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Case Study: Airbus

How Airbus visualizes specific technical dependencies, without building a graph library from scratch.

Case Studies yFiles for HTML

Case Study: Langner, Inc.

How Langner, Inc. uses CAD-like visualization to protect power plants and factories.

Case Studies yFiles

Case Study: DbVis Software AB

For businesses today, working with large volumes of data is often essential for securing market share and ensuring a strong future. DbVisualizer offers a universal database tool that runs on all major OSes.

Case Studies yFiles

yWorks Year in Review: 2020

In retrospect, we found lots of bright moments among the challenges in 2020. Let’s revisit the highlights together. Surprises await…

Hacktoberfest 2020

Open-source software is crucial for the software industry. yWorks took part at Hacktoberfest 2020 to celebrate this during the month of October.

Open-Source yGuard svg2pdf

The Making of yFiles

Sebastian shows the journey of yFiles and our other products in this presentation and reveals some secrets of the past and what is to come in the future!

Case Study: JetBrains

As codebases grow larger, it becomes more and more important to keep an overview - especially for large software companies that work with a large number of developers on their software. Automatic UML and class diagrams can quickly and easily create this overview.

Case Studies yFiles for HTML

Case Study: Connect Our Kids

Visualizations can be found in places where you would not expect them in the first place. Diagrams can help social workers to find permanent homes for foster children.

Case Studies yFiles for HTML

yWorks releases version 2.3 of yFiles for HTML!

The series of new releases in 2020 of the yFiles family of diagramming software libraries starts with the 2.3 release of yFiles for HTML. With this release, once more, yWorks shows that it's the leading provider of professional high-quality graph diagramming software libraries. The 2020 set of releases contain break-through features that have not been available to software developers before. They enable both existing yFiles customers and software developers new to the product to create stunning new diagram visualization applications that have not been possible before.

Releases yFiles for HTML

Case Study: Visualizing Digital Innovation

How Appollo Systems used yFiles to create the first low-code development platform for visual business analyses and optimization on the market.

Case Studies yFiles for HTML

Popular Blog Posts

Case Study: Airbus

Airbus - © Raphael JolicoeurWhen software systems retireAirbus maintains highest standards while adopting new technologies How do you prepare for old age? If you’re a big company running legacy software, you need to carefully plan the system’s “retirement”, choose its future replacement, and test everything — before it’s too late.An international pioneer in the aviation industry, Airbus has become a household name. But its products are anything but ordinary. The company designs, manufactures, and supplies state-of-the-art passenger aircraft to high-flying customers around the world. Final assembly lines are located in Europe, China, and the US.Visualizing factory workflowsA320 Hangar FAL © AirbusIn the Manufacturing Process Planning (MPP) department, the technical dependencies that link assembly activities are visualized “to ensure an accurate and optimum process in a highly competitive environment,” as software engineer Philipp Wostry puts it. But because the legacy visualization software was set to expire, MPP needed to research, select, and test a suitable replacement. To support modern planning architecture, they wanted the new solution to be web-based. The ideal replacement tool would also be able to visualize large amounts of data and allow users to easily interact with the graphs. Needs & objectivesNeeds analysisDepiction of technical dependenciesCompatibility with planning architectureVisualization of large data volumesMore time to focus on core businessObjectivesProcess optimization by connecting operations on all levelsWeb-based replacement for legacy toolInteractive graphs with search and editing functionsPlug-and-play functions — plus expert supportOpen-source graph libraries did not have the necessary features. But yFiles from yWorks did. After evaluating the SDK, the MPP development team knew they had identified the perfect fit. “yFiles has all the features we need, and is well-documented,” says Wostry. “This allows us to focus on solving our business-specific problems rather than building a graph visualization library from scratch.” In the PERT UI, the Airbus team created a hierarchical layout with the following structure: n levels of families → designSolutions → operations, connected with dependencies (edges) between all levels. The yFiles library offers a wide range of helpful functions requiring no additional programming. Users can search in graphs, collapse and uncollapse levels, and enjoy easy interaction: editing existing items, creating new edges, finding cycles in dependencies, and more.Sample PERT visualization with dependencies and properties (courtesy of Airbus)While developing their customized, web-based solution, the Airbus team regularly contacts yWorks experts for advice. “We have had, and continue to have, a very good experience with the core developers who provide support,” Wostry shares, noting that speed and competence are both essential. As of February 2021, a first version has been deployed to a productive environment, with users giving very helpful — and almost entirely positive — feedback.The yFiles SDK has the features and documentation we need, and provides excellent support. So we can focus on solving business-specific problems rather than building a visualization library from scratch.Philipp Wostry, Software Developer, AirbusCustomized visualization? The sky’s the limit!yFiles SDK is the industry-leading software library for visualizing, editing, and analyzing connected data with a wide array of automatic and customizable layouts. yWorks is pleased to support Airbus with everything they need to develop a well-integrated, interactive web-based tool. Further info: yFiles demosContextual Toolbar demoFlowchart demoAbout Airbus An international pioneer in the aerospace industry, Airbus is a leader in designing, manufacturing and delivering aerospace products, services and solutions for customers around the globe.https://airbus.com Getting started with yFilesLearn more about yFiles, the diagramming SDK, and it's powerful and flexible features for HTML, Java, .NET, and WPF here!

