaxuu/flowy/flowy.min.js"></script>

1. Create a canvas element that will contain the flowchart (for example, <div id="canvas"></div>)
2. Create the draggable blocks with the .create-flowy class (for example, <div class="create-flowy">Grab me</div>)

Publish NPM Module

This package is published by first converting to ES5 modules in a dist folder. The package.json is copied to the dist folder and published from there to allow importing modules from flowy/engine instead of flowy/dist/engine.

npm run dist && npm publish dist

Running Flowy

Demo

There's a demo in src/demo. You can run the demo in your browser with npm run demo. This will open a browser window for you (or visit http://localhost:1234/).

If you want to build the demo without running it in your browser, run npm run build:demo and the source will be output to the demo folder.

Initialization

flowy(canvas, ongrab, onrelease, onsnap, onrearrange, spacing_x, spacing_y)

To define the blocks that can be dragged, you need to add the class .create-flowy

Example

HTML

<div class="create-flowy">The block to be dragged</div>
<div id="canvas"></div>

Javascript

var spacing_x = 40
var spacing_y = 100
// Initialize Flowy
flowy(document.getElementById('canvas'), onGrab, onRelease, onSnap, onRearrange, spacing_x, spacing_y)
function onGrab(block) {
  // When the user grabs a block
}
function onRelease() {
  // When the user releases a block
}
function onSnap(block, first, parent) {
  // When a block snaps with another one
}
function onRearrange(block, parent) {
  // When a block is rearranged
}

Callbacks

In order to use callbacks, you need to add the functions when initializing Flowy, as explained before.

On grab

function onGrab(block) {
  // When the user grabs a block
}

Gets triggered when a user grabs a block with the class create-flowy

On release

function onRelease() {
  // When the user lets go of a block
}

Gets triggered when a user lets go of a block, regardless of whether it attaches or even gets released in the canvas.

On snap

function onSnap(block, first, parent) {
  // When a block can attach to a parent
  return true
}

Gets triggered when a block can attach to another parent block. You can either prevent the attachment, or allow it by using return true;

On rearrange

function onRearrange(block, parent) {
  // When a block is rearranged
  return true
}

Gets triggered when blocks are rearranged and are dropped anywhere in the canvas, without a parent to attach to. You can either allow the blocks to be deleted, or prevent it and thus have them re-attach to their previous parent using return true.

Methods

Get the flowchart data

// As an object
flowy.output()
// As a JSON string
JSON.stringify(flowy.output())

The JSON object that gets outputted looks like this:

{
  "html": "",
  "blockarr": [],
  "blocks": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "parent": 0,
      "data": [
        {
          "name": "blockid",
          "value": "1"
        }
      ],
      "attr": [
        {
          "id": "block-id",
          "class": "block-class"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Here's what each property means:

Import the flowchart data

flowy.import(output)

Allows you to import entire flowcharts initially exported using the previous method, flowy.output()

Delete all blocks

To remove all blocks at once use:

flowy.deleteBlocks()

Currently there is no method to individually remove blocks. The only way to go about it is by splitting branches manually.

Feel free to reach out to me through email at hi@alyssax.com or on Twitter if you have any questions or feedback! Hope you find this useful 💜