GraphXML

GraphXML is a graph description language in XML that can be used as an interchange format for graph drawing and visualization packages. The generality and rich features of XML make it possible to define an interchange format that not only supports the pure, mathematical description of a graph, but also the needs of information visualization applications that use graph–based data structures.

Some of the interesting features of GraphXML, which make the language particularly interesting for graph visualization:

• Inclusion of labels for nodes and edges
• Inclusion of application dependent data, both in the form of directly stored data and URL-s
• XML statements to describe hierarchical graphs, referring both to local files and to remote graph descriptions on the Web
• Description of "dynamic" graphs, i.e., the ability to describe the evolution of graphs, providing a journalling tool for graph visualization and navigation
• Rich facility to store not only geometry, but visual appearences
• Ability to add user extension to the language using the facilities of XML

The detailed description of the language is available in a separate, PDF document. The DTD of GraphXML is also available separately for external reference. A general parser, which can be adapted to an application, is available in compressed tar or in zip formats. for download in Java2, using various, publicly available XML parsers. This parser is for free for non-profit use.

GraphXML is used in a graph visualization and navigation application, developed at CWI. The interested reader should consult the separate pages on the project for further details.