Interactions

Namespace: options.interaction, the global interaction configuration is at Chart.defaults.interaction. To configure which events trigger chart interactions, see events.

By default, these options apply to both the hover and tooltip interactions. The same options can be set in the options.hover namespace, in which case they will only affect the hover interaction. Similarly, the options can be set in the options.plugins.tooltip namespace to independently configure the tooltip interactions.

Events

The following properties define how the chart interacts with events. Namespace: options

Event Option

For example, to have the chart only respond to click events, you could do:

var chart = new Chart(ctx, {
  type: 'line',
  data: data,
  options: {
    // This chart will not respond to mousemove, etc
    events: ['click']
  }
});

Events for each plugin can be further limited by defining (allowed) events array in plugin options:

var chart = new Chart(ctx, {
  type: 'line',
  data: data,
  options: {
    // All of these (default) events trigger a hover and are passed to all plugins,
    // unless limited at plugin options
    events: ['mousemove', 'mouseout', 'click', 'touchstart', 'touchmove'],
    plugins: {
      tooltip: {
        // Tooltip will only receive click events
        events: ['click']
      }
    }
  }
});

Converting Events to Data Values

A common occurrence is taking an event, such as a click, and finding the data coordinates on the chart where the event occurred. Chart.js provides helpers that make this a straightforward process.

const chart = new Chart(ctx, {
    type: 'line',
    data: data,
    options: {
        onClick: (e) => {
            const canvasPosition = Chart.helpers.getRelativePosition(e, chart);
            // Substitute the appropriate scale IDs
            const dataX = chart.scales.x.getValueForPixel(canvasPosition.x);
            const dataY = chart.scales.y.getValueForPixel(canvasPosition.y);
        }
    }
});

Modes

When configuring the interaction with the graph via interaction, hover or tooltips, a number of different modes are available.

options.hover and options.plugins.tooltip extend from options.interaction. So if mode, intersect or any other common settings are configured only in options.interaction, both hover and tooltips obey that.

The modes are detailed below and how they behave in conjunction with the intersect setting.

point

Finds all of the items that intersect the point.

var chart = new Chart(ctx, {
    type: 'line',
    data: data,
    options: {
        interaction: {
            mode: 'point'
        }
    }
});

nearest

Gets the items that are at the nearest distance to the point. The nearest item is determined based on the distance to the center of the chart item (point, bar). You can use the axis setting to define which directions are used in distance calculation. If intersect is true, this is only triggered when the mouse position intersects an item in the graph. This is very useful for combo charts where points are hidden behind bars.

var chart = new Chart(ctx, {
    type: 'line',
    data: data,
    options: {
        interaction: {
            mode: 'nearest'
        }
    }
});

index

Finds item at the same index. If the intersect setting is true, the first intersecting item is used to determine the index in the data. If intersect false the nearest item, in the x direction, is used to determine the index.

var chart = new Chart(ctx, {
    type: 'line',
    data: data,
    options: {
        interaction: {
            mode: 'index'
        }
    }
});

To use index mode in a chart like the horizontal bar chart, where we search along the y direction, you can use the axis setting introduced in v2.7.0. By setting this value to 'y' on the y direction is used.

var chart = new Chart(ctx, {
    type: 'bar',
    data: data,
    options: {
        interaction: {
            mode: 'index',
            axis: 'y'
        }
    }
});

dataset

Finds items in the same dataset. If the intersect setting is true, the first intersecting item is used to determine the index in the data. If intersect false the nearest item is used to determine the index.

var chart = new Chart(ctx, {
    type: 'line',
    data: data,
    options: {
        interaction: {
            mode: 'dataset'
        }
    }
});

x

Returns all items that would intersect based on the X coordinate of the position only. Would be useful for a vertical cursor implementation. Note that this only applies to cartesian charts.

var chart = new Chart(ctx, {
    type: 'line',
    data: data,
    options: {
        interaction: {
            mode: 'x'
        }
    }
});

y

Returns all items that would intersect based on the Y coordinate of the position. This would be useful for a horizontal cursor implementation. Note that this only applies to cartesian charts.

var chart = new Chart(ctx, {
    type: 'line',
    data: data,
    options: {
        interaction: {
            mode: 'y'
        }
    }
});