Graph Viz

A graph visualization tool. OpenSource software. Traditional UNIX textual interfaces are standard.

Visit the home page (http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/) for the details.

eGroups page: http://www.egroups.com/group/graphviz

"Coolest tool I've used since ... the WikiWikiWeb!" -- TimChambers

Graphviz really rocks! I used it to make a visualization program for yacc/bison Grammars "yaccViso"

This is my first attempt to use GraphViz to trace links on wiki. Here I chose to follow the links to the two largest pages cited on any given page. I'm thinking the two most recently edited pages might be an even better choice. -- WardCunningham

See VisualTour for more wiki graphs.

Hi Ward. Here's some suggestions:

Use double-headed arrows instead of two arrows for mutually linking pages
Drop the references to self - they add no combinatoric complexity, so treat them as attributes of a node, not of the edges around it
Rectangular nodes ("box" attribute) treat horizontal text better
If I had a UserStory for readability over accuracy, I'd break long strings in the middle and double-deck them

-- PhlIp

May also be interesting for Wiki visualization: http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/history/ :)

Cool. This might be a good place to throw in a shameless plug for http://pathalizer.bzzt.net - it generates graphs like the above, using GraphViz, only it bases its information on the actual user behaviour (apachelogs) rather than the sizes of pages. -- ARN

I'm hoping to use Graphviz as a front-end to generate processes that my parallel execution engine [http://groups.google.com/groups?num=1&selm=77op3s%241gj%241%40nonews.col.hp.com] can run.

I'm also analyzing log files of execution runs. I used one of the Graphviz examples to figure out a pattern for ranking the nodes according to a timeline. One independent digraph is the time of the log message. Then I ranked each message to its time stamp and attached the messages to the PIDs that generated them. Even as an E-size drawing it's an eye chart, but I am so very pleased to have this tool to analyze the data flow model! I have source for an example at my Web site [http://www.purl.org/net/tbc/hacks/sample01.htm]. -- TimChambers

I used the GraphViz package to implement a software architecture diagramming tool that draws class/object/sequence/activity/etc diagrams from simple text descriptions. The diagramming tool may be used stand-alone but is very powerful when used in conjunction with our LiterateProgramming tool. The literate programming text allows a 'graphic' description chunk in addition to the traditional code and documentation chunks. The literate weaver passes the graphic chunks to the diagramming tool to produce graphics which are then embedded in the woven literate document. -- Bill Davies

In one of those odd convergences, I was just wondering yesterday whether dot (one of the GraphViz tools) could be used to VisualizeTheWiki's structure. -- BillTozier

Something like NICHE might work better.

See http://willsfamily.org/gwills/NICHEguide/nichepaper.html.

Hi, I'm one of the authors of graphviz. We're particularly interested in grafting on an XML parser-printer and using SVG for rendering. (We recently added an SVG driver.) Any suggestions?

Also of interest, Gansner recently added a sort of el-cheapo compound edge hack though this is not yet in general release.

Gordon Woodhull, who wrote the Montage (ActiveX) interface for dynagraph, has agreed in principle to take over the www.graphviz.org site and to populate it with content including the Slashdot message board software. Stay tuned... -- StephenNorth

What do you mean by compound edge hack? We have successfully used Twiki to visualize program analysis and are trying to get it to work for process analysis. However, to conform with IDEF0 process modeling diagrams we need edge control. We found some directional properties in the source for direction (N,NE,E,SE,etc.) but this did not help layout, order of relationship did. So, what will compound edge do? -- Chris Trigg

We meant, edges with endpoints on a cluster box.

Should be out any day now - we think the gviz 1.7 source is stable.