Case Study: Langner, Inc.

Outsmarting cybercrime — with network diagramsHow Langner, Inc. uses CAD-like visualization to protect power plants and factories.When the cybersecurity pioneer who cracked the Stuxnet malware pivots to producing software, only the smartest SDK will do.It’s not every day that a leading security consultancy transforms into a software vendor. Langner, Inc. can be considered an international software “startup” with over 30 years’ experience! Originally, the Delaware-based company provided consulting services with a view to mitigating cyber risk. But over time, they noticed that every single client, large or small, lacked the foundation for a solid risk assessment: an inventory of assets. Needs & objectivesNeeds analysisVisualization of complex networksInteractive analysis & drill-downVisio exportOrthogonal layout styleObjectivesFast implementationUser-friendly visualsEasily switch between auto-generated views, each highlighting a different aspect of the dataThe downside of connectivityIn modern power plants and factories, digital technology is employed to automate industrial processes. Plant systems have become increasingly intertwined with IT. Today’s factories have extensive digital networks with many thousands of digital devices. Unfortunately, this also means that cyber-physical attacks — physical manipulations using computers and malware — are becoming more common. Perpetrators can now cause damage anonymously, and from a distance. To outwit these criminals, cyber risk assessment is crucial, and digital asset management is the essential first step.Industrial control system networks are more complex than IT networks, but less properly documented.Software to the rescueWhat is OT?Operational technology (OT) is hardware and software that detects or causes a change, through the direct monitoring and/or control of industrial equipment, assets, processes, and events. Source: Gartner GlossaryResponding to the urgent need for OT asset management, Langner has developed OT-BASE, a software product that revolutionizes plant security. It also gives engineering and maintenance staff an unprecedented overview of their networks. Today, OT-BASE is Langner’s sole focus.In developing the software, Langner had to clear several hurdles. First of all, most OT networks are very complex. Second, they are heterogeneous — depicting different types of systems at various locations. In the status quo, companies use Excel and Visio to map all of this, manually! However, this does not scale. So automatic diagram generation is the way to go.Langner wanted to offer interactive network analysis with drill-down, for insight into complex, deeply nested structures. Exporting the diagrams into Visio would make it easy to share these insights with all concerned. And an orthogonal layout style – a technically accurate drawing of the network, resembling traditional wiring – would win users over. After all, people tend to like what they already know.Visualized with yFiles, complex networks are easy to understand. Langner previously tested JavaScript open source libraries, but their results were considerably more chaotic.“To best serve our clients, we wanted to depict orthogonal connections, like the wiring diagrams they are familiar with. yFiles offers this, and much more.”Ralph Langner, Founder and CEO, Langner, Inc.Helping users feel at homeFun factyFiles was a strong contender from the start, for a simple reason: Langner has been using yEd graph editor for many years, and is very pleased with it! yEd is a free application that also features the automatic diagram layouts available in the yFiles software library.After a rigorous selection process, the company identified yFiles as the best fit. As CEO Ralph Langner reports, the SDK (software development kit) was very easy to integrate, and the developers were excited about the many capabilities they could easily add to their tool.yFiles can easily depict complex networks in a CAD-like orthogonal view. The generated layouts and renderings are crystal clear, and users can switch between various graph item styles to increase performance for even larger networks. According to Ralph Langner, being able to toggle back and forth between layouts is also very helpful, because it highlights different aspects of the data. The Visio export feature, introduced 2020, is another welcome addition. And then there’s the UX benefit, which clinched the deal: “For our users, switching to new software is always a challenge. With yFiles, we offer them an orthogonal layout. That way, the graphs look and act familiar.”Better visibility, better protection As industrial automation increases around the world, Langner’s OT-BASE software helps protect vulnerable locations — like power plants, water treatment facilities, and large manufacturers — against cyber-physical attacks. yWorks is thrilled to provide the visualization components and the layout algorithms the company needs.Further info: yFiles demosLarge GraphsLayout StylesIsometric DrawingAbout LangnerLangner, Inc. can be considered a software startup with 30 years’ experience in OT. The company became famous for cracking the Stuxnet malware, providing the most technical in-depth account of what the destructive routines were designed to do. After Stuxnet, they morphed into a software vendor with 100% focus on OT-BASE, an asset management system for industrial control systems. Among the features of OT-BASE is the automatic discovery of complex industrial networks which can be visualized in interactive topology diagrams.Getting started with yFilesLearn more about yFiles, the diagramming SDK, and it's powerful and flexible features for HTML, Java, .NET, and WPF here!

