Interactive Exploration of Visualization

[trogal]

Hello!

I want to use Gephi to create an interactive experience that lets the user explore the different nodes in a network. They would start with a blank page and a search bar (or simply a page with a single node on it). When they click the node, the nodes in the network that are connected to that node appear. When they click those nodes, their connections appear. This repeats so the user can "build" the network themselves, kind of like a "choose your own adventure" book. Ideally I would like to do this with a large database hosted online, but I don't know whether a Sigma.js file would be able to continually mine that data from online (would I have to export all of the database through Gephi in order to accomplish this, or can there be a real-time data retrieval?) I also do not want to code each interaction by hand; I hope that there is a way to incorporate a simple "rule" that allows each node to appear (for example, rather than coding "when Node1 is pressed, Nodes 2-5 appear", I would much rather have something like "when any node is pressed, all of the nodes they share edges with appear". This would provide much more flexibility in the form that the end result could take by making it less scripted).

If this is an impossible feat, what would be the easiest way of creating a demonstration of this functionality using Sigma.js and Gephi (with scripted interactions and an "example" data set rather than mining the data real-time from a server hosted online)? Is Sigma the best tool for this? I chose it simply because of my familiarity with Javascript, but I can adapt to whatever program/format is the best option. I don't mind if this can't be hosted online; if this entire interaction must occur on Gephi itself, that's perfectly OK as I just need to demonstrate its functionality.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your feedback!

[admin]

Hi,

Gephi is not suitable for this, and Sigma.js is not directly usable for interactive network building. However I'm working on another project [EDIT: see Linkurious] which does exactly what you need, if your data is stored in a Neo4j database. Please contact me by email seb@gephi.org and we'll discuss

[trogal]

For making a strictly demonstrative version, wouldn't Gephi+Sigma work? I wouldn't be "building" a network, but rather having all of the nodes in a small data set hidden until I choose to reveal them by clicking on a member of their group. It strikes me as being a reversed version of the standard Sigma functionality of clicking on a group member to hide all nodes that aren't in that group (dynamic filtering).
Does this change your answer? Is Gephi still not the best tool for the job?

[seinecle]

The Gephi toolkit (version without the UI, just a big jar file) would definitely be a useful component for your project. Choosing SigmaJs as an interactive UI provides the advantage of a mature library, but also the inconvenience that SigmaJS might have prebuild functionality constraints simply bc it was not created with all your specific needs in mind. Anyway for a prototype that would definitely be fine. If you go farther, you could consider writing custom code based on html5 libraries and that would not be rocket science.
The interfacing between the Gephi toolkit and SigmaJS could be done by using the toolkit as a Java server technology (I use JSF and I am very happy with it!), which provides convenient ways to connect with the javascript side.

Hope it helps,

Best,

Clement

[WeezyF]

I'm not sure exactly if this is totally what you are looking for, but it could be of some assistance. d3js is a very awesome tool and is very customize-able http://mbostock.github.io/d3/talk/20111 ... sible.html
////
Hey Clement... What do you mean by

The Gephi toolkit (version without the UI...)

? Is there a toolkit with a UI? Is the toolkit what you use to build features into Gephi, or is it just Gephi itself? Thanks, zzz

[seinecle]

Hey Zack! Hope all is well.

I was referring to the distinction between:

- the Gephi java libraries which are fit to create plugins for Gephi. These include some code to add new icons, panels, anything really. These libraries depend from Netbeans specific code, because the Gephi UI is build on top of a tool for UI provided by Netbeans.
How these libs can be used is illustrated here:
https://gephi.org/2012/introducing-the- ... -bootcamp/

- the Gephi Toolkit: no UI code here, so much slimer and without any dependency to Netbans stuff. One big lib.
https://gephi.org/toolkit/