Posts labeled "yWorks"

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…

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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!

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The Story behind the yWorks Logos

For almost 20 years now, we are in love with visualizations and graphs! So much so, that parts of our new Corporate Design were made with a tool built with our #yFiles diagramming SDK! You can read more about yFiles and the history of our logo here.

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yWorks releases version 2.4 of yFiles for HTML!

yWorks continues to invest heavily into its yFiles diagramming libraries. The first new release of the 2021 generation is yFiles for HTML 2.4. Creating and developing new graph visualization applications has never been easier. On the one hand, there are new low-code options around the new yFiles App Generator and on the other hand, hundreds of new TypeScript demos and code samples and the new WebGL 2.0 backend make the creation of high-quality, performant graph visualization apps a snap.In this post, I want to highlight some of the features of the 2021 releases series. For those new to yFiles, who need a more general introduction to the product I highly recommend visiting the yFiles overview page, first. This post will focus on the new additions to the library, and the many existing features will not be covered, specifically.As usual, we take care to not only add new features to yFiles, but also help our existing customers with their current releases. Many of the new features can be added without much changes to existing applications. Some of them we found so valuable that we were actually enabling them by default. In the features for developers section, we'll highlight some of the APIs that should make the lives of developers easier, again. The section about improvements for the automatic diagram layout shows the ground-breaking layouts that are now aware of node semantics. For the view part of the library, the previous release introduced native isometric graph rendering and in this year's release we added WebGL 2.0 rendering. It enables the display of huge graphs with literally hundreds of thousands of elements in the visualization at highest framerates. As always, for the majority of our existing users, the new 2.4 release will be a drop-in replacement. There are almost no incompatible API changes, and the new APIs can be integrated into new applications with almost no effort.So let's go through some of the highlights! If you want to see them in action yourself, here's the link for all the new demos in this release:RUN NEW DEMOSVisualization and interactionThe biggest new feature in the release of yFiles for HTML for the web platform certainly is the addition of WebGL 2.0 as a new render backend for graphs. But existing yFiles-powered apps that use SVG, WebGL 1.0, or HTML5 Canvas can benefit from the new smooth viewport animations just as well: WebGL2 renderingWhile the most user-friendly diagram visualizations typically only render a few handfuls of elements on the screen, for a growing range of use-cases our customers want to be able to render a lot more elements in their diagrams. We believe that users would benefit more from a more concise, smaller visualization, but for some networks, coming up with good filtering and clustering logic is very difficult, and it's tempting to try and render large graphs on the screen.yFiles so far was able to deal very well with thousands of elements, but the performance of the browser engine deteriorates when tens or hundreds of thousands elements are rendered on the screen. With the solid support for WebGL 2.0 on all major browsers (and Apple finally enabling support for it by default as the last vendor in their upcoming release), we decided to use the raw power of that technology and let the graphics card perform the majority of calculations and animations.Hide DescriptionOpen in yEd LiveDownload Even with built-in graphics card adapters you can now expect buttery-smooth 60 frames per second or more for layout animations, zooming, panning, item animations, and even the most frequently used user interactions. With the new implementation, the performance of the JavaScript engine plays a minor role, only and for many of the aforementioned operations is now a constant factor, independent of the number of nodes, edges, or labels on the screen.RUN DEMOWe were able to smoothly display and animate a million elements on the screen with the CPU almost idlingDuring tests with medium range gaming graphics card adapters we were able to smoothly display and animate a million elements on the screen with the CPU almost idling. We are excited to see what our customers will be able to implement with this new and powerful tool!But, there is a small downside, here, of course, because otherwise we could have just removed the other rendering backends: The new render backend has been optimized for performance and many aspects of the implementation have been ported to run on the GPU in shader code. This however also means that larger parts of the flexible JavaScript API yFiles offers to customize interactivity and rendering cannot be combined with the shader code, anymore.Hence, for this release, we added support for the most important and most widely used visualization options and interactions that we believe are crucial for a great user experience in setups where large graphs are used:two node styles8 different shapes with strokes and fillsarbitrary bitmap images and colored iconseffects like halo, and drop-shadowsthree edge styles straight line with arbitrary number of bendsarcs with given curvature"bridge-style" with two bends and varying height4 different arrow types with different sizes at both endscolored strokes with varying thicknesstwo label stylestext rendering with any type of fonts and colorsicon and badge renderingany number of labels per node and edgefree positioning of the labels and icons/badgeslabel backgrounds with pill, rectangle, and round rectangle shapeshardware accelerated animationslayout morphingzooming/panningpulse and shake effects for nodes, edges, and labelsfading animations to/from greyed out, transparent, and tinted colorsGPU-rendered selection indications and resize handlesSee the various styles, animations, and large graphs in action: This set of features allows for creating impressive applications, already, with smooth animations and a great user experience. Still, we're keen on your feedback on what you think we should be adding to the WebGL based rendering pipeline in the coming releases!RUN STYLES DEMOSmooth viewport animations A subtle default change in the way viewport movements are implemented massively improves the fidelity of the visualization: Zooming and panning operations via the mouse wheel, scroll bars, but also fit content buttons and other gestures that result in viewport changes, now are performed in a smoothly animated fashion. We are sure that your users will love it, since just like layout animations, it makes it easier to keep your mental map of the diagram. Once you have seen the difference, you