Gephi Plugin Devleoper Workshop, October 6, 2011 in Mountain View, California. Presentation of Gephi's architecture and the different types of plugins that can be written with examples. Details about Gephi's API, code examples and best practices are presented. The Gephi Toolkit is also covered.

1. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop Mathieu Bastian <mathieu.bastian@gephi.org> Mountain View, California October 2011

3. Why building plug-ins?

4. Netbeans Platform

5. Gephi’s Architecture

6. Plug-ins example

7. Gephi Toolkit

8. Live codingGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

10. An Exploratory Network Analysis Tool

11. An open-source platform

12. Written in Java, Swing, OpenGLGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

14. A modular and extensible architecture

15. A codebase of ~180K lines of code

16. Long-term plans and roadmap

17. A ManifestoGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

19. The platform, easy to use and extend

20. Networks. No diagrams or other visualizations.

21. Standards and open innovationGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

23. Interoperability Use, improve or create standards

24. Integration Be exigent with UI, installation, platforms

25. Open and transparent Ideas and features come from the community

26. Public good Is and will remain open-source

27. Documentation Provide tutorials and rich JavadocGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

30. Gephi architecture GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

31. Netbeans Platform "The NetBeans Platform is a generic framework for Swing applications. It provides the "plumbing" that, before, every developer had to write themselves” Quick Start Description and tutorials API Index GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

33. So, development is fully integrated in Netbeans IDE:

34. Download Gephi’ssources

35. File > Open Project in Netbeans

36. Browse existing modules or create new

37. Run Gephi. Click on Run!GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

39. Gephi development is integrated within Netbeans IDE.

40. A Netbeans Platform application (like Gephi) is basically a suite of modules.

41. Each module has a title, a description, a version, an author and hopefully a well defined role in the application.

42. Modules expose public APIs and depend on each other (without circular dependencies).GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

43. Gephi Architecture GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

45. Attributes API

46. Import API

47. Layout API

48. Statistics API

49. Filters API

50. Ranking API

51. Partition API

52. Project API

53. Preview API

54. Export API

55. DataLab API

56. Dynamic API

57. Generator API

58. LongTask API

59. Visualization APIRead more on the Javadoc GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

61. Consult the Javadoc to see what an API does and browse classes

62. While the software evolve, APIs remain backward compatible

63. When we do changes on APIs, we wrote changes in the “API Changes” section on the Javadoc front-page

64. If you see an undocumented API, contact us or report a bugGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

66. SPI: Interface to be implemented. For example a plug-in implements the Layout interface to add a new layoutSPIs is the classical way how features are implemented in Gephi (and Netbeans). You’ll see some packages ending with ‘spi’ in the Javadoc. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

68. Layout SPI

69. Statistics SPI

70. Filters SPI

71. Ranking SPI

72. Generator SPI

73. DataLab SPI

74. Partition SPI

75. Preview SPI

76. Export SPI

77. Perspective SPI

78. Tools SPI

79. Workspace Persistence SPIGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

81. Get node counts, degrees, neighbors…

82. Subscribe to graph events

83. Create sub-graphs (views)

84. Supports hierarchical graphs (graphs within graphs)

85. No parallel edgesGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

87. Columns are identified by an id and a title.

88. Push data to nodes/edges specifying the columnGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

90. Verify the content of the container, fill a log/warning/error report

91. Automatically merge parallel edges

92. Doesn’t support real-time importGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

95. Supports progress tracking and cancellation

96. Get HTML reports from statistics execution

97. Execute dynamic statistics with sliding window supportGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

99. Create more advanced filter queries with operators (And, Or, Not…)

100. Create advanced chained filter queries

101. Export the filter result to a new workspaceGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

103. Transform nodes/edges with default transformers

104. Define custom interpolations

105. Enable auto-transformation. Simply a transformation automatically applied when the graph changes.GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

107. Apply color transformation on the partition

108. Transform a partition into a hierarchical graphGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

110. Retrieve and switch the current workspace

111. Subscribe to the almighty Workspace eventsGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

113. Customize all sort of things, from fonts to edge thickness or color

114. Get a Processing viewer out of the boxGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

116. Export preview data, typically to PDF, SVG or PNG files

117. For graph, one can choose to export the complete or only visible graphGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

