is it possible to append another svg to a preexisting svg parent using d3.js?

I know that its possible by using an 'svg:image'-attribute. But unfortunately then i am loosing full control about the inner svg-child.

The regarding dom node gets created by d3 but is not rendered and as a result the page stays blank.

Hope somebody can help, thx in advance :)

Here's what I got:

Html CSS

  #svg-main-wrapper {
    position: absolute;
    min-width: 100%;
    min-height: 100%;
    bottom: 0;
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
  }
  
  
  <div id="svg-main-wrapper">
    <div svg-container svg-src="svgContainer[0].url" position="svgContainer[0].position">
    </div>    
  </div>

is it possible to append another svg to a preexisting svg parent using d3.js?

I know that its possible by using an 'svg:image'-attribute. But unfortunately then i am loosing full control about the inner svg-child.

The regarding dom node gets created by d3 but is not rendered and as a result the page stays blank.

Hope somebody can help, thx in advance :)

Here's what I got:

Html CSS

  #svg-main-wrapper {
    position: absolute;
    min-width: 100%;
    min-height: 100%;
    bottom: 0;
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
  }
  
  
  <div id="svg-main-wrapper">
    <div svg-container svg-src="svgContainer[0].url" position="svgContainer[0].position">
    </div>    
  </div>

Javascript

angular.module('app', ['ui.bootstrap'])
  .directive('svgContainer', function() {
    return {
      restrict: 'A',
      template: function() {
        var parent = angular.element('body');
        return '<svg class="svg-container" width="' + parent.width() + '" height="' + parent.height() + '" viewBox=" 0 0 ' + parent.width() + ' ' + parent.height() + '"preserveAspectRatio ="xMinYMax meet"></svg>';
      },
      scope: {
        svgSrc: '=',
        position: '='
      },
      link: function(scope, element, attrs) {

        var parent = angular.element('#svg-main-wrapper');

        var x = 0;
        var y = parent.height() - 400;

        var svg = d3.select(element[0]);
        var g = svg.append('g');

        var innersvg = g.append('svg')
          .attr('xlink:href', scope.svgSrc)
          .attr('preserveAspectRatio', scope.position)
          .attr('width', parent.width())
          .attr('height', 400)
          .attr('transform', 'translate(' + x + ',' + y + ')');

      },
      replace: true
    };
  })

  .controller('ctrl', ['$scope', '$window', function($scope, $window) {

    $scope.svgContainer = [
      {
        id: 0,
        short_name: 'left',
        url: './images/plete.svg',
        position: 'none'
      }
      ];
  }]);

• javascript
• html
• angularjs
• d3.js
• svg

• When you refer to the "svg:image" attribute, did you try using an image element -- g.append('image')? What was wrong with that approach? – anbnyc Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 15:33
• The inner SVG element will be another plex SVG graphic. If it's just an image tag, iam not able to further manipulate it's child nodes – luQ Commented Jul 13, 2017 at 15:37

2 Answers 2

Your question is: "is it possible to append an SVG to an SVG using D3?" That object in the title is a bit misleading (However, if you're really talking about an <object> or even loading an external SVG, you're doing it wrong, and the following explanation would be useless. In that case, answers like this one will be more useful).

The answer is yes. For whatever reason you want to nest those SVGs (you probably don't need it), just use the append method as you would with any other element.

Here is a demo, have a look at the console: there is an SVG inside an SVG.

var svg = d3.select("body").append("svg");
svg.append("text")
  .attr("y", 20)
  .text("this text is in the outer SVG");
var innerSVG = svg.append("svg");
innerSVG.append("text")
  .attr("y", 50)
  .text("this text is in the inner SVG");

var mySVG = (new XMLSerializer()).serializeToString(svg.node());
console.log(mySVG)

<script src="https://d3js/d3.v4.min.js"></script>

As you can see, our ponent will be code-driven, with nothing in the template except a div, which will serve as our container. The chart size will be inferred from the size of this element, which will be helpful in making the SVG react like a normal html node. Here is the main part of the code, the ‘src/app/bar-chart/bar-chart.ponent.ts’ file:

 private createChart(): void {
    d3.select('svg').remove();
    const element = this.chartContainer.nativeElement;
    const data = this.data;
    const svg = d3.select(element).append('svg')
        .attr('width', element.offsetWidth)
        .attr('height', element.offsetHeight);
    const contentWidth = element.offsetWidth - this.margin.left - this.margin.right;
    const contentHeight = element.offsetHeight - this.margin.top - this.margin.bottom;
    const x = d3
      .scaleBand()
      .rangeRound([0, contentWidth])
      .padding(0.1)
      .domain(data.map(d => d.letter));
    const y = d3
      .scaleLinear()
      .rangeRound([contentHeight, 0])
      .domain([0, d3.max(data, d => d.frequency)]);
    const g = svg.append('g')
      .attr('transform', 'translate(' + this.margin.left + ',' + this.margin.top + ')');
    g.append('g')
      .attr('class', 'axis axis--x')
      .attr('transform', 'translate(0,' + contentHeight + ')')
      .call(d3.axisBottom(x));
    g.append('g')
      .attr('class', 'axis axis--y')
      .call(d3.axisLeft(y).ticks(10, '%'))
      .append('text')
        .attr('transform', 'rotate(-90)')
        .attr('y', 6)
        .attr('dy', '0.71em')
        .attr('text-anchor', 'end')
        .text('Frequency');
    g.selectAll('.bar')
      .data(data)
      .enter().append('rect')
        .attr('class', 'bar')
        .attr('x', d => x(d.letter))
        .attr('y', d => y(d.frequency))
        .attr('width', x.bandwidth())
        .attr('height', d => contentHeight - y(d.frequency));
  }
}

Link webs: https://tienanhvn.blogspot./2019/06/create-responsive-angular-d3-charts.html