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Fix subtitle does not properly clear/remove from the chart #7571

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Fix subtitle does not properly clear/remove from the chart #7571

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@cminn10 cminn10 commented Oct 5, 2025

Description

This PR fixes an issue where layout.title.subtitle does not properly clear/remove from the chart when subtitle object is not in place, or subtitle.text set to null, empty string, or whitespace-only values via Plotly.relayout().

Problem

When users attempted to clear a subtitle using any of these methods:

Plotly.relayout(gd, {'title.subtitle.text': null});
Plotly.relayout(gd, {'title.subtitle.text': ''});
Plotly.relayout(gd, {'title.subtitle.text': '   '});
Plotly.relayout(gd, {'title.subtitle': undefined});

The subtitle would remain visible on the chart. The only workaround was to set it to transparent:

Plotly.relayout(gd, {
    'title.subtitle.text': 'no text',
    'title.subtitle.font.color': 'transparent'
});

Root Cause

In src/components/titles/index.js - Line 163: The condition if(subtitleEnabled && subtitleElShouldExist) prevented D3's .exit().remove() from running when the subtitle needed to be cleared.

Additional changes

  • Line 84: Handle null/undefined subtitle.text
  • Lines 244 & 408: Add checks for empty D3 selections to prevent operations on selections with 0 elements

Notes

This follows the same D3 enter/exit pattern already used for the main title element (lines 147-157 in the same file).

@gvwilson gvwilson added community community contribution P2 considered for next cycle fix fixes something broken labels Oct 7, 2025
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gvwilson commented Oct 7, 2025

Thanks for the fix @cminn10 - we'll see if we can find a reviewer for the next release.

@emilykl
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emilykl commented Oct 7, 2025

This bug is almost definitely my fault 🙂 Thank you @cminn10 for the very precise fix!

@cminn10 This looks great. One nit -- this fix doesn't actually cause the subtitle to be removed when setting Plotly.relayout(gd, {'title.subtitle': undefined}); (or Plotly.relayout(gd, {'title.subtitle.text': undefined});) but that's fine -- a general property of Plotly.js is that setting a value to undefined is treated as a noop (title behaves the same way). Setting Plotly.relayout(gd, {'title.subtitle.text': {}}); DOES work thanks to this PR.

I'd like to add a Jasmine test to prevent a regression. Can you add this test to test/jasmine/tests/titles_test.js?

describe('Subtitle clearing via relayout', function() {
    'use strict';

    var data = [{ x: [1, 2, 3], y: [1, 2, 3] }];
    var gd;

    beforeEach(function() {
        gd = createGraphDiv();
    });

    afterEach(destroyGraphDiv);

    it('should properly clear subtitle when set to null', function(done) {
        Plotly.newPlot(gd, data, {
            title: {
                text: 'Main Title',
                subtitle: { text: 'Subtitle Text' }
            }
        })
            .then(function() {
                var subtitleSel = d3Select('.gtitle-subtitle');
                expect(subtitleSel.empty()).toBe(false, 'Subtitle should exist initially');
                expect(subtitleSel.text()).toBe('Subtitle Text');

                return Plotly.relayout(gd, { 'title.subtitle.text': null });
            })
            .then(function() {
                var subtitleSel = d3Select('.gtitle-subtitle');
                expect(subtitleSel.empty()).toBe(true, 'Subtitle should be removed when set to null');
            })
            .then(done, done.fail);
    });

    it('should properly clear subtitle when set to empty string', function(done) {
        Plotly.newPlot(gd, data, {
            title: {
                text: 'Main Title',
                subtitle: { text: 'Subtitle Text' }
            }
        })
            .then(function() {
                var subtitleSel = d3Select('.gtitle-subtitle');
                expect(subtitleSel.empty()).toBe(false, 'Subtitle should exist initially');

                return Plotly.relayout(gd, { 'title.subtitle.text': '' });
            })
            .then(function() {
                var subtitleSel = d3Select('.gtitle-subtitle');
                expect(subtitleSel.empty()).toBe(true, 'Subtitle should be removed when set to empty string');
            })
            .then(done, done.fail);
    });

    it('should properly clear subtitle when set to whitespace', function(done) {
        Plotly.newPlot(gd, data, {
            title: {
                text: 'Main Title',
                subtitle: { text: 'Subtitle Text' }
            }
        })
            .then(function() {
                var subtitleSel = d3Select('.gtitle-subtitle');
                expect(subtitleSel.empty()).toBe(false, 'Subtitle should exist initially');

                return Plotly.relayout(gd, { 'title.subtitle.text': '   ' });
            })
            .then(function() {
                var subtitleSel = d3Select('.gtitle-subtitle');
                expect(subtitleSel.empty()).toBe(true, 'Subtitle should be removed when set to whitespace');
            })
            .then(done, done.fail);
    });
});

emilykl
emilykl approved these changes Oct 7, 2025
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🚀 Thanks @cminn10 !

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@emilykl emilykl emilykl approved these changes

@camdecoster camdecoster Awaiting requested review from camdecoster

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@cminn10 @gvwilson @emilykl