Knowledge Information Systems Group, Salzburg, Austria
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Knowledge Information Systems Group, Salzburg, Austria |
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RDF Gravity (RDF Graph Visualization Tool)Sunil Goyal, Rupert Westenthaler User Documentation1 Introduction1.1 OverviewRDF GRAph VIsualization Tool (RDF Gravity) is a tool for visualizing directed graphs built in RDF and OWL. The tool provides a simple yet powerful visualization of RDF graph structures and the ability to filter out and visualize specific parts or fragments of RDF Graphs.
Figure 1: A part of Wine Ontology showing different Wines in RDF Gravity Its main features are:
1.2 InstallationRDF Gravity is built in Java and requires JVM1.3 or higher. It uses the JUNG Graph API and Jena semantic web toolkit (Jena 2.0) provided by HP. A simple Java Web Start installation is provided to install and run the tool. 2 General NotationsThe table below provides the notations used the RDF Gravity tool for denoting RDF resources and properties.
Table 1: Denotes notations used by the RDF Gravity Tool. 3 Graph VisualizationThe tool allows user to visualize RDF graphs and navigate through them easily. 3.1 Multiple Node SelectionA user can select one or more nodes from the visible graph in two ways. The first way is to press the left button of the mouse and drag the cursor while pressing the left button. This results in selection of all those nodes that get covered during the drag operation. The second way is to press the "Shift" key on the mouse and click any arbitrary node for selection.
Figure 2: A user can select multiple nodes on the graph both via selecting a region and selecting arbitrary nodes. A user can move the selected nodes anywhere within the graph without changing the layout of the rest of the graph.
Figure 3: Note that only the position of selected nodes is changed. All other unselected graph nodes remain at their original position in the above figure. 3.2 ZoomThe tool allows a user to zoom through the whole graph. Using a marker provided at the lower right corner of the tool, a user can zoom in or zoom out of a graph according to his needs.
Figure 4: A user can zoom in or zoom out of a graph. In case particular set of nodes are selected before zooming, during zoom the selected nodes always remain visible.
Figure 5: During zoom, the selected nodes always remain visible. 3.3 Automatic Graph LayoutUsers can automatically layout the visible graph by pressing the "Scramble" button on the lower right corner of the tool. The "Scramble" button re-initializes the layout of the graph.
Figure 6: Pressing the Scramble button changes the layout of the graph. 4 Graph NavigationThe tool allows a user to navigate through individual nodes of a graph, show outgoing or incoming nodes or associated instances and literals to a particular node. 4.1 Outgoing NodesTo visualize all outgoing edges of a node, left click on the selected node and on the menu select "Show Outgoing Nodes". This will open up another window showing all nodes to which the selected node is a source. All outgoing nodes that are already visible are marked selected.
Figure 7: A user selects the option for "Outgoing Nodes" and then gets a popup window showing all outgoing nodes that exist within the graph. A user can choose (select or deselect) nodes that he wants to visualize. All selected nodes will be visualized in the graph panel by the tool.
Figure 8: A user selects all the outgoing nodes that he wishes to visualize and the selected nodes are added in the graph. 4.2 Incoming NodesA user can visualize all incoming nodes (similar as Outgoing Nodes) by selecting the option of "Show Incoming Nodes" from the menu.
Figure 9: A user selects the incoming nodes he wants to visualize and the specific incoming nodes are added in the graph. 4.3 InstancesIf a particular node has any instances associated with it, those instances can be directly visualized or hidden by choosing the option of "Show Instances" or "Hide Instances" respectively from the menu.
Figure 10: The figure shows the option for selecting the "Show Instances" and "Hide Instances" options. 4.4 LiteralsIf a particular node has any literal associated with it, those literals can be directly visualized or hidden by choosing the option of "Show Literals" or "Hide Literals" respectively from the menu.
Figure 11: The figure shows the option for selecting the "Show Literals" and "Hide Literals" options and adds two literals on doing the "Show Literals" action on a particular instance node. 4.5 Hide NodesA user can hide a particular node from the graph panel by choosing the option "Hide Node" from the menu. A user can hide multiple nodes by selecting all the specific nodes that he wishes to hide together.
Figure 12: The two selected nodes in the above graph are hidden after the "Hide Node" action is performed. 5 Graph FilteringThe tool allows a user to apply filters to have specific views on the graph. Filters enable hiding of particular nodes or edges from the graph. For instance, one can hide all edges of "dc:author" or any other specific type occurring in any particular given ontology. There are two types of filter:
When a user opens a particular RDF file within the tool, the right side window of the tool shows two panels (Global Filter Panel and Local Filter Panel), each listing all possible namespaces and the RDF properties that exist in the particular RDF Graph being currently visualized. A user can select particular edges or the whole namespace in these panels to hide selected edges or hide all edges belonging to a particular namespace respectively from the graph. 5.1 Global FiltersGlobal Filters allow a user to hide specific edges and concepts based on type. One can select particular edges from the Global Filter Panel. On selection if any such edge which was prior visible in the graph on the left-hand side in the Graph Panel will be automatically hided.
