VERTIGo: a Visual Platform for Querying and Exploring Large Multilayer Networks

Erick Cuenca, Arnaud Sallaberry, Dino Ienco, and Pascal Poncelet

Resume

Many real world data can be modeled by a graph with a set of nodes interconnected to each other by multiple relationships. Such a rich graph is called multilayer graph or network. Providing useful visualization tools to support the query process for such graphs is challenging. Although many approaches have addressed the visual query construction, few efforts have been done to provide a contextualized exploration of query results and suggestion strategies to refine the original query. This is due to several issues such as i) the size of the graphs ii) the large number of retrieved results and iii) the way they can be organized to facilitate their exploration. In this paper, we present VERTIGo, a novel visual platform to query, explore and support the analysis of large multilayer graphs. VERTIGo provides coordinated views to navigate and explore the large set of retrieved results at different granularity levels. In addition, the proposed system supports the refinement of the query by visual suggestions to guide the user through the exploration process. Two examples and a user study demonstrate how VERTIGo can be used to perform visual analysis (query, exploration, and suggestion) on real world multilayer networks

BibTex

@article{cuenca2021vertigo,
  title={VERTIGo: a Visual Platform for Querying and Exploring Large Multilayer Networks},
  author={Cuenca, Erick and Sallaberry, Arnaud and Ienco, Dino and Poncelet, Pascal},
  journal={IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics},
  volume={28},
  number={3},
  pages={1634--1647},
  year={2022},
  publisher={IEEE},
  doi={10.1109/TVCG.2021.3067820}
}

Links

Website | PDF | Video

Contact us

Keywords

Visual Querying System, Visual Pattern Suggestion, Multilayer Networks

Programming language

Java

Getting the runnable jar

The runnable jar is hosted at runnable_jar

Requeriments:

• Java installed on your machine

Run the jar file:

$ git clone https://github.com/erickedu85/vertigo.git
$ cd vertigo/runnable_jar
$ java -jar vertigo.jar (or double-click on it (Windows OS, MacOS))

Getting the source code

The source code is hosted at source_code

$ git clone https://github.com/erickedu85/vertigo.git
$ cd vertigo/source_code

Requirements:

• Java Development Kit (JDK) or Java Runtime Machine (JRE) 1.8 on your machine
• Eclipse IDE 2021
• Maven (It is included in the Eclipse IDE)

Build the code:

• Import the source code into the Eclipse IDE workspace
  • Import projects > Maven > Existing Maven Projects
• Add the JDK to the Workspace Default JRE
  • Right-click your project > properties > select Libraries Tab > select JRE System Library > select Java Build Path > JRE System Library > select Workspace Default JRE > click Installed JREs > select JDK or JRE (v.1.8) path
  • (optional) Right-click your project, then Maven > Update

Run the code:

• Right-click on the src/main/java/app/gui/main/Application.java file, then Run As > Java Application

Replicate a functionality

Since VERTIGo is an interactive application, we cannot provide a script to replicate a specific functionality because the user has multiple options to perform any operation. However, we provide a video where it is shown step-by-step to achieve a desired result.

• Following this video you can replicate the result of Fig 11 of the VERTIGo paper
  • (You can achieve this functionality by running the runnable_jar or compiling the source_code)

Licence

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International