Case Study: DbVis Software AB

How to keep Big Data from becoming a big hassleDbVis Software AB and yFiles: a perfect match for over 20 yearsAll vertical and horizontal markets and segments rely on databases, and their use is increasing rapidly. But combing through large collections of plain sheets is inefficient. There is a much better approach: visualizing databases as graphs! This makes it easy to work with schemas, highlight connections between data elements, and quickly get a clear overview — tasks that are nearly impossible using spreadsheets alone.Needs & objectivesNeeds analysisVisualization of database schemasData navigationOrthogonal layout styleObjectivesOne-click view of table relationshipsUser-friendly and visually appealing graphsA universal toolSince 1999, the Swedish company DbVis Software AB has been helping developers, database administrators, and analysts visualize data with a powerful Java application: DbVisualizer. The software is available for all major operating systems, connects to most databases, and offers the same outstanding experience across all supported platforms. Users can edit data elements and use on-screen manipulations to generate SQL queries, and easily navigate the database. Even very large, heterogeneous databases with complex structures can be analyzed with little effort.DbVisualizer shows the relationships between database tables with a single clickWorking with schemas“In early 2000, we evaluated alternatives to our very basic graphing toolkit and discovered yFiles for Java,” Roger Bjärevall, Founder and CTO of DbVis Software, recalls. “We fell in love with yFiles very quickly, just by browsing the yFiles documentation and trying various demos. We were stunned by the way yFiles beautifully animates the graphs, the optimized rendering — and the well-designed API.” To reduce the time spent coding, DbVis Software implemented the yFiles diagramming SDK. This library includes algorithms for a perfectly aligned orthogonal layout, ideal for depicting database schemas. With one click, users see how tables in a database relate to one another — essential for efficient design, reviews, and documentation. “Graphs are powerful in many respects,” Bjärevall continues. “We use them to map primary keys to foreign keys, and to generate query optimizer plans, using the schema or single tables as input.” If any tables are added or deleted, yFiles syncs the schema graphs, so visualizations are always clear and up to date.Need to get a handle on large data volumes? Visualizing the schema, or database structure, is a great start.Cross-platform development? No problem!Why visualize?“We use graphs to render primary/foreign key mappings, navigate by data, and generate query optimizer plans.”Roger BjärevallyFiles is a library for visualizing and arranging structured data, so it’s a perfect fit for displaying information in a relational database. yFiles offers visualization components for both of the major Java UI frameworks — Swing and JavaFX — and refines them continuously. The layout algorithms, on the other hand, are independent of the chosen UI framework. They can be implemented out-of-the-box, or customized to fit specific user needs. In addition to Java, the yFiles library is available for JavaScript/HTML5, Windows Presentation Foundation, and .NET Forms. While the tech specs of these platforms demand slightly differing approaches to visualization, the APIs and features are essentially identical in all yFiles products. This lets developers transfer their yFiles know-how from one project to another — even when developing for different platforms.Great programming interface, stellar supportAs the partnership between DbVis Software and yWorks enters its third decade, Roger Bjärevall looks back: “The day we started using yFiles, we said, ‘These guys know what they’re doing! This is what a really well-designed API should look like.’ The stability and quality have been top-notch ever since. And everyone at yWorks, from CTO to support staff, is very helpful and responsive.” High praise, indeed — and extra motivation for the coming decades. Here’s to our next 20 years!"yFiles is tremendously flexible, allowing us to create the exact experience that our customers desired."Roger Bjärevall, CTO, DbVis Software ABWho’s who in yFiles layoutsName: OrthogonalLooks like: A wiring diagram Superpower: Precisely depicting structures+Name: HierarchicLooks like: A family treeSuperpower: Clearly showing dependenciesName: OrganicLooks like: A living organismSuperpower: Emphasizing natural clustersFurther info: yFiles webinars & demosWebinar: How to Visualize Database Content with yFilesLayout Styles Demo Superior quality since 1999DbVis Software AB is a small team of passionate people based in Stockholm, Sweden. To date, over 4.5 million users have downloaded the DbVisualizer application. More than 22,500 companies in over 135 countries have purchased the Pro version. The company’s vision from day one: “High-quality software to make life easier and more effective for anyone who uses it.” https://dbvis.comGetting started with yFilesLearn more about yFiles, the diagramming SDK, and it's powerful and flexible features for HTML, Java, .NET, and WPF here!

