vasturiano/aframe-forcegraph-component

Force-directed graph component for A-Frame

aframe-forcegraph-component

A 3D Force-Directed Graph component for A-Frame.

An A-Frame entity component to represent a graph data structure in a VR environment using a force-directed iterative layout. Uses three-forcegraph as the underlying ThreeJS component to manage the graph object.

See also the VR and AR standalone component versions.

API

Property	Description	Default Value
json-url	URL of JSON file to load graph data directly from. Will override content of the nodes and links component properties so either use one or the other. JSON should contain an object with two list properties: nodes and links.
nodes	List of node objects. Example: [{"id": 1, "name": "first"}, {"id": 2, "name": "second"}]	[]
links	List of link objects. Example: [{"source": 1, "target": 2}]	[]
num-dimensions	Number of dimensions to run the force simulation on (1, 2 or 3).	3
dag-mode	Apply layout constraints based on the graph directionality. Only works for DAG graph structures (without cycles). Choice between td (top-down), bu (bottom-up), lr (left-to-right), rl (right-to-left), zout (near-to-far), zin (far-to-near), radialout (outwards-radially) or radialin (inwards-radially).
dag-level-distance	If dag-mode is engaged, this specifies the distance between the different graph depths.	auto-derived from the number of nodes
dag-node-filter	Specify nodes to ignore during the DAG layout processing. This accessor method receives a node object and should return a boolean value indicating whether the node is to be included.	node => true
on-dag-error	Callback to invoke if a cycle is encountered while processing the data structure for a DAG layout. The loop segment of the graph is included for information, as an array of node ids. By default an exception will be thrown whenever a loop is encountered.	throws exception
node-rel-size	Node sphere volume per value unit.	4
node-id	Node object accessor attribute for unique node id (used in link objects source/target).	id
node-val	Node object accessor function, attribute or a numeric constant for the node numeric value (affects sphere volume).	val
node-resolution	Geometric resolution of each node, expressed in how many slice segments to divide the circumference. Higher values yield smoother spheres.	8
node-visibility	Node object accessor function, attribute or a boolean constant for whether to display the node.	true
node-color	Node object accessor function or attribute for node color (affects sphere color).	color
node-auto-color-by	Node object accessor function (fn(node)) or attribute (e.g. 'type') to automatically group colors by. Only affects nodes without a color attribute.
node-opacity	Nodes sphere opacity, between [0,1].	0.75
node-three-object	Node object accessor function or attribute for generating a custom 3d object to render as graph nodes. Should return an instance of ThreeJS Object3d. If a falsy value is returned, the default 3d object type will be used instead for that node.	default node object is a sphere, sized according to val and styled according to color.
node-three-object-extend	Node object accessor function, attribute or a boolean value for whether to replace the default node when using a custom nodeThreeObject (false) or to extend it (true).	false
link-source	Link object accessor attribute referring to id of source node.	source
link-target	Link object accessor attribute referring to id of target node.	target
link-visibility	Link object accessor function, attribute or a boolean constant for whether to display the link line. A value of false maintains the link force without rendering it.	true
link-color	Link object accessor function or attribute for line color.	color
link-auto-color-by	Link object accessor function (fn(link)) or attribute (e.g. 'type') to automatically group colors by. Only affects links without a color attribute.
link-opacity	Line opacity of links, between [0,1].	0.2
link-width	Link object accessor function, attribute or a numeric constant for the link line width. A value of zero will render a ThreeJS Line whose width is constant (1px) regardless of distance. Values are rounded to the nearest decimal for indexing purposes.	0
link-resolution	Geometric resolution of each link, expressed in how many radial segments to divide the cylinder. Higher values yield smoother cylinders. Applicable only to links with positive width.	6
link-curvature	Link object accessor function, attribute or a numeric constant for the curvature radius of the link line. Curved lines are represented as 3D bezier curves, and any numeric value is accepted. A value of 0 renders a straight line. 1 indicates a radius equal to half of the line length, causing the curve to approximate a semi-circle. For self-referencing links (source equal to target) the curve is represented as a loop around the node, with length proportional to the curvature value. Lines are curved clockwise for positive values, and counter-clockwise for negative values. Note that rendering curved lines is purely a visual effect and does not affect the behavior of the underlying forces.	0
