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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Popular Blog Posts

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!

The Making of yFiles

In this presentation, our CTO Sebastian shows you the history of yFiles , and consequently yWorks! Our diagramming SDK yFiles was born over 20 years ago as a spin-off of the University of Tuebingen. Since then, we worked continually to keep improving our hero product. Sebastian will reveal some secrets about the journey of our diagramming SDK and our other products, and give you a preview of what is to come in the future. The presentation was made with our very own yFiles, to showcase the connectedness of the milestones in our history in the best manner: Through an evolving diagram! yFiles - the diagramming SDKLearn more about yFiles, the diagramming SDK, and it's powerful and flexible features for HTML, Java, .NET, and WPF here.

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 big development teams on their software. Automatic UML and class diagrams can help with getting this overview. Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) are an essential tool for professional software developers. They bring together various development tools and integrate them seamlessly into one integrated application to maximize the efficiency of developers around the world. At the forefront of IDEs for almost any coding language: JetBrains. Since 2000 they are dedicated to make professional software a more productive and enjoyable experience. They achieve this by maximizing the efficiency of the workflows of their customers by integrating many aspects of a developer’s workflow into one single platform.Throughout the last decades, more and more people are coding for a living and software keeps expanding and evolving. Part of that is the increasing size and complexity of their codebases. Adding new developers to the team and refactoring existing code becomes more challenging every day. To help developers understand and explore the structure of code, they can use UML-Diagrams (Unified Modeling Language). Although UML diagrams are not meant to be used as a single source of analysis, these diagrams can enable developers to see connections between classes of their codebase and quickly understand the interactions. The UML standard can be used with all the major objective and component software development approaches, making it very use-case independent. Class diagrams are one common example of the many different UML structure diagram types. They are suitable for overlooking the structure of classes and show their properties, constraints, and relationships. "UML Editor" DemoJetBrains uses UML diagrams in their IDEs to visualize codebases for their users. See for yourself, how UML Editors can visualize your information!Back in the early 2000s, JetBrains recognized the value of UML class diagrams for the workflow of developers. Every IDE started incorporating diagrams into their platform, so they, too, evaluated their options for an implementation. The free visualization libraries did not offer satisfying solutions and developing an intern solution was not cost-effective. JetBrains was looking for a professional solution that required as little work as possible. They decided to use yFiles, the diagramming SDK, and integrated it in their IntelliJ platform.Class diagrams in the editor. Source: JetBrainsUsing yFiles as their visualization library provided them access to the most sophisticated and complete automatic layout and visualization technology on the market. JetBrains decided to fully integrate the yFiles API into their IntelliJ API to make sure plugin developers could make use of the new diagramming capabilities, too. Now, they have a framework based on yFiles for creating diagrams for almost any purpose and do not have to invest much effort in diagramming nowadays. yFiles takes care of any type of diagram JetBrains needs and they can concentrate on what they do best: Improving the workflow of developers."yFiles meets the highest standards we maintain in all JetBrains products. We can offer our customers effective, great-looking diagrams with minimum effort spent on programming them."Konstantin Bulenkov, Project Manager JetBrainsThe automatic layouts of yFiles automatically generate clearly structured diagrams from the source code projects without users having to manually untangle or rearrange the diagrams. This allows developers to quickly gain an overview and understand complex relationships in their projects. When they update the code, the diagrams automatically adjust. Developer's don't need to worry about diagrams becoming outdated. The customizability of yFiles allowed JetBrains to seamlessly integrate it into their applications: By adding custom shapes, logos, and colors, many different types of diagrams could be integrated into their IDEs. With the help of yFiles, e.g., the integration of keyboard shortcuts was a walk in the park and allows power users to keep their efficient workflow even while interacting with the diagrams.Implementing yFiles into your own application can be as easy as this: Add the UML-style into the project, then create the corresponding drag and drop palette for the user to choose the elements from. Connect the UI and add the UML-layout configuration from one of the many source code demos that come with the yFiles library and the most difficult part of the work is done. When questions arise, the yWorks support team can guide developers along their way. This enabled JetBrains to implement the diagramming functionality into their products exactly how they had envisioned it.Since 2008, JetBrains has been using yFiles as the visualization solution in their products. yWorks is happy about the smooth cooperation with one of the finest IDE makers of the last decades: "We're looking forward to the next decades!"Getting started with yFilesLearn more about yFiles, the diagramming SDK, and it's powerful and flexible features for HTML, Java, .NET, and WPF here!JetBrainsSince 2000, JetBrains strives to make the strongest, most effective developer tools and speed up the workflow for developers around the world.Their mission is to make professional software development a more productive and enjoyable experience. JetBrains won over 80 industry awards and more than 8 million customers trust their tools.https://jetbrains.com