Relation Graphs
Displaying relations between FAIRsharing records.
Last updated
Displaying relations between FAIRsharing records.
Last updated
Each FAIRsharing record exists as part of the wider resource landscape of interlinked databases, standards and policies. This network of relationships are listed and searchable within the main record body, but are also available via a graph visualisation. This page describes the features of FAIRsharing relation graphs, which are reached via the "View Relation Graph" button at the bottom of the General Information section for all records within FAIRsharing.
Below is a screenshot showing a typical relation graph displaying relations one "hop" from the centre. Each "hop" represents an additional degree of separation from the originating record.
This is the graph itself. Scrolling with the mouse will zoom in/out on the graph (it's possible to zoom very closely) and the graph can be dragged around the screen.
This button returns to the FAIRsharing record page for the central resource. Clicking on the central node of the graph (shown in red) also does this. Below the button is the title, with details of the resourse being displayed.
These arrows show the colours used to denote relations. Please see below for some more information about these.
Clicking these buttons will show and hide records of the type selected. The button will be grey when that sort of record is hidden. When they're visible the button matches the colour of the resource.
These buttons work the same way as (4), but show or hide records based on their status (Ready, In development, etc.). The status of each record is shown in the title when hovering your mouse pointer over it.
By default only records directly linked to the central record are shown. These buttons allow those one or two records away from the centre to be shown.
Records may sometimes have more than one relation between them. This is clearly listed on the record's page but is difficult to show on a graph. So, we've ordered the relations such that if more than one exists we show only the relation higher in the list. So, if a record both "profiles" and "is related to" another then we'll only show a green (profiles) arrow.
It's possible that at various times you'll see nodes which don't have any connections. This will be because the records linking them to other records have been hidden. For example, if you were to hide all databases in your current view, then you might see some standards appear disconnected, though in reality the databases which implement them are simply hidden.
When the page first loads you'll notice that all the buttons to the left are deactivated. This is because the graph is still rendering itself (the page will display the animated "loading" icon) to arrange the records it displays in the best manner possible for the number of them present. Once this is complete (up to 10 seconds) then the buttons will become active.
Each time a button is clicked then the graph will briefly become active again (you'll see the "loading" icon for a moment) to allow the changes you've requested to be displayed.
We're constantly evaluating how we visualise our data and so we may change this graph to incoporate any improvements we think of, or that are suggested to us. So, should you have anything you'd like to say then please email us and we'll see what we can do.
Please note, though, that the graph library we've used is good at handling large numbers of data points and rendering them quickly, but relatively poor at allowing for customisation. So, we may not be able to accommodate all suggestions whilst we're using the software currently available to us. For example, exporting the graph as an SVG image is currently not possible.
For more background on this, please have a look at our blog post.
