[matplotlib-devel] SVG clickable images

[Andrew S. <mat...@an...>]

Hi,

I have a requirement to make clickable bar charts using the SVG output
(rather than html maps).

An initial look has suggested that the following changes would be required:

backend_bases.py: Add a url property to GraphicsContextBase
(defaulting to None, so it's all backwards compatible)
axes.py: Add a url option to the bar function and pass this on to the
constructor of the Rectangle object
patches.py: Pass the url option in the constructor for the Patch
object to the GraphicsContextBase object created in the draw function
backends/backend_svg.py: Add check to _draw_svg_element for url set in
gc. If it is, write out SVG code for xlink.

I can make these changes and (if people think it would be useful)
contribute the changes back.  However, before I do this, I wanted to
check whether this is the right approach to take - I'm not experienced
with the internals of matplotlib and so if there's a better way of
doing it, I'd be grateful for the advice.

Once I got the bar charts working, I would be interested in possibly
extending this to other chart types.

Regards

Andrew