[BUG]: `ModeBar` generated type should be more specific
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Assessment
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Newbie friendliness
- 48/100
- Issue type
- Bug
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Tech stack
- javascript, typescript
- Domain
- data-visualization
Research direction
Start with src/types/generated/components/modebar.d.ts, src/components/modebar/attributes.ts, and src/types/lib/attributes.d.ts to trace how ModeBar properties become TypeScript types. Read src/components/modebar/constants.js to understand the runtime button registry before evaluating the possible approaches. Done means add and remove expose the intended button-name type, uirevision is number | string, and uid is present without losing the generated type structure.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Description
Description
The generated ModeBar type in src/types/generated/components/modebar.d.ts is less specific than the hand-written ModeBar in @types/plotly.js. The type generator faithfully maps valType: 'string' to string and valType: 'any' to any, but this loses semantic type information for the add, remove, and uirevision properties.
| Property | Generated type | Expected type (per DT) |
|---|---|---|
add |
string | string[] |
ModeBarDefaultButtons | ModeBarDefaultButtons[] |
remove |
string | string[] |
ModeBarDefaultButtons | ModeBarDefaultButtons[] |
uirevision |
any |
number | string |
uid |
missing | string |
Consumers lose autocomplete for valid modebar button names when using layout.modebar.add or layout.modebar.remove.
Steps to reproduce
- Use
layout.modebar.addin a TypeScript project importing from plotly.js - Observe that the type accepts any
stringinstead of suggesting valid button names like'lasso2d','select2d','zoom2d', etc.
Notes
Root cause: The add and remove attributes in src/components/modebar/attributes.ts use valType: 'string' with arrayOk: true. The type generation pipeline (ValTypeToTS in src/types/lib/attributes.d.ts) already supports narrowing StringAttr to a literal union when a values array is provided — but the modebar attributes don't provide one. The button names are dynamically computed at runtime in src/components/modebar/constants.js (foreButtons is built by iterating over the button registry), so they can't be passed as a static as const array.
Possible solutions:
-
Override the generated type in
layout.d.ts— Import the generatedModeBarand re-export a refined version usingOmit+ tighter property types. Keeps the generated base while tightening the public API. Low effort, no changes to the generator or attribute system. -
Inline static
valuesin the attribute definition — Addvalues: ['lasso2d', 'select2d', ...] as constdirectly to theaddandremoveattributes insrc/components/modebar/attributes.ts. The existingValTypeToTSconditional would then produce the union automatically. Downside: duplicates the button list (source of truth is the button registry, not this array). -
Make
foreButtonsstatically typed — Convertsrc/components/modebar/constants.jsto TypeScript with staticas constarrays instead of dynamically computing the list from the button registry. The attributes could then reference the const array asvalues. Downside: requires restructuring how buttons are registered and breaks the dynamic discovery pattern.
- Dominant language
- JavaScript
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- 18.3k
- Forks
- 2k
- Avg merge
- 1d 19h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 21
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