Added feature to let Series.update fall back to Series.setData if onl…

…y the data is updated.

js/parts/Dynamics.js

@@ -640,6 +640,14 @@ extend(Series.prototype, /** @lends Series.prototype */ {
 			preserve = ['group', 'markerGroup', 'dataLabelsGroup'],
 			n;
 
+		// Running Series.update to update the data only is an intuitive usage,
+		// so we want to make sure that when used like this, we run the
+		// cheaper setData function and allow animation instead of completely
+		// recreating the series instance.
+		if (Object.keys && Object.keys(newOptions).toString() === 'data') {
+			return this.setData(newOptions.data, redraw);
+		}
+
 		// If we're changing type or zIndex, create new groups (#3380, #3404)
 		if ((newType && newType !== oldType) || newOptions.zIndex !== undefined) {
 			preserve.length = 0;

samples/unit-tests/series/update/demo.js

@@ -125,3 +125,36 @@ QUnit.test(
 
     }
 );
+
+QUnit.test(
+    'Series.update with only data should redirect to setData',
+    function (assert) {
+        var chart = Highcharts.chart('container', {
+
+            xAxis: {
+                categories: ['Jan', 'Feb', 'Mar', 'Apr', 'May', 'Jun',
+                    'Jul', 'Aug', 'Sep', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec']
+            },
+
+            series: [{
+                data: [29.9, 71.5, 106.4, 129.2, 144.0, 176.0, 135.6, 148.5,
+                    216.4, 194.1, 95.6, 54.4],
+                type: 'column'
+            }]
+
+        });
+
+        chart.series[0].points[0].kilroyWasHere = true;
+
+        chart.series[0].update({
+            data: [29.9, 71.5, 106.4, 129.2, 144.0, 176.0, 135.6, 148.5,
+                216.4, 194.1, 95.6, 54.4].slice(0).reverse()
+        });
+
+        assert.strictEqual(
+            chart.series[0].points[0].kilroyWasHere,
+            true,
+            'Original point item is preserved'
+        );
+    }
+);