The InfoVis Toolkit Jean-Daniel Fekete INRIA Futurs/LRI, France

Goals Simplify the integration of Information Visualization techniques in Java/Swing applications Simplify the creation and experimentation of new visualization techniques Simplify the creation and experimentation of new interaction techniques Provide a support for teaching InfoVis Provide a base for InfoVis student projects Scales well in term of space and speed

Internal Structure Data structures are composed of Columns Columns contain homogeneous data –Contain metadata –Support notification –Support formatting for input and output –Support missing values –Efficient in speed and memory usage Data structures are based on tables –Attributes and topology explicitly represented as columns –Trees Columns containing the parent, 1st child, next child, last child –Graphs (two tables for vertices and edges) In vertex table: Outgoing edge list, ingoing edge list In edge table: next edge on outgoing list, next edge in ingoing, in and out vertices

Results Article at InfoVis 04 about the Toolkit and a user evaluation Technical report about performance issues Several projects –Monitoring of constraint-based systems –Software testing –Visualization of familiar data (new Desktop)

Problems Separation of concerns Data structure for graphs is complex when scalability and extensibility are required –Tulip has a good model When a good framework exists, implementing parts is long, tedious and hard –Visualizations (layouts) –Rendering (labels, arrow ends, arcs shapes) –Components for “magic-lenses” (Fisheyes, excentric labels) –Components for Dynamic Queries (sliders et al.) –Components to configure and control visualizations –Readers and writers Documentation …

Is there several ways to do it? Looking at implementations, 2 ways –The good old object oriented way –The column-oriented way The goals are the same for most projects –Same scales –Same platforms –Same languages (almost) Should I continue by myself?