The title of this question may be slightly misleading, but I\'m not sure what the best title would be (since I can\'t guess at a solution yet).
Basically the system I am
I used phantomJs (like node.js but different) serverside to run exactly the same code as client side, and get the same result. all you need is one single exe-file (like a webkit stand alone web brower)
The following program (in Perl, but should be feasible to translate to you favourite language) takes some data, inserts into a web-page (could be ajax'ed) and either sends that web page to the client, or stores it as a temporary file, and starts PhantomJs on the same page. Then ask PhantomJs to generate a jpg, that is then picked up (and in this case sendt to the client).
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use File::Temp;
$|=1;
#this script returns a graph, either as html +js web page to render client side,
#or renders the same page server side, and returns the jpg image.
#files needed:
#.\phantom_srv_client.pl #this script
#.\phantomjs.exe #the webkit runtime stand alone file, from http://phantomjs.org/
#.\Scripts\excanvas.min.js #canvas simulator for IE8-
#.\Scripts\jquery.min.js #jQuery as we know it
#.\Scripts\jquery.jqplot.min.js #graph library on top of jQuery from http://www.jqplot.com/ (Flot or any can be used)
#do we want client side rendering (html + js), or server side rendering (jpg)
#jpg seems to render nicer than png on some pages?
use CGI;
my $show_as_jpg = CGI::param("jpg");
#path to javascript libraries (jQuery etc).
#Must be absolute file location for server rendering, relative for web
use FindBin;
my $script_path = $show_as_jpg
? $FindBin::Bin."/Scripts"
: './Scripts';
#data to send to graph (two sets)
my $data = [[2,5,4], [6,4,5]];
#use json to get this as a javascript text
my $json_data;
eval {require JSON; $json_data=JSON::to_json($data)};
#in case JSON is not installed, get the json/javascript data manually (just for demo)
$json_data ||= "[[2,5,4], [6,4,9]]"; #here 9 at the end to see a difference
#The following is the web page that renders the graph, client or server side
#(links to scripts must be abolute to work serverside, as temp-files may go anywhere, $script_path keeps track of that)
#$json_data is the Perl data structure converted to JSON (aka javascript, but not)
my $graph_html =qq|
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<!--[if lt IE 9]><script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="$script_path/excanvas.min.js"></script><![endif]-->
<script class="include" type="text/javascript" src="$script_path/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script class="include" type="text/javascript" src="$script_path/jquery.jqplot.min.js"></script>
<script class="code" type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
jQuery(document).ready(function(){
/*data from perl (\$json_data) inserted here */
var data = $json_data;
jQuery.jqplot("chart1", data );
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<div id="chart1" style="width:600px; height:400px;"></div>
<a href='?jpg=1'>View as jpg</a>
</body>
</html>
|;
#this is the javascript that tells PhantomJs what to do (ie open a doc and render it to bitmap)
my $phantom_doc_js =qq|
var system = require('system');
//read from commandline which files to open, and write to
var open_doc = system.args[1];
var return_doc = system.args[2];
var page = require('webpage').create();
page.open(open_doc, function () {
page.render(return_doc);
phantom.exit();
});
|;
#see if we shall render this page serverside
if ($show_as_jpg) {
#get temporary filenames with related file handlers
#where to put phantomjs script (generic so could be a static file)
my ($phantom_doc_filehandler, $phantom_doc_filename) = File::Temp::tempfile( SUFFIX => '.js', TMPDIR => 1);
#where to put web page with data to render and ref to javascripts etc
my ($phantom_graph_filehandler, $phantom_graph_filename) = File::Temp::tempfile(SUFFIX => '.html', TMPDIR => 1);
#also get a filename with no handler, so phantomjs can return the jpg file. Extention must be .jpg!
my (undef, $image_filename) = File::Temp::tempfile( SUFFIX => '.jpg',TMPDIR => 1, OPEN => 0);
#store file content and close files
print $phantom_doc_filehandler $phantom_doc_js; close $phantom_doc_filehandler;
print $phantom_graph_filehandler $graph_html; close $phantom_graph_filehandler;
#now call PhantomJs with filenames to read from and write to.
#Next version should support piping, which would simplify a lot
#use absolute path to phantomjs.exe in case web-server does not use current path
system($FindBin::Bin.'\\phantomjs', $phantom_doc_filename, $phantom_graph_filename, $image_filename) == 0
or die "system failed: $?";
#read the entire image file
my $img = slurp_file($image_filename);
print "Content-Type: image/jpeg\nPragma: no-cache\n\n".$img;
#The temp files are no more needed
unlink $phantom_doc_filename, $phantom_graph_filename, $image_filename;
} else { # just render client side
print "Content-Type: text/html\nPragma: no-cache\n\n".$graph_html;
}
#slurp is not always std perl
sub slurp_file{
my $filename = shift;
my $string;
local $/ = undef;
open FILE, $filename or die "Couldn't open file: $!";
binmode FILE;
$string = <FILE>;
close FILE;
return $string;
}