Note - we've started a http://www.egroups.com/group/graphviz graphviz group on egroups. This is probably a better place for in-depth discussion. -- StephenNorth

I wrote a Web-log-analyzing tool with GraphViz for my column at http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/col58.html. -- RandalSchwartz

I too am a registered GraphViz junkie. I have an entire UI system based on letting the user click on nodes in a canvas backed by a PNG file that GV wrote. Good free help is >easy< to find! -- PhlIp

I just implemented a GraphViz server, based on webdot but without cache, for a wiki I created to my students to discuss Patterns (in Portuguese). They can now draw in dot and include drawings in pages using wiki commands For example:

 digraph EA {

    size="5,10";
edge [dir=forward, color=blue];

Browser->NES->"WebLogic\nCluster"->jvgas->aolGhost;
    aolGhost->jvgas->"WebLogic\nCluster"->Browser;
    NES->GILS;
    GILS->NES;
    GILS->aolGclient->aolGhost;

 }

You can see it in

http://www.cos.ufrj.br/xexeobin/wiki.cgi?CriandoGr�ficos (BrokenLink)

TeesWiki is based on WikiWay and accept accents in WikiNames, tables, standard GIF symbols and graphviz graphics!

FYI: There's a script called postgresql-autodoc which will dump a postgres DB to a number of formats including HTML, XML (dia), and graphviz. -- jordan

I really want to be able to put GraphViz code right into the wiki edit box. When you view as a page, you see the converted image. When you edit text, it appears as GraphViz code. -- LionKimbro

I remember adding that to MiniRubyWiki. See GraphWiki. But I haven't tried it in a while. Maybe it still works. I used TestDrivenDevelopment to add it. -- PhlIp

Use TikiWiki, which applies graphviz. It's got a SiteMap? funtion built in using a WikiGraph? plugin in WikiPages.

For further info see: http://tikiwiki.org/InstallGraphViz

-- ang

I'm working on GraphViz support for [[O'Wiki]]. A demo can be seen at http://sane-asylum.com/twiki/bin/view/Sandbox/TestTopicWebDotPlugin. (BrokenLink) -- WillNorris

I've made a new port of GraphViz for MacOsx, featuring a new document-based GUI, direct export to PDF, all the QuickTime-based bitmap formats e.g. TIFF, JPEG2000, AlphaTransparency?, AntiAliasing?, file change tracking and native font support. See http://www.pixelglow.com/graphviz/ -- GlenLow

Hi, I'm Kyle Cranmer and I have been working on similar things and embedding Latex in my wiki. Check it out - * http://www.theoryandpractice.org/kyle/Wiki/GraphStructureOfConcepts (BrokenLink)

http://www.theoryandpractice.org/kyle/Wiki/BrainStorm (BrokenLink)

The Axiom Developer wiki (called MathAction) at http://www.axiom-developer.org ) now has an experimental interface to GraphViz using the graphviz.tex: macros for including Graphviz in LaTeX. See http://web.mit.edu/~drayside/www/graphviz.tex/main.pdf, by Derek Rayside. MathAction also provides a direct online interface to the Axiom and Reduce computer algebra systams. MathAction is based on LatexWiki, itself an extension of ZwiKi http://www.zwiki.org which is based on ZopeApplicationServer.

Bill Page http://page.axiom-developer.org/zope/Plone/Members/billpage

I've done some hacks to an existing MediaWiki GraphViz extension to allow text to flow left or right, and to invoke alternative layout engines instead of the default dot(1) which only produces hierarchical graphs. The following image was produced using the neato(1) layout engine.

You can download my improved extension at http://www.Bytesmiths.com/InfoArk/GraphViz.php.gz

You can see more examples at http://www.IslandSeeds.org/wiki/Test:Graphviz, including the wiki code for alternative layout engines and text flowing.

-- JanSteinman

Note that the following image's name is a hash derived from the Graphviz data, and will break if the graph is edited.

 (BrokenLink)

We're using it for the meetmap: http://meetmap.com/

A handy GraphViz meets Wiki merger is Graphing Wiki MoinMoin extension. See http://graphingwiki.virtues.fi and http://graphingwiki.python-hosting.com ...

Also, a MoinMoin macro can create a local visual site map. See http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/VisualSiteMap and an example in http://simplementewiki.org/SimpleMenteWiki?action=MapaVisual

This whole page looks really cool when viewed over time: http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GraphViz even though the WikiNow was broken by the WaybackMachine here. -- ChrisGarrod

Also see: LargeGraphLayout and ConnectedText

CategorySoftwareTool