Anyway, this entry is about some cool technologies that I have been spending time lately - Neo4j and D3.js.
I have always been curious about graph database. Recently, I have finally conceded to my better curious half and started to get my hands on Neo4j (one of the more popular graph database engine).
I am greatly impressed by its Web GUI that is able to draw a proper Node -> Relationship graph that is both pretty and practical.
![]() |
| Courtesy from Neo4j website |
At work, I have a sudden need for such a graph to analyze some really complex text-based source-target relationships. That was how D3.js came into play!
I have always known that I need to lay my hands on D3.js one day for data visualisation. This need at work just justified it.
After some googling and reading, I ended up with the codes below:
NOTE: Simplified to increase readability!
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<%@page pageEncoding="UTF-8" contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"%>
<title>Node Relationship Graph</title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="d3/d3.min.js"></script>
<style>
path.link {
fill: none;
stroke: #666;
stroke-width: 1.5px;
}
circle {
fill: #ccc;
stroke: #fff;
stroke-width: 1.5px;
}
text {
fill: #000;
font: 10px sans-serif;
pointer-events: none;
}
</style>
</head>
<BODY>
<script type="text/javascript">
d3.csv("data/lsrel.csv", function(error, links) {
var nodes = {};
var rel = {};
// Compute the distinct nodes from the links.
links.forEach(function(link) {
link.id = "rel" + link.relnum;
// link.relnum = link.relnum;
var sLinkSrc = link.source;
var sLinkTgt = link.target;
link.source = nodes[link.source] ||
(nodes[link.source] = {name: link.source, relcnt: 0, srccnt: 0, tgtcnt: 0});
link.target = nodes[link.target] ||
(nodes[link.target] = {name: link.target, relcnt: 0, srccnt: 0, tgtcnt: 0});
link.relationship = link.relationship;
if (nodes[sLinkSrc])
{
nodes[sLinkSrc]["relcnt"] = nodes[sLinkSrc]["relcnt"]+1;
nodes[sLinkSrc]["srccnt"] = nodes[sLinkSrc]["srccnt"]+1;
}
if (nodes[sLinkTgt])
{
nodes[sLinkTgt]["relcnt"] = nodes[sLinkTgt]["relcnt"]+1;
nodes[sLinkTgt]["tgtcnt"] = nodes[sLinkTgt]["tgtcnt"]+1;
}
// console.log(JSON.stringify(nodes));
// console.log("NODEPROP: " + nodes[sLinkSrc].name);
});
var width = screen.width-80,
height = screen.height-80;
console.log("Width: " + width);
console.log("Height: " + height);
var force = d3.layout.force()
.nodes(d3.values(nodes))
.links(links)
.size([width, height])
.linkDistance(350)
.charge(-800)
.on("tick", tick)
.start();
var drag = force.drag()
.on("dragstart", dragstart);
var svg = d3.select("body").append("svg")
.attr("width", width)
.attr("height", height);
// build the arrow.
svg.append("svg:defs").selectAll("marker")
.data(["end"])
.enter().append("svg:marker")
.attr("id", String)
.attr("viewBox", "0 -5 10 10")
.attr("refX", 22)
.attr("refY", -1)
.attr("markerWidth", 8)
.attr("markerHeight", 8)
.attr("orient", "auto")
.append("svg:path")
.attr("d", "M0,-5L10,0L0,5");
// add the links and the arrows
var path = svg.append("svg:g").selectAll("path")
.data(force.links())
.enter()
.append("svg:path")
.attr("id", function(d) { return d.id; } )
.attr("class", "link")
.attr("marker-end", "url(#end)");
var mytext = svg.append("svg:g").selectAll("text")
.data(force.links())
.enter()
.append("text")
.attr("dx", "150")
.attr("dy", "-8")
.append("textPath")
.attr("xlink:href", function(d) { return "#" + d.id; })
.attr("style", "fill:magenta; font-weight:bold; font-size:12")
.text(function(d) { return d.relationship; } );
// define the nodes
var node = svg.selectAll(".node")
.data(force.nodes())
.enter().append("g")
.attr("class", "node")
.call(force.drag);
// add the nodes
node.append("circle")
.attr("r", 12)
.attr("fill", "grey")
.append("svg:title")
.text(function(d) { return "Source: " + d.srccnt + " ~ Target: " + d.tgtcnt; });
// add the text
node.append("text")
.attr("x", 12)
.attr("dy", ".35em")
.attr("style", "fill:blue; font-weight:bold; font-size:16")
.text(function(d) { return d.name; });
node.append("text")
.attr("text-anchor", "middle")
// .attr("style", "font-weight:bold; font-size:12")
.attr("style", function(d) {
if (d.relcnt >= 3)
{
return "font-weight:bold; font-size:12; fill:red"
}
else
{
return "font-weight:bold; font-size:12"
}
})
.text(function(d) { return d.relcnt; });
// add the curvy lines
function tick() {
path.attr("d", function(d) {
var dx = d.target.x - d.source.x,
dy = d.target.y - d.source.y,
dr = Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy);
return "M" +
d.source.x + "," +
d.source.y + "A" +
dr + "," + dr + " 0 0,1 " +
d.target.x + "," +
d.target.y;
});
node
.attr("transform", function(d) {
return "translate(" + d.x + "," + d.y + ")"; });
}
function dragstart(d)
{
d3.select(this).classed("fixed", d.fixed = true);
}
if (error)
{
console.log(error);
}
else
{
console.log(nodes);
console.log(links);
console.log(path);
console.log(rel);
}
});
</script>
</BODY>
</HTML>
|
A sample of the input file "lsrel.csv" is as follow:
relnum,source,target,relationship
6,c,a,DependsOn
5,c,d,Anti-Collocated
1,a,b,DependsOn
2,a,c,StartAfter
3,b,c,StopAfter
4,b,d,Collocated

