Charts: Load GeoChart package explicitly

[nerrad]

Fixes #

Proposed changes

• Load the Google geochart package explicitly when rendering @automattic/charts GeoChart, while preserving the react-google-charts default corechart and controls packages.
• Add unit coverage to verify the GeoChart wrapper passes the expected Google Charts package list.
• Add a patch changelog entry for @automattic/charts.

Why this is being proposed

The Premium Analytics Locations widget renders GeoChart from @automattic/charts. That wrapper delegates to react-google-charts, whose default package list is corechart and controls.

GeoChart itself requires the Google Charts geochart package. Without requesting that package up front, Google Charts can attempt a later package load after the loader has already initialized with a different version request elsewhere on the page. In the observed page this surfaced as:

Attempting to load version '51' of Google Charts, but the previously loaded 'current' will be used instead.

This PR keeps the existing react-google-charts defaults and adds only the missing geochart package for the GeoChart component. That makes the component's loader request match the chart type it renders, and avoids relying on Google Charts internals or another page script to backfill the package later.

Impact review

• Jetpack: Directly affects @automattic/charts GeoChart consumers. Current in-repo consumers are Premium Analytics Locations, Premium Analytics visitors-by-location, and Podcast stats locations. Non-GeoChart consumers of @automattic/charts are not expected to change because this prop is passed only by the GeoChart wrapper.
• Calypso: Current Calypso code search shows Calypso has its own Stats GeoChart implementation and loader, used by Stats Locations, separate from @automattic/charts GeoChart. Calypso also consumes @automattic/charts for dashboard charts such as monitoring HTTP responses and monitoring request methods, but those components do not use this wrapper. This PR should only matter to Calypso if it later adopts this GeoChart export or upgrades an affected bundled consumer.
• Dotcom: Dotcom legacy Stats GeoChart code was reviewed, but the source is not publicly linkable from this public PR. It uses its own Google Visualization GeoChart path, not this @automattic/charts wrapper. Bundled Dotcom/Stats assets that include @automattic/charts line-chart code are not expected to change unless they render this package's GeoChart.
• Loader behavior: This does not hard-code a Google Charts version. It continues to let react-google-charts request its default version, while ensuring the package list includes the package required by the chart type.
• Data/privacy: The change only affects which Google Charts package is requested before rendering. It does not add tracking, change analytics payloads, or alter chart data.

Related product discussion/links

• None.

Does this pull request change what data or activity we track or use?

No.

Testing instructions

• Run pnpm --filter @automattic/charts test -- geo-chart.
• Run pnpm --filter @automattic/charts typecheck.
• Run pnpm --filter @automattic/charts build.
• Run pnpm --filter @automattic/jetpack-premium-analytics typecheck.
• Run pnpm --filter @automattic/jetpack-premium-analytics build.
• Render the Premium Analytics Locations widget and confirm the Google Charts version warning is no longer emitted when GeoChart loads.

[github-actions]

Are you an Automattician? Please test your changes on all WordPress.com environments to help mitigate accidental explosions.

• To test on WoA, go to the Plugins menu on a WoA dev site. Click on the "Upload" button and follow the upgrade flow to be able to upload, install, and activate the Jetpack Beta plugin. Once the plugin is active, go to Jetpack > Jetpack Beta, select your plugin (Jetpack or WordPress.com Site Helper), and enable the codex/premium-analytics-geochart-package branch.
• To test on Simple, run the following command on your sandbox:

bin/jetpack-downloader test jetpack codex/premium-analytics-geochart-package

bin/jetpack-downloader test jetpack-mu-wpcom-plugin codex/premium-analytics-geochart-package

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[github-actions]

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[jp-launch-control]

Code Coverage Summary

No summary data is available for parent commit 7fc5738, so cannot calculate coverage changes. 😴

If that commit is a feature branch rather than a trunk commit, this is expected. Otherwise, this should be updated once coverage for 7fc5738 is available.

Full summary · PHP report · JS report

[nerrad]

I'm not confident I understand fully the implications of this change, but on the surface it does look like there were some implicit dependencies on Google Charts being loaded somewhere in the dependency chain (vs explicit dependencies).

Either way, this needs a review by folks more familiar with these dependencies. I'm away for the next week so feel free to take over.

[adamwoodnz]

Summary of what I went through with Claude:

We reviewed the change, reproduced the original warning, and verified the fix end-to-end on a live site. Summary: the change is correct, low-risk, and confirmed to remove the warning.

Code review

• The diff is minimal and right: it keeps react-google-charts' default package list and adds only the geochart package the chart type actually needs.
• chartPackages is a real, public prop (react-google-charts types.d.ts) and 'geochart' is a valid GoogleChartPackages value. The list is passed straight into google.charts.load(version, { packages }).
• controls must stay — not because GeoChart needs it, but because react-google-charts itself does. Its readiness gate requires google.visualization.ChartWrapper and google.visualization.Dashboard (both from the controls package); drop it and the gate never passes. That's why it's a library default.
• corechart is strictly probably not required for a GeoChart, but keeping it is the right call: chartPackages replaces the default list rather than extending it, so passing ['corechart','controls','geochart'] keeps the change a pure superset of the default and avoids any regression. I would not trim it.

Root cause of the version '51' warning

Worth noting since it wasn't obvious: neither this wrapper nor @automattic/charts ever asks for version 51 — the default chartVersion is 'current'. The 51 comes from Google's loader auto-backfilling the missing geochart package at a frozen version after something else on the page already initialized Charts at 'current'. Requesting geochart up front in the initial load avoids that late backfill, which is exactly what this PR does.

Testing

Reproduced and verified on a live wp-admin site (Premium Analytics → Traffic → Top Locations widget):

1. Unfixed build (trunk): confirmed the warning fires, and the React component stack pins it precisely to this GeoChart:
   GoogleChart → ChartView → GeoChartInternal → GeoChartWithProvider → … → Locations.

   Attempting to load version '51' of Google Charts, but the previously loaded 'current' will be used instead.
   

2. Fixed build (this branch): built js-packages/charts + premium-analytics with deps, confirmed the served bundle contains the new code (GEO_CHART_PACKAGES = ["corechart","controls","geochart"]), reloaded, and the warning is gone. Only an unrelated SelectControl 36px deprecation remains. The GeoChart still renders correctly (world map + leaderboard).

Same page, same site, only the package list changed → the warning disappears.

Caveats / suggestions

• This is confirmed for the case where this GeoChart wrapper issues the initial Charts load (the Premium Analytics dashboard). If a different Google Charts consumer initializes the loader first elsewhere (e.g. legacy Stats), react-google-charts' readiness gate could short-circuit and skip its own load — in that scenario the warning could still appear. Not a blocker for this PR's target surface, just worth being aware of.
• chartPackages is effectively undocumented outside the TypeScript types (no mention in the library README or its docs site). A one-line comment on GEO_CHART_PACKAGES explaining why geochart is added (and that the list replaces, not extends, the default) would help the next reader.

Net: 👍 from me on correctness and verified behavior.

[adamwoodnz]

LGTM, see previous comment for notes