Apelles

This is a visualization library designed around cogcomp's NLP datastructures.

Basics

Requirements: NodeJS, NPM should be installed.

To install dependencies: npm install in the root directory to install required NodeJS modules.

There are two use-cases for the system:

1. Demo for visualization of annotations (served over networks)
2. Diff-ing tool for local files containing annotations

Running the demo server

To start the dev server: node server.js

Local comparison and display tool

comparison.js provides a tool for viewing annotations from static files (TextAnnotations serialized as json}, including comparing several different versions of the same annotation of the same text.

Usage for comparing multiple annotation versions:

1. Create two or more folders, representing versions, of annotation JSON files with identical file names.

   Example: prediction/sample.json and gold/sample.json

2. Start server with node comparison.js --port <PORT> <FOLDER#1> <FOLDER#2>. This command can be run from any working directory, with <FOLDER> relative to current working directory.

   Example: node comparison.js --port 3154 prediction gold

3. Browse <SERVER ADDRESS>:<PORT>. All files named according to 1. will be shown under the first drop-down list. Multiple files and view types can be chosen to display vertically in order.

   Example: localhost:3154

Usage for visualizing a single version of annotations:

Same as for multiple versions, but specify a single directory.

Adding a new annotation type

If the name is not already in the available view list, in apelles/public/comparison.html edit the selectpicker element <select class="selectpicker col-xs-12" id="view-selector" data-actions-box="true" multiple> by adding a new option: <option value="MENU_VERSION_OF_YOUR_VIEW_NAME" selected>YOUR_VIEW_NAME</option>