Graph visualization on the web with Gephi and Seadragon

#1

Post by mbastian » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 2:46 PM UTC

Graph visualization on the web with Gephi and Seadragon
gephi.org

Re: Graph visualization on the web with Gephi and Seadragon

#2

Post by macca321 » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 3:12 PM UTC

The idea that Seadragon is a platform that can be compared with Flash and Canvas is such crap. Its just a library for zoomable maps (which you've been able to create for years with the google maps API since 2005 or something).

Re: Graph visualization on the web with Gephi and Seadragon

#3

Post by mbastian » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 3:28 PM UTC

macca321 wrote: post #2

The idea that Seadragon is a platform that can be compared with Flash and Canvas is such crap. Its just a library for zoomable maps (which you've been able to create for years with the google maps API since 2005 or something).

I disagree, Flash and Canvas are not suitable for displaying large number of objets. Using zoomable maps is a good workaround for that.

Google Maps needs an API key, whereas Seadragon doesn't and its a simple JS file < 100ko.

Re: Graph visualization on the web with Gephi and Seadragon

#4

Post by franckcuny » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 4:38 PM UTC

another example: http://cpan-explorer.org/2009/07/28/version-of-the-authors-g...

Re: Graph visualization on the web with Gephi and Seadragon

#5

Post by olegk » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 5:48 PM UTC

That's horrible. Instead of drawing graphs on the client side, you're pushing insanely large number of images to the browser. It makes sense for google maps, not for graphs.

Plus you can't do any animation, changes to the graphs on the fly.

Re: Graph visualization on the web with Gephi and Seadragon

#6

Post by sesqu » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 6:59 PM UTC

olegk wrote: post #5

That's horrible. Instead of drawing graphs on the client side, you're pushing insanely large number of images to the browser. It makes sense for google maps, not for graphs. Plus you can't do any animation, changes to the graphs on the fly.

Yes and no. It's a sensible way to represent very large pictures, and many interesting graphs are unreasonably large. Large interactive graphs can also strain an interactive viewer more than seadragon, result in incosistent views, and require some amount of interface and filter design.

On the flipside, interactivity and animation can be very welcome, and can work well even when offline.

Re: Graph visualization on the web with Gephi and Seadragon

#7

Post by macca321 » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 7:04 PM UTC

mbastian wrote: post #3

macca321 wrote: post #2

The idea that Seadragon is a platform that can be compared with Flash and Canvas is such crap. Its just a library for zoomable maps (which you've been able to create for years with the google maps API since 2005 or something).

I disagree, Flash and Canvas are not suitable for displaying large number of objets. Using zoomable maps is a good workaround for that. Google Maps needs an API key, whereas Seadragon doesn't and its a simple JS file < 100ko.

Seadragon could be implemented on Flash or Canvas. It's a library, not a platform. It's like comparing The Wire and a camcorder.

Re: Graph visualization on the web with Gephi and Seadragon

#8

Post by _delirium » Tue, Jul 27, 2010, 9:55 AM UTC

olegk wrote: post #5

That's horrible. Instead of drawing graphs on the client side, you're pushing insanely large number of images to the browser. It makes sense for google maps, not for graphs. Plus you can't do any animation, changes to the graphs on the fly.

I've had bad luck trying to draw large graphs client-side, though I'm admittedly not an expert on optimizing such things. But once you're trying to push 10,000-node graphs to the client, browsers tend to explode. Much easier to rasterize them first and push image tiles.