link-curve-rotation	Link object accessor function, attribute or a numeric constant for the rotation along the line axis to apply to the curve. Has no effect on straight lines. At 0 rotation, the curve is oriented in the direction of the intersection with the XY plane. The rotation angle (in radians) will rotate the curved line clockwise around the "start-to-end" axis from this reference orientation.	0
link-material	Link object accessor function or attribute for specifying a custom material to style the graph links with. Should return an instance of ThreeJS Material. If a falsy value is returned, the default material will be used instead for that link.	default link material is MeshLambertMaterial styled according to color and opacity.
link-three-object	Link object accessor function or attribute for generating a custom 3d object to render as graph links. Should return an instance of ThreeJS Object3d. If a falsy value is returned, the default 3d object type will be used instead for that link.	default link object is a line or cylinder, sized according to width and styled according to material.
link-three-object-extend	Link object accessor function, attribute or a boolean value for whether to replace the default link when using a custom linkThreeObject (false) or to extend it (true).	false
link-position-update	Getter/setter for the custom function to call for updating the position of links at every render iteration. It receives the respective link ThreeJS Object3d, the start and end coordinates of the link ({x,y,z} each), and the link's data. If the function returns a truthy value, the regular position update function will not run for that link.
link-directional-arrow-length	Link object accessor function, attribute or a numeric constant for the length of the arrow head indicating the link directionality. The arrow is displayed directly over the link line, and points in the direction of source > target. A value of 0 hides the arrow.	0
link-directional-arrow-color	Link object accessor function or attribute for the color of the arrow head.	color
link-directional-arrow-rel-pos	Link object accessor function, attribute or a numeric constant for the longitudinal position of the arrow head along the link line, expressed as a ratio between 0 and 1, where 0 indicates immediately next to the source node, 1 next to the target node, and 0.5 right in the middle.	0.5
link-directional-arrow-resolution	Getter/setter for the geometric resolution of the arrow head, expressed in how many slice segments to divide the cone base circumference. Higher values yield smoother arrows.	8
link-directional-particles	Link object accessor function, attribute or a numeric constant for the number of particles (small spheres) to display over the link line. The particles are distributed equi-spaced along the line, travel in the direction source > target, and can be used to indicate link directionality.	0
link-directional-particle-speed	Link object accessor function, attribute or a numeric constant for the directional particles speed, expressed as the ratio of the link length to travel per frame. Values above 0.5 are discouraged.	0.01
link-directional-particle-width	Link object accessor function, attribute or a numeric constant for the directional particles width. Values are rounded to the nearest decimal for indexing purposes.	0.5
link-directional-particle-color	Link object accessor function or attribute for the directional particles color.	color
link-directional-particle-resolution	Geometric resolution of each directional particle, expressed in how many slice segments to divide the circumference. Higher values yield smoother particles.	4
on-node-hover	Callback function for node hover events, using any raycaster based controller. The node object (or null if there's no node directly on the ray) is included as the first argument, and the previous node object (or null) as second argument.
on-link-hover	Callback function for link hover events, using any raycaster based controller. The link object (or null if there's no link directly on the ray) is included as the first argument, and the previous link object (or null) as second argument.
on-node-click	Callback function for node click events. The node object is included as sole argument.
on-link-click	Callback function for link click events. The link object is included as sole argument.
force-engine	Which force-simulation engine to use (d3 or ngraph).	d3
d3-alpha-min	Simulation alpha min parameter, only applicable if using the d3 simulation engine.	0
d3-alpha-decay	Simulation intensity decay parameter, only applicable if using the d3 simulation engine.	0.0228
d3-velocity-decay	Nodes' velocity decay that simulates the medium resistance, only applicable if using the d3 simulation engine.	0.4
ngraph-physics	Specify custom physics configuration for ngraph, according to its configuration object syntax. Only applicable if using the ngraph simulation engine.	ngraph default
warmup-ticks	How many times to tick the force simulation engine at ignition before starting to render.	0
cooldown-ticks	How many times to tick the force simulation engine after rendering begins before stopping and freezing the engine.	Infinity
cooldown-time	How long (ms) to tick the force simulation engine for after rendering begins before stopping and freezing the engine.	15000
on-engine-tick	Callback function invoked at every tick of the simulation engine.
on-engine-stop	Callback function invoked when the simulation engine stops and the layout is frozen.

