What is Cytoscape.js?

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Cytoscape.js is a JavaScript library for interactive network visualization. It is a building block for web applications and is NOT a complete web application. If you have network data sets visualized want to share your network visualization created with Cytoscape, you can build your own website using Cytoscape.js and this new Export to Cytoscape.js feature.

Examples

Differences and Shared Concepts

Although Cytoscape and Cytoscape.js are two completely independent software packages, they are sharing higher level concepts. The following is the list of similarities and differences between the two:

Cytoscape

Cytoscape.js

In a long term, Cytoscape and Cytoscape.js will be more integrated, and as the first step Cytoscape now supports reading and writing Cytoscape.js network/table JSON files. In addition, Cytoscape can convert Styles to Cytoscape.js Style object.

Data Exchange between Cytoscape and Cytoscape.js

Since Cytoscape.js is a JavaScript library, its basic data exchange format is JSON (JavaScript Object Notation). All of these import/export functions are part of standard Cytoscape user interface, and you can read/write Cytoscape.js JSON files just like other standard files such as SIF.

Export Network and Table to Cytoscape.js

Cytoscape.js stores network data (graph) and its attributes (data table) in a same object. Cytoscape writes such data complex as JSON, i.e., both network and data tables will be exported as a single JSON file. You can select a network and export it from File → Export → Network.

Cytoscape only supports one of the Cytoscape.js supported JSON formats, which is:

{
    elements:{
        nodes:[],
        edges:[]
    }
}

SUID will be used as unique identifier for nodes and edges in the JSON. For more information about this format, please visit Cytoscape.js web site.

Important Note about Data Compatibility

Cytoscape creates JSON file directly from data table and tries to extract as much data as possible from the original table. However, since table column names will be directly converted into JavaScript variable names, invalid characters will be replaced by underscore (_):

You should be careful when you plan to use this feature for data roundtrip: from Cytoscape to Cytoscape.js back to Cytoscape. For such use cases, we strongly recommend to use JavaScript-safe characters only in your table column names. Naming your columns only with alphanumeric characters and underscore (_) is the best practice. (For actual data entries, all characters are allowed. This restriction is only for table column names.)

Export Styles to Cytoscape.js

Cytoscape and Cytoscape.js are sharing a concept called Style. This is a collection of mappings from data point to visual property. Cytoscape can export its Styles into CSS-based Cytoscape.js JSON.

You can export all Styles into one JSON file from File → Export → Style and select Cytoscape.js JSON as its format.

Current Limitations

Cytoscape.js does not support all of Cytoscape Visual Properties. Those properties will be ignored or simplified when you export to JSON Style file.

(Under construction. Compatibility table will be inserted here...)

Import Cytoscape.js data into Cytoscape

Cytoscape.js network JSON files can be loaded from standard Cytoscape file menu: File → Import → Network →. Both File and URL are supported.

Build Your Own Web Application with Cytoscape.js

Although Cytoscape can export networks, tables, and Style as Cytoscape.js-compatible JSON, users have to write some code to visualize the result with Cytoscape.js. Details of web application development with Cytoscape.js is beyond the scope of this document, but for your convenience, here is a list of examples and template projects:

(Under construction. Need to update the sample web app project and its documentation.)

Questions?

If you have questions and comments about web application development with Cytoscape and Cytoscape.js, please send yours to our mailing list.

Funding for Cytoscape is provided by a federal grant from the U.S. National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the Na tional Institutes of Health (NIH) under award number GM070743-01. Corporate funding is provided through a contract from Unilever PLC.

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