119. Sophisticated merging strategies (sum, average, join…)

120. Graph manipulation (group, delete, duplicate…)

121. Search/ReplaceGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

123. Get the current time format (date, double, datetime)

124. Create DynamicGraph, a utility class to apply a sliding window on a dynamic graphGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

126. Provides progress and cancellationGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

128. Get informed when tasks finishes or returned errors

129. Each LongTaskExecutor only supports one task at a timeGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

130. Visualization API Still in development. This API will eventually expose all options of the rendering engine and let users customize properties. It will also provide mouse events queues, selected elements lookup and off-screen screenshots. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

131. Now SPIs… SPIs define how Gephi can be extended. There are simple Java interfaces like Layout, Importer, Filter or Renderer. When you implement a new SPI interface add a @ServiceProvider annotation to the class and that’s all you need to do to register your new implementation: GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

133. Add new types of databases

134. Add new spigot (API, Socket, Stream…)

135. Define custom import UI. The UI could be a single settings JPanel or a wizard.

136. How to write an Import

137. How to write a Spigot with WizardGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

139. Define the layout properties

140. How to write a layoutGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

142. Create a settings UI panel

143. Supports standard and dynamic statistics

144. How to write a metricGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

146. Create a settings UI which modify the parameters

147. Create filter builders

148. How to write a filterGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

150. Create the transformer UI, a custom JPanelGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

152. Provide a settings UI

153. How to write a graph generatorGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

155. Create a general action that will show up in the Toolbar

156. Create a new action for manipulating attribute columns

157. Create new merge strategies

158. How to extend Data Laboratory featuresGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

160. Provide a settings UIGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

162. Create new renderers or replace default implementations

163. Add new properties

164. Add custom UI which will be displayed in an extra tab

165. How to write a preview rendererGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

167. Support new type of vector-based file

168. Create settings UI

169. Create new type of custom export (ex: stream)

170. How to write an exportGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

172. Set which panels belong to a perspective

173. Register a perspectiveGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

175. Create property toolbar to configure the toolGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

177. Create a Plug-in (5 minutes) What a plug-in really is… A plug-in is nothing else than a Netbeans module packaged in a single file with a NBM extension. It’s basically a JAR with additional meta-data. There is no differences between Gephi’s core modules and plug-ins. There are all Netbeans modules. In a sense Gephi is just a suite of plug-ins which work together and depend on each other. To create a new module… Once Gephi project is open, right click on “Modules” > “Add new…” GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

180. Create a Plug-in (5 minutes) Right click on your module > Create NBM… It creates a single file you can distribute and share. Gephi’s website let you upload your NBM file out of the box. You can also update your plug-in with a new version. For multi-modules plug-ins, it also accepts a zip package of several NBMs. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

181. Plugin examples – Circular Layout Adds a new Layout. Standard use of the Layout SPI. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

182. Plugin examples – Complex Generators Adds new Generators with UI. Standard use of the Generator SPI. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

183. Plugin examples – Social Network Analysis Adds new statistics. Standard use of the Statistics SPI. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

184. Plugin examples – LinkfluencePlugin Adds new context and global actions in the Data Laboratory. The plug-in has been developed by the Linkfluence company and open-sourced. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

185. Plugin examples – HTTP Graph Streams the HTTP graph while the user is browsing the web. Implemented as a Generator. It’s a non standard use of the Generator SPI but it works. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

186. Plugin examples – Script console Adds a Python console as a new component. Doesn’t use a SPI but the plugin uses various APIs. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

187. Plugin examples – Seadragonplugin Exports the graph from Preview to a zoomable web interface. Extends the Export SPI and uses the Preview API. GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

189. Subscribe to the gephi-plugins mailing-list.

190. Plug-ins are also available directly from Gephi’sPlugin Center (Tools > Plugins).

191. Like any other module, plug-ins are updated when a new version is available.GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

193. Servlet Use Gephi toolkit to create graph snippets PNG images automatically in a servlet.The Toolkit is release separately from Gephi and can be download at http:/gephi.org/toolkit GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

195. One can find documentation and tutorials on the wiki: Toolkit Portal

196. It has a separate Javadoc, as SPI’s implementations are also included

197. Plug-ins can also be used in the Toolkit. Consult the wiki

198. It’s easy to use from JRuby or JythonGephiPlugin Developer Workshop

199. Thank you!Questions? GephiPlugin Developer Workshop

200. Book recommendations Also checkout How to Design a Good API and Why it Matters (Joshua Bloch) GephiPlugin Developer Workshop