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Usage#

In this section, you will get a brief introduction to the usage of the package. If you want to have deeper insight into the functionality of the functions, you can always use the --help flag.

Easy Start

This package is quite flexible, but the base case is quite easy. So if you want a fast test, use skill-plotter add and then skill-plotter to see first results.

Prerequisites#

The package can be installed via pip:

pip install skill-plotter

Take note that both, Python and pip needs to be installed on the system.

Entering Skills#

To enter a skill with the according level to your list, you can use the add command:

skill-plotter add Python 9

This will add the skill Python with the level 9 to your list.

Adding, Using Multiple Skill Files#

If you want to manage multiple skill files or picture, you can use the --skill-group or short -g option:

skill-plotter add Python 9 -g group1

This will add the skill Python with the level 9 to the skill group group1. Groups are used to either manage multiple users data or just to simply generate multiple skill plots.

Adding, Using Categories#

If you want to group multiple skills together, you can also provide the category option, using the --category or short -c option:

skill-plotter add Python 9 -c programming -g group1

This will add the skill Python with the level 9 and the category programming to the skill group group1. If you don't provide a category, the category will be set to default. The default category will always be shown first.

Entering Skills Interactively#

You can also enter skills interactively by using the interactive-add command:

skill-plotter interactive-add
# Enter the skill name: Python
# Enter the skill level: 9
# Enter category [default]: programming

This will add the skill Python with the level 9 and the category programming to the skill group default. If you leave the category blank, it will use the default one.

When you want to add multiple skills using a specific group or category, you can also provide the according options:

skill-plotter interactive-add -g group1 -c programming

This will add all skills to the group group1 and use the category programming. You will not be prompted for the category during the interactive session.

Removing Skills#

The same way you can add skills, you can also remove them using the remove command:

skill-plotter remove Python

This will remove the skill Python from your list.

Removing, Using Multiple Skill Files#

If you want to delete from other skill files or picture, you can use the --skill-group or short -g option:

skill-plotter remove Python -g group1

This will remove the skill Python from the skill group group1.

Removing Skills Interactively#

You can also remove skills interactively by using the interactive-remove command:

skill-plotter interactive-remove
# Here a list of all skills will be shown
# Enter skill name: Python

This will remove the skill Python from your list.

When you want to remove skills from a specific group, you can also provide the according option:

skill-plotter interactive-remove -g group1

This will use the skill group group1 to remove skills from.

Plotting your Skills#

To plot your defined skills, you can use the skill-plotter command:

skill-plotter

This command will use your previously entered skills and plot them to a file called skills.svg in the current working directory. In addition, there are many options you can use to customize the output. We will explore the most important of them, but you can always use skill-plotter --help to get a full list of all options.

Plotting, Using Multiple Skill Files#

As before, you can specify the skill group you want to plot using the --skill-group or short -g option. This gives you the option to manage multiple profiles or pictures.

skill-plotter -g group1

This will use the skill group group1 to plot the skills.

Defining Plotting Order#

By default, the skills will be plotted in the order you entered them. If you want to group the skills by category, you can use the --categories or short -c option:

skill-plotter -c

This will group the skills by your defined categories, as well the skills will be sorted within the category by decreasing level. If the default category exist, skills within this category will be shown first.

Non-Alphabetical Order

You can also use numbers for your categories to order them by increasing number. This is useful if you want a specific, non-alphabetical order of the categories.

Defining the Output File#

You can also specify the output file name using the --file-name or short -n option and the type of the output file using the --file-type or short -t option. Supported file types are svg, png, jpg and pdf.

skill-plotter -n my_skills -t png

This will save the output to a file called my_skills.png.

Defining the Style#

You have also the possibility to alter the output plot. Some options are:

  • --bar-height: The height of the bars in the plot
  • --bg-height: The height of the background bars in the plot
  • --bar-color: The color of the bars in the plot
  • --bg-color: The color of the background bars in the plot
  • --font-color: The color of the font in the plot
  • --canvas-color: The color behind the plot
  • --style or -s: A predefined style, can use multiple
    • outline: The background bars got no fill but an outline
    • round: All bars got rounded corners
    • xkcd: Using the xkcd style, need "Humor Sans" font

You can experiment with those values and find the best fit for you. I recommend using hex color codes for the colors.

skill-plotter --bar-height 0.5 --bg-height 0.7 --bar-color "#000000" --bg-color "#FFFFFF" --font-color "#000000" -s round -s outline

Font not Found

It may happen that matplotlib does not find the font you installed.

The best thing is to execute python code to find the font:

from matplotlib import font_manager

font_dirs = ['path/to/font/']
font_files = font_manager.findSystemFonts(fontpaths=font_dirs)

for font_file in font_files:
    # you can also just use this command with the exact path to the missing font file
    font_manager.fontManager.addfont(font_file)

# testing if it is registered:
font_manager.findfont('Humor Sans') 
# >> '....\Humor-Sans.ttf'
If you are using a virtual environment, make sure to execute the code within that Python.

Deleting the fontcache may also resolve this issue

Showing Entered Data#

Especially when you have multiple skill groups, or haven't used them for a long time you might want to see the data you entered.

You can use the list-groups command to see all skill groups you have defined:

skill-plotter list-groups

And you can use the list-skills command to see all skills you have defined within a group:

skill-plotter list-skills -g group1

If no group is specified, the default group (skills) will be used.

Transferring Data#

With the CLI, you can also transfer data from one skill group to another, or save your data to an external file.

Exporting Data#

You can use the export command to save your data to a file:

skill-plotter export -g group1 export_file

As with the other commands, you can choose the skill group you want to export.

Importing Data#

You can use the import command to load your data from a file:

skill-plotter import -g group1 ./import_file.json

Simply provide the path to the file and the skill group you want to import to. You can also use the overwrite option -o to ignore and overwrite data if the group already exists. Otherwise the data will be merged, imported skills take precedence.