Highcharts pie charts served from AJAX call - ajax

Question

I am trying different ways of rendering json data from mysql/php to Highcharts. So far I've been successful rendering bar charts using this approach but for some reason, I have not been able to render data in a pie chart.
One js file handles the AJAX call:
$(function () {
var select_program = program_type_php;
var select_year = '2016';
console.log ('pie_chart'+program_type_php);
$.ajax({
url: 'model/job_group_pie_chart.php',
data: {user: 2, select_program:select_program, select_year:select_year},
type: 'GET',
async: true,
dataType: "json",
success: function (year_2016) {
pie_chart_2016(year_2016);
console.log('data 2016 job groups'+year_2016);
}
});
Upon success, I call a function in another js file (in this example, 'pie_chart_2016' and pass it the data object.
Here's the other js file responsible for rendering the data into a Highchart:
function pie_chart_2016 (year_2016) {
console.log('year_2016'+year_2016);
$('#pie-chart1').highcharts({
chart: {
plotBackgroundColor: null,
plotBorderWidth: null,
plotShadow: false,
type: 'pie'
},
title: {
text: ''
},
tooltip: {
pointFormat: '{series.name}: <b>{point.percentage:.1f}%</b>'
},
plotOptions: {
pie: {
allowPointSelect: true,
cursor: 'pointer',
dataLabels: {
enabled: true,
format: '<b>{point.name}</b>: {point.percentage:.1f} %',
style: {
color: (Highcharts.theme && Highcharts.theme.contrastTextColor) || 'black'
}
},
showInLegend: true
},
series: year_2016
}
});
};
I have checked, and I do get valid json from my php file:
[{name:"Group1",y:829},{name:"Group2",y:9247},{name:"Group3",y:71}]
These are raw counts (829, 9247, 71) but when I was able to get a pie chart to render by inputting values manually, Highcharts calculated the percentages for me - nice!
I've also set up enough console.logs to know that my functions are being called, and that my data object is being processed.
Still, all I get is a blank panel, and 'highcharts.com' in the lower left hand corner, so the html is working too.
The approach I'm using works really well with bar charts, so I am stumped!
Thanks for any help you can provide.

Answer 1

Thanks to Rahul, I moved 'series:' outside of plotOptions, and added these lines. I should have caught this sooner, that pie charts needs the 'data' property while bar charts have that included in their JSON array. Appears to be working well for now. Thanks again Rahul!
series: [{
name: 'Job Group',
colorByPoint: true,
data: year_2016
}]