Request to test new version of Circular Layout plugin

[mgroeninger]

Hi all,
Can anyone who is willing give my new version of the Circular Layout plugin a test? I've added some features to it that I would really like wider testing (and feedback) on before I release it.

New features which need testing are:

• Sorting by any arbitrary node attribute.
• New "Radial Axis" layout.

The radial axis layout sorts nodes into groups based on an attribute and arranges a circular layout with radial spars (axes) for each group.

For example, here is the Les Miserable dataset grouped by modularity and sorted with degree ascending outward:

Another example, here is the power grid dataset sorted the same way:

And before anyone assumes it only results in "flowers", here is the Java function dataset grouped by "Strongly Connected ID" and sorted with descending degree outwards:

You can download a beta version of the plugin here:
http://theledge.net/uploads/Networks/ge ... 5-beta.nbm

Please let me know any thoughts you might have!
Matt

[elijah]

This is a great layout! I haven't had the chance to really try to play with it but I have some ideas. Here's the long-in-the-tooth DH@Stanford Graph made beautiful:



I think it's going to work best if it relies on user-defined attributes for the sorting, as there seem to be too many modularity classes in most graphs. Still, I haven't really had a chance to play with it. One thing I'd like to see, if it's possible, is the integration of a false Z-axis for isometric display, especially if it could render false perspective for the node sizes as a modification of their existing sizes. That sounds like a lot of trouble, but I'm throwing the idea out there.

[mgroeninger]

Thanks, Elijah! I'm glad you find the layout interesting!

I will give your idea of a false Z-axis view of the layout some thought. I think I might wait and see what changes might come in the visualization engine itself before I dig into that too far.

Please let me know if you run into any problems with layout in the mean time. I appreciate you looking at it!

[mgroeninger]

Hi Elijah,
I meant to follow up on your comment:

I think it's going to work best if it relies on user-defined attributes for the sorting, as there seem to be too many modularity classes in most graphs.

I think you are absolutely right! I used modularity classes for the two demo graphs mostly because I was being lazy. I think the real strength of the layout will be with user-defined attributes. For example, Sébastien mentioned on the Gephi-plugin mailing list that he had played with a time interval to group the nodes and had found some success.

I honestly haven’t fully explored the ways to use the layout… and I am torn between using my time to add to the Circular Layout plugin or to reparse some of my datasets so that they have more attributes. *grin*

Thanks for testing it and I love the simplicity of the graph you posted above!
-Matt

[admin]

Grouping nodes by Timestamp works also very well on dynamical network...

[elijah]

Grouping nodes by Timestamp works also very well on dynamical network...

I'd love to see that.

This is my new favorite layout. It's great for showing graph statistics visually.

[kinjal]

I have a quick question: I have a network I want to visualise using radial axis; when I group nodes according to degree I get axes but if I sort according to modularity I only get a circular layout and the axes disappear. I want my modules to be sorted as axes. Any idea how I can fix this?
Thanks