What do I need to do using IPython and ggplot to get legends on multiple time series plots?

I am trying to find out how to use the ggplot library in python. In looking at some examples, I noticed that time series of several series seem to need pandas.melt()

data in long form.

Usage Is there a way to plot pandas series in ggplot? as a model, I am playing with a meat dataset in ggplot. While the data display appears to be fine, there is no legend. The recipe for fixing the legend at the bottom of the link fails in my example.

I saw a message somewhere that says that displaying the legend only fails inline (in an IPython notebook). It also failed for me to display the legend using qt (on Mac).

from ggplot import *
import pandas as pd
%matplotlib inline

      

        
        
        
      

    

The meat data frame in its original form.

print meat.head (2)

        date  beef  veal  pork  lamb_and_mutton  broilers  other_chicken  \
0 1944-01-01   751    85  1280               89       NaN            NaN   
1 1944-02-01   713    77  1169               72       NaN            NaN   

   turkey  
0     NaN  
1     NaN  

      

        
        
        
      

    

Long form meat data frame.

meat_lng = pd.melt(meat, id_vars=['date'])
print meat_lng.head (2)

        date variable  value
0 1944-01-01     beef    751
1 1944-02-01     beef    713

plot = ggplot(aes(x='date', y='value', color='variable'), data=meat_lng) \
     + geom_line() \
     + ggtitle("Meat Production by Decade--Missing Legend")
print plot

      

        
        
        
      

    

.. image :: output_6_0.png

<ggplot: (280905345)>

      

        
        
        
      

    

I have a graph in PNG format. How do I insert it here?

I was hoping that a few lines below would become legend.

plot = ggplot(aes(x='date', y='value', color='variable'), data=meat_lng) \
     + geom_line(size=2.0) \
     + ggtitle("Meat Production by Decade")

# Code that I hoped would fix the missing legend problem.
fig = plot.draw()
ax = fig.axes[0]
offbox = ax.artists[0]
offbox.set_bbox_to_anchor((1, 0.5), ax.transAxes)
fig.show()

      

        
        
        
      

    

::

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IndexError                                Traceback (most recent call last)

<ipython-input-11-9cd7998d1503> in <module>()
      4 fig = plot.draw()
      5 ax = fig.axes[0]
----> 6 offbox = ax.artists[0]
      7 offbox.set_bbox_to_anchor((1, 0.5), ax.transAxes)
      8 fig.show()


IndexError: list index out of range