probably never want to go back to the old behavior, but of course this change can be undone with a simple setting on the component.You will find this feature in almost all demos linked from this page. Improvements for automatic layout While there is not a completely new layout style in the 2021 releases of yFiles, we added a major feature that affects four of the most widely used layout algorithms' node placement. In the context of automatic edge routing we added a feature that better supports users when interactively and incrementally editing orthogonal diagrams: Node type supportFor many use-cases, node elements in a diagram correspond to specific types of elements in the business model, i.e., for the user they have different semantics. There are several ways to highlighting elements of the same type, e.g., by using a particular shape or color, but simple layout implementations are not aware of these differences between nodes. For the algorithm, these are all just boxes with coordinates. To make it easier for the user to distinguish between types, node placement can be restricted according to their type during the layout calculation, e.g., by using group nodes or swimlanes to separate nodes of different types, both already supported by several algorithms of the yFiles library. These traditional kinds of drawing constraints can have a significant impact on the layout, often resulting in a too drastic change or limitation. Instead, a more subtle change would be preferred. Hence, in this new release, we added a more lightweight handling of semantic types to several layout algorithms, including the HierarchicLayout, OrganicLayout, TreeLayout, and CircularLayout. More precisely, the mentioned algorithms typically have some degrees of freedom for placing the nodes which can now be exploited to prefer placing nodes of the same semantic type closer to each other without affecting the overall layout result too much.The new type-support is generally treated as a secondary, subordinate optimization criterion. Thus, nodes of the same type are usually not simply clustered together. The type is only considered when some free choice is available after considering other constraints relevant to the layout algorithm (like minimizing the number of crossings or considering the hierarchical grouping structure). This results in local clusters where possible, with the main structure of the graph staying intact.These examples demonstrate the new node-type feature for different layout algorithms using colors to indicate different semantics and types. For the hierarchic layout, specifically nodes that have many sibling children, the support for different node types results in much less noisy and easier to understand drawingsIn the organic layout, too, the optimization for stars, parallel chains, and other substructures in the graph can benefit from additional type information associated with the nodes.Very similar to the hierarchic layout, the tree layout algorithm with its different placement strategies for children in a subtree can use the node type information to highlight groups of similarly typed elements.RUN DEMOSmart incremental edge routing support Rerouting edges automatically upon user interaction is a something that our edge routing algorithms always supported. However, if the user only made slight incremental modifications to the graph, determining the edges to reroute was complicated to do right and for slight changes sometimes the complete edge route was optimized instead of minimizing the change to help the user keep their mental map of the diagram as good as possible. The new implementation automatically detects edges that need to be rerouted and can be instructed to only apply local fixes to existing edge paths in order to both obtain perfect orthogonal edge routes and keep the visible changes low.RUN DEMOA new developer experience With every release of yFiles, we have also worked hard to improve the developer experience. A powerful library like yFiles demands capable software developers and in order for them to get the most out of the features, we're always looking for ways to ease their lives and simplify working with the library. The yFiles Dev Suite Getting started with a new software package is never easy, but with this release, we have added an interactive UI that supports developers with managing the yFiles package and the demos. The new "yFiles dev suite" makes it super-easy to install, browse, and play with the demos and sample sources. It's a one-stop tool that developers can run on their development machines to download the package, install dependencies, browse, compile, and modify the demos. It also assists with creating support requests and integrates with the customer and evaluator support backend.The new "yFiles dev suite" makes it super-easy to install, browse, and play with the demos and sample sources.Installing the dev-suite is trivial and can be done even before users have downloaded or registered for a download. All that is required is an installation of node.js and npm:> npm i -g yfiles-dev-suite > yfiles-dev-suite WATCH INTRO VIDEO TypeScript TypeScript has rapidly gained attraction among web developers in recent years, and while switching from JavaScript to TypeScript is not that difficult, so far we had not all of our demos and source code snippets in our API documentation available for TypeScript. With this release, TypeScript users will be able to pick source code snippets and sample implementations from almost all our demos, since we are now providing versions for either flavor.The 2.4 release of yFiles for HTML also comes with a new and second set of TypeScript declaration files, that will be automatically used, depending on the version of TypeScript in use with the project. The new set works with the latest TypeScript version (4.3 at the time of writing) and has additional features that weren't possible before.Separate types for getter and setters of properties allow for using automatic value conversion and thus more concise, shorter code Improved type declarations allow automatic inference of more generic type parameters, specifically when implementing interfacesBetter types for the source/sender argument of yFiles events help you avoid unnecessary casts Improved nullability information makes writing concise code with strict nullability checks even easierMore precise information about readonly properties and protected members detects programming errors early on Try the new features yourself!See the official yFiles for HTML release notes for more exhaustive list of the features we added to yFiles for HTML 2.4.RUN ALL DEMOSMost topics of this post are also covered in our webinar What's new in yFiles 2021?, which you can watch on YouTube: Whether you're new to yFiles for HTML or want to try out the new version, we invite you to download yFiles for HTML, today!And if you are interested in seeing some code, first, please do take a look at our GitHub repository which contains the TypeScript and modern EcmaScript sources for all the demos we provide. As always: Happy diagramming with yFiles!EVALUATE NOW

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