XML and Visualization

1. XML and Visualization Matthew Burt Megan Kelley

2. Overview • A brief introduction to visualization • Benefits of XML for visualization • Examples and Demos of visualization tools that use XML • Questions?

3. What is Visualization? • A graphical representation of abstract information structure for human users • A new level of presentation for data structures • A means for a user to more easily interact with a large amount of information

4. How can Visualization be used? • Graphically represent a complex data file, such as an XML file • Summarize large amounts of data • Interactively present search results • Visually show relationships between multiple pieces of information

5. Power of Visualization • A new look at information at scale that would be difficult for human to mentally process • Presenting data visually sometimes allows for new conclusions upon seeing relationships • http://www.commetrix.de/ (Documents/videos – FlashVideo)

6. Le Grand, B., Soto, M. (2001) Information Management – Topic Maps Visualization, XML Europe 2000, Paris, France “Fundamental factors for a good visualization interface are ( ):  • An overview of the structure for a global understanding of the structure and of the relationships within the hierarchy, • The ability to zoom and to select some nodes, • Dynamic requests in order to filter data in real time”

7. Visualizing XML • Graphically represent an XML file • Search by text and tags • Collapse and expand nodes • Hydra3d XML visualization tool • http://hydra3d.sourceforge.net/ • LukeLab Noder tool • http://lukelab.com/lab/noder/

8. Benefits of XML for Visualization • XML provides tagged data for visualization software • XML files can provide a hierarchical arrangement of data • XML separates content from presentation

9. Visualizing Structure through XML Starlight tool crawls through file structures, builds model, and outputs in XML http://starlight.pnl.gov/appFile.stm

10. Six Degrees of Separation of Mohamed Attahttp://business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,35253,FF.html(This example is used widely in research: this slide sourced directly fromwww.coba.unt.edu/docs-old/itds/FACULTY/evangelopoulos/bcis4660/Lecture10_MarakasChap3_Spring2006.ppt

11. XTM: XML Topic Maps • XML format used to define a data model and syntax to represent structure and connections of information sources • ISO Standard in 2000 • Topics -- Associations -- Occurrences • http://www.topicmaps.org/xtm/

12. XTM Topic <topic id="hamlet"> <instanceOf><topicRef xlink:href="#play"/></instanceOf> <baseName> <baseNameString>Hamlet, Prince of Denmark</baseNameString> </baseName> <occurrence> <instanceOf><topicRef xlink:href="#plain-text-format"/></instanceOf> <resourceRef xlink:href="ftp://www.gutenberg.org/pub/gutenberg/etext97/1ws2610.txt"/> </occurrence> </topic>

13. XTM Association <association> <instanceOf><topicRef xlink:href="#written-by"/></instanceOf> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#author"/></roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#shakespeare"/> </member> <member> <roleSpec><topicRef xlink:href="#work"/></roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#hamlet"/> </member> </association>

14. Topics in action http://news.com.com/2104-1025_3-6041227.html?tag=st.bp

15. Visualization Tools that Use XMLThinkMap • Java app that displays structured data • http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ • XML as data source • XML-based config files • Test changes “on the fly” • Extend and customize API: one file can control UI, one can control functionality • Spider, Hierarchy, Clustering, Chronology

16. http://www.thinkmap.com/download/presskit/data_sheet/tm_data_sheet.pdfhttp://www.thinkmap.com/download/presskit/data_sheet/tm_data_sheet.pdf

17. Visualization Tools that Use XMLKartoo • Receives data from server through “XML flow” • If unstructured data, can execute query on server, build links, send XML flow back to Flash • http://www.kartoo.com/flash04.php3 • http://www.ujiko.com/v2a/flash.php?langue=en

18. Example of Kartoo’s XML Flow to Interface http://www.kartoo.net/e/eng/doc/modele.xml

19. http://ww3.kartoo.com

20. http://www.ujiko.com/v2a/flash.php?langue=en

21. Visualization Tools that Use XMLAduna Cluster Map • Uses XML-structured data files that describe objects and the class tree for sets of objects • http://aduna-software.com/products/technology/clustermap/index.html

22. Aduna Cluster Map data file structure <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?> <ClassificationTree version="1.0"> <ObjectSet> <Object ID="m0"> <Name>crumbs</Name> <Location>http://aduna.biz/frameset/frame- crumbs.jsp?content=%252Fproducts%252Fspectacle%252Fsysreqs.jsp </Location> </Object> <Object ID="m1"> <Name>AutoFocus : Buy</Name> <Location>http://aduna.biz/products/autofocus/buy.jsp</Location> </Object> <Object ID="m2"> <Name>Enterprise use of AutoFocus</Name> <Location>http://aduna.biz/products/autofocus/af-enterprise-use.jsp</Location> </Object> <Object ID="m3"> <Name>Aduna Metadata Server 2005.1 Release</Name> <Location>http://aduna.biz/news/200503151603.jsp</Location> </Object> <Object ID="m4"> <Name>crumbs</Name> <Location>http://aduna.biz/frameset/frame- crumbs.jsp?content=%252Fnews%252F200412221200.jsp</Location> </Object> … …

24. Visualization Tools that Use XMLGrokker • Uses XML feeds to gather data from content sources

25. http://www.grokker.com/

26. XML Format for Search: OpenSearch • OpenSearch Description • XML file that describes engine and ways to query • OpenSearch Query Syntax • <Url type="application/rss+xml" template="http://example.com/?q={searchTerms}&amp;pw={startPage}"/> • OpenSearch Response • RSS or Atom format • http://opensearch.a9.com/spec/1.1/

27. Questions? Thank you!

28. Further Reading • Edward Tufte (benchmark figure) • The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward Tufte, Graphics Press, 1983. • Chaomei Chen • Jacques Bertin • Ben Shneiderman