Adaptive Diagram Layouts for Dynamic Canvas Orientation

When generating diagrams dynamically, ensuring they render correctly across different screen orientations can be tricky. A horizontal layout might be perfect for landscape, but cramped and unreadable in portrait mode.

The Problem: Fixed Layouts

Traditional diagram generation tools often bake in a specific layout (e.g., left-to-right) at design time. This works fine for fixed-size canvases, but falls apart when the available space changes.

Imagine a flowchart designed for a wide screen being forced into a narrow mobile view. The nodes get squeezed, labels overlap, and the whole thing becomes illegible.

The Solution: Dynamic Layout Switching

The key is to detect the canvas orientation (or aspect ratio) and switch the diagram layout accordingly. For portrait orientations, a top-down (TD) layout generally works better than a left-to-right (LR) or right-to-left (RL) layout.

Here's a simplified example of how you might implement this:

php
<?php

function generateDiagram(array $data, string $orientation): string {
    if ($orientation === 'portrait') {
        $layout = 'TD'; // Top-down
    } else {
        $layout = 'LR'; // Left-to-right
    }

    $nodes = [];
    foreach ($data as $item) {
        $nodes[] = sprintf('%s[