yWorks Year in Review: 2020

Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans — this holds especially true for the past year! In retrospect, we found lots of bright moments among the challenges. Let’s revisit the highlights together. Surprises await… New options, bigger graphs, even more intuitive useOur flagship product, the yFiles diagramming SDK, grew by leaps and bounds last year. Many new graph analysis algorithms were incorporated: from detecting clusters, to aggregating sub-graphs, to calculating centrality values. The Large Graph Aggregation Demo shows how to use the various clustering algorithms to automatically analyze and explore even very large graphs. Keeping things classy, the new built-in BezierEdgeStyle uses smooth Bézier curve paths to render edges. For intuitive interactive editing, this style features the familiar control points (handles) also used in other vector graphic applications. Last but not least, check out the Isometric WebGL Drawing Demo on how to display data isometrically and adjust the projection to rotate the graph in 3D. This feature alone will change the way users see the data in their diagrams. As with every major release, many other details were optimized, too.Would you believe it?In the latest yFiles release, there are more than 522 easy ways to configure the over 15 different layout algorithms. That’s at least 1,160,310,760 possibilities for displaying your graphs!Good news about our diagram editors yEd Live and Graphity: We decided to keep yEd Live free of charge, and Graphity became available for Confluence Cloud — just in time for Atlassian’s announcement that they will discontinue server licensing. Did you know?Graphity provides more than 70 node icon palettes with a total of over 2,000 individual icons.For developers and data scientists, the brand-new App Generator puts low-code programming at your fingertips, making it very easy to rapidly build a prototype, or even whole yFiles apps, for data visualization. Hide DescriptionOpen in yEd LiveDownloadyFiles App GeneratorWe redesigned the Data Explorer for Neo4j, and equipped it with an improved UI on a technical level, this paves the way for 2021, when the Data Explorer will become available for other graph database systems. Our developers are already busily working on the next yFiles major release, also scheduled for 2021. This release will provide more developer goodies and a tighter integration with the App Generator. Automatic layouts will be able to distinguish between (and automatically respect) the different semantic types of elements. Plus, as usual, we’ll be adding lots of features in the areas of automatic layout, data binding, and framework integrations. Stay up to date on our Twitter or LinkedIn! “These guys know what they’re doing! This is what a really well-designed API should look like."Roger Bjärevall, CEO DbVis Software AB, customer since 2000Responding to crises as a team Prior to the pandemic, yWorks employees almost always commuted, many on their company-issued e-bikes. Remote work was rare. After all, our headquarters on the west side of Tuebingen are spacious and bright, and everyone enjoys the benefits of teaming up. From feasting on large pizzas at our big dining table, testing our mettle in the Mario Kart “lunchbreak league”, or joining colleagues for a brisk walk to the food truck, we all had many reasons to come to work every day. And, beginning in March, one reason to stay home: Covid-19.The managing directors took action early on, setting up stable infrastructure for remote collaboration. So before Germany went into lockdown, the first colleagues were already working from home. It was exciting to see how quickly our terrific team responded to the challenges that arose. Our face-to-face events also had to go digital. One example: The Neo4j GraphTour, sponsored by yWorks and originally planned as a road trip through Europe, morphed into an online event mid-March.Combating Covid…by putting our talents to work!In 2020, we supported 7 projects to fight Covid that are using yFiles and donated 39 Graphity licenses to help companies and institutions #FightCorona. Each of us can make a difference. Get the details here.People have the powerOur passion for diagramming is powered by people: colleagues, customers, and the graph and data enthusiasts we normally meet at events, customer sites, and our headquarters. This year, we enjoyed connecting with the graph community digitally, sponsoring major digital events like NODES 2020, as well as the annual Graph Drawing Symposium. Our customers around the worldThanks to our tools, we are present in almost every country on Earth. Our diagramming SDK yFiles is visualizing data on every inhabited continent — and who knows, maybe Antarctic researchers use it, too?Our customers worldwide helped make 2020 a successful year on the books. What makes us especially proud is when people recommend our products and services to workmates and friends. Again and again, we hear how much institutions and companies value the support we provide.“We’ve added custom diagraming templates, diagram exports, node grouping, line snapping and angle constraints, and a slew of other features. These have made the tool much easier to use, and are only possible because of the advanced features of yFiles.”Travis Collins, CTO Connect Our Kids, customer since 2020Summing up, looking aheadIt looks like we made the best of a very challenging year. And we couldn’t have done it without our loyal customers, colleagues, and partners. yWorks extends a heartfelt THANK YOU to all who supported our products and initiatives. We hope to see you next year — online or in person — at our y20 anniversary. Join us in celebrating our first two decades! Stay safe and be well in 2021, your diagramming experts yWorks