Figure 13: Note that there are three "subClassOf" relations (blue edges) visible in the graph panel. Selecting the global filter "subClassOf" results in removal of "subClassOf" relations. Global Filters are persistent and unless these are not removed explicitly (edges deselected), any option of including globally filtered edges (from Search Panel or explicitly from the Graph Panel) will not work. The filters applied from the Global Filter Panel are Global in nature. 5.2 Local FiltersLocal Filters allow a user to hide or view (include) edges of a particular type from the RDF Graph. A user can select a particular edge (e.g. dc:author) and then click the option "Apply Filter". This will hide all edges or properties of type dc:author from the viewed graph in the Graph Panel. Local Filters are "one-time filters" and unlike Global Filters, not persistent. Any option of including edges (previously filtered by applying Local Filters) from Search Panel, Local Filter Panel or from Graph Panel can be included. Local Filter Panel provides three options on its user interface:
Apply Filter: This option is used for applying Local Filter on selected edges from the Local Filter Panel. After selecting particular edges, a user needs to click "Apply Filter" button to apply the filter for hiding the selected edges.
Figure 14: Note that there are three "subClassOf" relations (blue edges) visible in the graph panel. Selecting the local filter "subClassOf" results in removal of "subClassOf" relations. Include Visible Type: This option is used for including selected edges from the Local Filter Panel. After selecting edges from the Local Filter Panel, a user needs to click "Include Visible Type" button to include the selected edges. Note that this option will not add those selected edges whose source and target nodes are currently not visible in the Graph Panel. This option will therefore visualize only those selected edges whose both source and target nodes are already "visible".
Figure 15: Selecting the "Include Visible Type" option on "subClassOf" results in visualization of all subClassOf relations that exist within the visible nodes. Include Type: This option is also used for including selected edges from the Local Filter Panel. Unlike "Include Visible Type" option, this option will include all selected edges even if their source or target nodes are missing from the Graph Panel. All those edges whose source or target edges are missing, this option will include the source or target nodes as needed to make the particular edge visible.
Figure 16: Selecting the "Include Type" option on "subClassOf" results in visualization of all subClassOf relations that exist within the graph. This results in addition of all nodes in the graph that have the subClassOf relation. 5.3 Custom FiltersThe "Apply Filter" option in the menu bar provides a number of filters that hide or show nodes depending on the type of node.
Figure 17: The figure shows the menu bar option where all the custom filters are listed. Note: The "Global Filters" option in the menu bar also includes a Zero Edge Node Filter. When this option is set, then individual nodes cannot be added to the visible graph, as this filter is persistent and unless deselected filters out any individual nodes that a user is trying to visualize. 6 SearchRDF Gravity provides a full text search over concepts, properties, literal and instances specified in a RDF Graph. It gives also the ability to run RDQL queries and visualize the triples in the result as a graph directly. A user can make queries by selecting the "Query" or the "RDQL" tab along side local filter panel. 6.1 Full Text SearchThe Query Tab allows a user to input any string, choose what he wishes to search (Resources, Properties or both) and then search for the query. The input string is matched against resources and properties present in the RDF Graph and the matched results are shown in the result window.
Figure 18: In the above figure, a user makes a query for "Pasta". The result window below shows all resources related to "Pasta". After getting the result, a user can add respective resources or properties on the Graph Panel. A user can select the resource or property he wishes to visualise on the Graph Panel, and then click the "Include Resources" button. This will include the selected resource in the graph panel. Note that for adding properties (edges), both the source and the target nodes have to be visible from before, otherwise the selected edge won't be visible.
Figure 19: A user searches for "wine". Note that there are no concepts related to wine in the graph panel in the first figure. After selecting the "Wine" concept from the search results, the user clicks "Include Resources". This results in the "Wine" concept being added to the graph panel. In the second figure, one can see the Wine concept that was added because of the "Include Resources" action. 6.2 RDQL QueriesA user can also make RDQL queries (see Jena documentation for more on that) and the resulting triples from the query are directly visible on the Graph Panel. In the "RDQL" panel, a user can write a specific RDQL query he wants to make and then needs to press the "Query" button. In the example below, a user makes the following RDQL query on the food ontology.
Figure 20: The figure shows the result of an RDQL query. The above query results in display of all triples which have "<http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/CR-owl-guide-20030818/food#Pasta>" as their object nodes. 7 Other Features7.1 Multiple RDF Graphs Inclusion:A user can include multiple files and then query or visualise the RDF triples from multiple files within the same graph. The "Include File" option in the "File" menu enables a user to add multiple files. |
