What's an easy way to build a visual map of the links between about 60 pieces of data?
June 30, 2010 10:31 AM Subscribe
Visual map to handle the links between ~60 pieces of data - not quite a sitemap, not quite a diagram... is there a better term for what I'm trying to find?
I'm looking for a program / web tool / software that will let me input the links between ~ 60 pieces of data and will generate some kind of out put that looks like this kind of visual map.
For example, I have 60 pages in a wiki. I know that the page Cars links to the page Roads, which links to the page Trucks. If I plugged the list of links for all pages into this tool, I would be able to quickly visualize whether or not the page Trucks has a link to the the page Cars. Keep in mind that the page on Cars might have 2 links, the page on Roads might have 10 links, and the page on Trucks might have 5 links - not every page will have the same # of links.
It doesn't have to be as pretty or well-designed as the example I linked - I feel like I've seen a lot of visual maps in that wheel display lately, but my Google-fu is failing to bring me to an easy solution.
Let me know if I can provide any more info about what features or specifications I'm trying to find - if the tool does indeed exist! Free is nice but not necessary - if the tool is right and not too expensive for what is a relatively small task, I can probably find cash to pay for a license.
I'm looking for a program / web tool / software that will let me input the links between ~ 60 pieces of data and will generate some kind of out put that looks like this kind of visual map.
For example, I have 60 pages in a wiki. I know that the page Cars links to the page Roads, which links to the page Trucks. If I plugged the list of links for all pages into this tool, I would be able to quickly visualize whether or not the page Trucks has a link to the the page Cars. Keep in mind that the page on Cars might have 2 links, the page on Roads might have 10 links, and the page on Trucks might have 5 links - not every page will have the same # of links.
It doesn't have to be as pretty or well-designed as the example I linked - I feel like I've seen a lot of visual maps in that wheel display lately, but my Google-fu is failing to bring me to an easy solution.
Let me know if I can provide any more info about what features or specifications I'm trying to find - if the tool does indeed exist! Free is nice but not necessary - if the tool is right and not too expensive for what is a relatively small task, I can probably find cash to pay for a license.
Response by poster: adipocere, thanks! I may not be enough of a programmer to be able to fully implement Graphviz.
I guess one important / critical feature of this tool is that it has some sort of GUI for non-technical users - I might be able to muddle through the documentation, but the other users for this tool won't.
posted by pants at 10:47 AM on June 30, 2010
I guess one important / critical feature of this tool is that it has some sort of GUI for non-technical users - I might be able to muddle through the documentation, but the other users for this tool won't.
posted by pants at 10:47 AM on June 30, 2010
The basic data you put into Graphviz is a text file. It's very simple. I believe a GUI exists called "dotty" to help with this, though. I haven't used dotty or lefty, so I may not be steering you in the right direction.
posted by adipocere at 10:58 AM on June 30, 2010
posted by adipocere at 10:58 AM on June 30, 2010
You might consider VUE from Tufts University. It's pretty full-featured and the price is right.
posted by cross_impact at 11:12 AM on June 30, 2010
posted by cross_impact at 11:12 AM on June 30, 2010
I recommend searching for a Graphviz tutorial. It's really not that hard to pick up. And it is absolutely what you are looking for. IAAMACS (I am a mathematician and computer scientist).
posted by Precision at 7:17 PM on June 30, 2010
posted by Precision at 7:17 PM on June 30, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by adipocere at 10:36 AM on June 30, 2010