Customise node properties
Adding a URL to nodes
To add to, edit, or delete the URL of a node, select the node in question, open Node
from the tool bar and select Properties
. Edit the URL field as you see fit. Nodes can contain more than one URL, simply add them as a comma separated list in the URL field like this: [URL1, URL2, URL3].
If a node already contains a url to a document, video or image, this can be found in the Content section of the Inspect agent. Video and images can be viewed in Conode from the Watch Media
option in Node
from the Tool Bar.
When you select more than one node, the Inspect agent populates a table ‘Node List’ of the full list of selected node labels. If the nodes have any content attached (video, image, webpage link, document etc) this will be indicated with a ✓.
Customising node color, node size and label visibility
To customise node color, size and label visibility, select the node(s) in question and use the desired function at the right section of the tool bar.
Colouring Nodes in a View
To customise specific nodes’ colors, see above. To customise all the nodes within a view according to their layout, choose one of the following options from the Color By
in the tool bar:
- Group assigns each cluster of nodes a unique colour
- Spatial Group considers the spatial layout of node clusters, assigning similar colours to clusters located
- Density colours nodes based on their spatial density within the view. The density is calculated using a KDE approach with a default Scott Factor of 1/10th.
- Spectrum - colour nodes based on the "graph spectrum"; can be used to visualise the structure of the graph. Nodes with similar connections should be assigned similar colours. Nodes with identical connections will be assigned the same colour.
- Position (x-axis) colours the nodes from blue to red according to the position of nodes along the x-axis (red for higher x-axis value)
- Reversed Position (x-axis) colours the nodes from red to blue according to the position of nodes along the x-axis (blue for higher x-axis value)
FYI
The Color By
tool acts on the currently active view (indicated by the green line underneath the view title), so ensure the right view is selected before applying color.
Color by Edge Weight
To color nodes based on their edge value, select the numeric node, right-click on the view to act on and select Color/Size Successors
. Colour Successors by Edge Weight
will update the
colour of all successors of the metric node you have selected, such that data points with high
values are red, and low values are blue. Conversely, Colour Successors by Edge Weight (Reversed)
will assign red
to the data nodes will low values of the metric, and bue to those with high values.
All nodes which are not connected to the metric will retain their original colour.
To size nodes in a view according to a metric, first select the metric node then right-
click on the view background and select Size Successors by Edge Weight
. The nodes of a larger size
are those with a higher value of the metric.
Propagate Node
The propagate agent can be used to transfer node properties (label, url, color, edges) from a group of nodes to another, provided they are connected by edges and intermediary nodes.
From
: Nodes with properties you want transferred.
To
: Nodes to receive the properties.
Header
: Used when propagating edges. These are the nodes whose edges you intend to transfer.
Connecting Nodes with Edges
To connect nodes via edges, we can either select the nodes of interest > right-click > Create Edges
> Set Selected as Successors
or right click and drag to draw an edge to connect the nodes.
Alternatively, first highlight the group of successor nodes and draw an edge in either of the 2 ways:
- Draw edge to a group: right-click the predecessor node and hold, drag towards the group and release on any node in the group.
- Draw edge from a group: right-click on any one of the nodes in the group and hold, drag towards the predecessor node and release.
Note that Propagate
can only transfer properties between nodes which are at a maximum of four hops
(edge + node pair) away in the graph.
Duplicating Nodes
If you wish to duplicate your nodes before updating properties, simply select the nodes you wish to duplicate then use
the Duplicate
action located in the Node
menu.
Delete Nodes
To delete nodes, simply select the nodes you wish to delete then use the Delete Nodes
option located in the Node
menu along the top tool bar or towards the bottom of your context menu. Deleting nodes are different from removing them from your active view. The former removes the node from the graph, whereas the latter only removes the node(s) in your current view.