# Explicitly define the order of topics in dashboard chart

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/explicitly-define-the-order-of-topics-in-dashboard-chart/4380>\
**Category:** Dashboard\
**Created:** [29 October 2018 09:01 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/explicitly-define-the-order-of-topics-in-dashboard-chart/4380 "2018-10-29T09:01:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![daha76](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/daha76/32/3419_2.png) [@daha76](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/daha76)\
**Post date:** [29 October 2018 09:01 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/explicitly-define-the-order-of-topics-in-dashboard-chart/4380/1 "2018-10-29T09:01:29Z")

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Hello,

I have feature request for dashboard chart component. I was working on my very first dashboard and I would like to display several values in one chart with specific colors.

I found some solution but some are complicated, some strange but I think that this should be done inside the chart component configuration. I have already defined the colors for my values, but I can't explicitly define the order of the topics. This causing a problem after restart or reboot, that the colors doesn't match the values/topics. Maybe it will be enough if we can explicitly pair topic with color. Then I don't care on the input order. Or maybe input message should have a topic color defined, like msg.color. Actualy chart needs only msg.topic and msg.payload.

Currently I solved it by adding an increasing delay (some milliseconds) for every input to the chart. It works, but I think it is not the nice solution but it is simplest I actually found.

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**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [29 October 2018 20:51 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/explicitly-define-the-order-of-topics-in-dashboard-chart/4380/2 "2018-10-29T20:51:33Z")

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You are correct. There is no formal tie between topic and colour other than the order of arrival - first to arrive is first colour etc. They only have to be in order so no need for massive delays between each.. just some data needs to arrive - you could could try sending a null on each of the correct topics (using an inject on start) to prepare them before real data arrives.