Constellation

Constellation is a graph-focused data visualisation and interactive analysis application enabling data access, federation and manipulation capabilities across large and complex data sets.

Vision Statement

Constellation is a first class, domain agnostic data visualisation and analysis application enabling the user to solve large and complex data problems in a simple and intuitive way.

• Users: data analysts, data scientists, and all people interested in graph data analysis.
• Data analysis domains: graph datasets with rich feature data e.g. social networks, network infrastructure, chemical composition, etc.

Prerequisites

• Constellation requires at least Open JDK 8 with JFX 8 support build to be installed and is known to work on Windows 64-bit and Linux 64-bit.
• The OpenGL graph display works with NVIDIA and ATI graphics cards that support OpenGL 3.3 or later. It is known to not work with Intel on-board graphics cards.

Download Constellation

Download Constellation by going to the release page.

Run Constellation

Unzip the constellation.zip bundle and double click the bin/constellation64.exe for Windows or run the bin\constellation shell script for Linux.

There is currently no support for Mac and the feature request is tracked by Issue #21.

Build Constellation

To build Constellation from source code do the following:

• Download NetBeans 8.2
• Download the Open JDK 8 with JFX 8 from Azul website for Windows 64 bit build or Linux 64 bit build
• Clone this repository
• Update the netbeans_jdkhome variable in netbeans.conf. Hint: This file may be located at C:\Program Files\NetBeans 8.2\etc.
• Open the Constellation_Core module suite from NetBeans
• In the Projects view, expand Important Files > Build Script > Right click > Update dependencies and clean build
• Right click > Run

Package Constellation

To package Constellation in a zip bundle do the following:

• In NetBeans, expand Constellation_Core > Important Files
• Right click on Build Script and run the build-zip-with-windows-jre or build-zip-with-linux-jre target

The packaged file should be available from the dist directory.

Contributing to Constellation

For more information please see the contributing guide.

Documentation

• Constellation 101 Slides (coming soon)
• Overview Video (coming later)
• Quick Start Guide
• User Guide (coming later)
• Built in documentation to Constellation exists

Training

• Basics (Buttonology) (coming later)
• Social Network Analysis (coming later)
• Developer Guide
• Example Module Template

Common Troubleshooting Checks

• You can check whether your graphics card is supported by following these steps:

1. Click on File > New Graph to create a graph
2. Click on Experimental > Build Graph > Sphere Graph to create a random graph.
3. If you can see a graph try to interact with it using the mouse.
4. If the graph view remains blank, you may not have a supported graphics card.

• Click on Help > JOGL Version to see the graphics card capabilities of your machine.
• Click on Help > Show Logs to view Constellation log information.

Acknowledgments

Third party libraries and assets were used in development of Constellation, please view attribution list for details.