So I’ve determined that the issue here is that nivo just sucks. I began developing a custom extension for UD that plugs Amcharts into it. Amcharts is by far the nicest charting library I’ve seen so far. The charts are fully responsive with every option you can possibly imagine. After plugging this lib in, I’m now happy with the way charts are displayed, and my need for a static layout is greatly reduced or eliminated at this point.
I’ve taken a different route with the implementation than the UD authors did for the nivo charts. The nivo implementation was done by building PS cmdlets (as all UD components are done) for a handful of chart types. In my humble opinion, there are many drawbacks to this approach:
- Incomplete implementation: Not all charting options are exposed via the cmdlet, and not all chart types have been exposed.
- Increased maintenance and potential for drift: As the nivo library is changed or added to, the cmdlets must be updated as well
- Seriously reduced capabilities: By abstracting away the native JS API, the full power of the charting library can never be utilized.
With all of these drawbacks in mind, I designed this module to allow the full power of the charting library to be unleashed by getting out of the way and passing straight JS through to Amchart in the browser.
Here’s a teaser screencap: https://youtu.be/K6ukgFcrMME