Python ggplot and ggplotly

Question

Former R user, I used to combine extensively ggplot and plot_ly libraries via the ggplotly() function to display data.

Newly arrived in Python, I see that the ggplot library is available, but cant find anything on a simple combination with plotly for graphical reactive displays.

What I would look for is something like :

from ggplot import*
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

a = pd.DataFrame({'grid': np.arange(-4, 4),
                 'test_data': np.random.random_integers(0, 10,8)})
p2 = ggplot(a, aes(x = 'grid', y = 'test_data'))+geom_line()
p2
ggplotly(p2)

Where the last line would launch a classic plotly dynamic viewer with all the great functionalities of mouse graphical interactions, curves selections and so on...

Thanks for your help :),

Guillaume

Answer 1

This open plotnine issue describes a similar enhancement request.

Currently the mpl_to_plotly function seems to work sometimes (for some geoms?), but not consistently. The following code, seems to work ok.

from plotnine import *
from plotly.tools import mpl_to_plotly as ggplotly
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd

a = pd.DataFrame({'grid': np.arange(-4, 4),
             'test_data': np.random.randint(0, 10,8)})
p2 = ggplot(a, aes(x = 'grid', y = 'test_data')) + geom_point()
ggplotly(p2.draw())

Answer 2

You don't need ggplotly in python if all you are seeking is an interactive interface. ggplot (or at least plotnine, which is the implementation that I am using) uses matplotlib which is already interactive, unlike the R ggplot2 package that requires plotly on top.