Hacktoberfest 2020

At yWorks we use open-source software on a daily basis. Much of the software that powers the world runs on open source. In short, the world and many aspects of our daily life wouldn’t be the way they are, if it wasn’t for open-source software. Here at yWorks we recognize that software companies that rely on free and libre software bear a responsibility to give back to the community. That is why we maintain multiple open-source projects with software that is free of charge – now and forever. In recent years many of the “big tech” companies have realised that open-source software is at the heartbeat of the industry. In order to ensure the open-source community stays alive and flourish, multiple companies organize different events to promote open source. One of these initiatives is Hacktoberfest by Digital Ocean.Created in 2013, Hacktoberfest is a “month-long celebration of open source”. Hacktoberfest aims at introducing newcomers to open source. For this, Digital Ocean teams up with GitHub. GitHub is like a social network for programmers. On GitHub, software is uploaded and revised by many million programmers daily. Participants of the Hacktoberfest can join any of the projects available on GitHub, and complete a fixed set of tasks specifically crafted by maintainers for newcomers. Once completed, participants can then obtain a free T-shirt among other goodies.Hacktoberfest also empathizes diversity in tech. By reducing contribution barriers (making issues easy for beginners, clear, concise) we can in turn allow many more people to “give open-source a try” . What starts as a small open source contribution, can lead to a lifelong career in tech, no matter which origin, ethnicity or gender a person has. yWorks joined this effort to bring awareness to open-source. We prepared two of our open source projects with special tasks for #hacktoberfest. One of these projects was svg2pdf. svg2pdf does exactly what its name says – it converts vector graphics (SVG) to PDF documents. This is of course useful for exporting graphs to PDF documents, but has potential for many more use cases. Released in 2015 by yWorks, svg2pdf has grown a large user base and regular contributions from organization outsiders, a popular choice for converting SVG to PDF in the browser.Our second project that participated in Hacktoberfest was the Java bytecode obfuscation software yGuard. It is used to protect Java-based software from being reverse-engineered. This process is essential for ensuring the intellectual property of stakeholders. However, not only yFiles benefits from this knowledge. Many of our customers have relied on the excellent yGuard software for years. In 2019 we decided to fully release this project on GitHub, making all its sources available for anyone.If any of these projects has piqued your interest, you can head right over to github.com/yWorks/svg2pdf.js or github.com/yWorks/yGuard to learn more about them. Of course, even after the Hacktoberfest, open source software remains an important topic for us and the whole tech community. We are happy that many programmers, artists, and creators contributed to the open-source community and our projects as part of the Hacktoberfest 2020! yGuard and svg2pdfCheck out and add your GitHub stars to our open-source software on GitHub, here!Learn more about yGuard, the Java obfuscator, here, and more about the svg2pdf on GitHub, here!