/constellation

A graph-focused data visualisation and interactive analysis application.

Primary LanguageJavaApache License 2.0Apache-2.0

Constellation is a graph-focused data visualisation and interactive analysis application enabling data access, federation and manipulation capabilities across large and complex data sets.

Table of Contents

Vision Statement

Constellation is a first class, domain agnostic data visualisation and analysis application enabling the user to solve large and complex data problems in a simple and intuitive way.

  • Users: data analysts, data scientists, and all people interested in graph data analysis.
  • Data analysis domains: graph datasets with rich feature data e.g. social networks, network infrastructure, chemical composition, etc.

Constellation Application

Prerequisites

  • Constellation is known to work on Windows 64-bit and Linux 64-bit. There is currently no support for Mac and the feature request is tracked by Issue #21.
  • The OpenGL graph display works with NVIDIA and ATI graphics cards that support OpenGL 3.3 or later. It is known to not work with older Intel on-board graphics cards.

Download Constellation

Download Constellation by going to the release page.

Run Constellation

Unzip the constellation.zip bundle and double click the bin/constellation64.exe for Windows or run the bin\constellation shell script for Linux and MacOSX.

Build Constellation

To build Constellation from source code do the following:

  • Download Azul's Zulu distribution of JDK 11 with JFX 11, either the Windows 64 bit, Linux 64 bit or MacOSX 64 bit

  • Download NetBeans 11.3

  • Update netbeans_jdkhome in netbeans.conf to point to the Azul Zulu JDK you downloaded (e.g. C:\Program Files\NetBeans-11.3\netbeans\etc)

  • NetBeans 11 have dropped support for the Java Help system but is still required by Constellation. Until we find a solution to #15 there are 2 jar files that have to be manually copied into the NetBeans installation folder.

    • Download org-netbeans-modules-javahelp.jar to C:\Program Files\NetBeans 11.3\platform\modules (using Windows as an example). Note that you will need to override this file when prompted.
    • Download jhall-2.0_05.jar to C:\Program Files\NetBeans 11.3\netbeans\platform\modules\ext (using Windows as an example)

  • Clone this repository

  • Open the Constellation module suite from NetBeans

  • In the Projects view, expand Important Files > Build Script > Right click > Update dependencies and clean build. This can take around 20 minutes to download the first time depending on your internet connection so feel free to get a ☕ and come back later.

  • Start Constellation by right clicking on Constellation > Run

Package Constellation

To package Constellation in a zip bundle do the following:

  • In NetBeans, expand Constellation > Important Files
  • Right click on Build Script and run the build-zip-with-windows-jre or build-zip-with-linux-jre

The packaged file should be available from the dist directory.

Contributing to Constellation

For more information please see the contributing guide.

Documentation

  • Constellation 101 Slides (coming soon)
  • Overview Video (coming later)
  • Quick Start Guide
  • User Guide (coming later)
  • Built in documentation to Constellation exists

Training

Common Troubleshooting Checks

  • You can check whether your graphics card is supported by following these steps:
  1. Click on File > New Graph to create a graph
  2. Click on Experimental > Build Graph > Sphere Graph to create a random graph.
  3. If you can see a graph try to interact with it using the mouse.
  4. If the graph view remains blank, you may not have a supported graphics card.
  • Click on Help > JOGL Version to see the graphics card capabilities of your machine.
  • Click on Help > Show Logs to view Constellation log information.

Acknowledgments

Third party libraries and assets were used in development of Constellation, please view attribution list for details.