There are also internal methods that can be invoked via the components object:

Method	Arguments	Description
d3Force	id: string, [force: function]	Getter/setter for the internal forces that control the d3 simulation engine. Follows the same interface as d3-force-3d's simulation.force. Three forces are included by default: 'link' (based on forceLink), 'charge' (based on forceManyBody) and 'center' (based on forceCenter). Each of these forces can be reconfigured, or new forces can be added to the system. This method is only applicable if using the d3 simulation engine.
d3ReheatSimulation	-	Reheats the force simulation engine, by setting the alpha value to 1. Only applicable if using the d3 simulation engine.
emitParticle	link: object	An alternative mechanism for generating particles, this method emits a non-cyclical single particle within a specific link. The emitted particle shares the styling (speed, width, color) of the regular particle props. A valid link object that is included in links should be passed as a single parameter.
getGraphBbox	-	Returns the current bounding box of all the nodes in the graph, formatted as { x: [<num>, <num>], y: [<num>, <num>], z: [<num>, <num>] }.
refresh	-	Redraws all the nodes/links.

Installation

Browser

Install and use by directly including the browser files:

<head>
  <title>My A-Frame Scene</title>
  <script src="https://unpkg.com/aframe"></script>
  <script src="https://unpkg.com/aframe-forcegraph-component"></script>
</head>

<body>
  <a-scene>
    <a-entity forcegraph="json-url: myGraphData.json"></a-entity>
  </a-scene>
</body>

npm

Install via npm:

npm install aframe-forcegraph-component

Then require and use.

require('aframe');
require('aframe-forcegraph-component');

Giving Back

If this project has helped you and you'd like to contribute back, you can always buy me a ☕!

aframe-forcegraph-component's Issues

Can not render cube in Aframe using this component

I am doing like this
"forcegraph="json-url: graph.json; node-three-object: box;""
and but instead of box, sphere is being rendered. Their is no docs or example to do that, so I tried this way but no luck.

graph crashes / vanishes when setting new/custom component attribute

hi, I'm currently trying to extend your forcegraph component with some functionality that would be useful to me. so far I added a laser component to use the laser's raycaster for intersecting the nodes instead of the camera vector. this already works, but now I try to find a relatively elegant or non-hacky way of switching between camera vector and the laser's raycaster.
for my current solution, I added a "useLaserRay":boolean entry to the schema list of the forcegraph component.
however when I call
var fgraph = document.querySelector('a-entity[forcegraph]'); fgraph.setAttribute('forcegraph', {useLaserRay: true});
the attribute is successfully changed but the graph vanishes without outputting any errors in the console..
this even happens when useLaserRay is not connected to any functionality - so I assume that the fgraph.setAttribute('forcegraph', {useLaserRay: true}); call is doing the damage...

I added the attribute simply by extending the schema list with useLaserRay: {type: 'boolean', default: false} (no other changes were done..)

do you have an idea what could cause the crash?

TypeError: accessorFn is not a function using the npm module

Hello and thank you for sharing this project.

Describe the bug
Using the cdn is all fine but if I use the npm module and then I use import, i got this error. I tried to add accessor-fn to my dependencies but it didn't work.

This is the stacktrace

TypeError: accessorFn is not a function using the npm module
i.tick
C:/Users/christian.vari/Desktop/vr_scr/node_modules/aframe-forcegraph-component/index.js:300
297 | }
298 |
299 | this.state.hoverObj = topObject;
300 | this.state.tooltipEl.setAttribute('value', topObject ? accessorFn(this.data[topObject.__graphObjType + 'Label'])(topObject.__data) || '' : '');
| ^ 301 | this.state.subTooltipEl.setAttribute('value', topObject ? accessorFn(this.data[topObject.__graphObjType + 'Desc'])(topObject.__data) || '' : '');
302 | }
303 |

merging

Hi,
git merge is quite complicated, and also it seem you are still editing, so I will not attempt a PR now.

I'm off for 3 days now, back on Tuesday, so maybe you can look over my "index.js" in my morandd copy
https://github.com/morandd/aframe-forcegraph-component
and pick and pull some parts. My additions were:

• a stats{} object with some scaling functions to help scale node sizes, node positions, and line opacity
• a registerPrimitive() function
• a couple minor utils.isMobile() uses, to adjust performance for mobile phones
• allow nodes to be rendered as sprite, if nodeSpriteSrc is specified
• node labels
• added an example
• documented the additions to the API in the README

I suspect it's faster if you just look at my code and implement these changes yourself, but if you don't have time I will pick this up next week (I'll check with you here to find a day when you are not editing too)

thanks!
Looking forward to having a cool complete aframe FDL
dan

Graph disappears when clicked in visual inspector

Describe the bug
The forcegraph disappears when selected in the visual inspector.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to https://vasturiano.github.io/aframe-forcegraph-component/examples/basic/
2. Activate the visual inspector (control-option-I on osx)
3. Click on the first
4. The graph disappears from view.

Expected behavior
The graph stays in view and can be modified.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: OSX
• Browser Chrome, Safari
• Version 2.24.1

Additional context
I've tried to hit the Play button but that didn't do anything either.

Excluding Link(s) from Intersection

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I've tried many approaches for excluding the links from raycasting intersection, since it makes it really hard to hover the nodes. After many hours of searching, I still couldn't exclude the links from raycast intersection.

Describe the solution you'd like
An attribute for excluding graph objects from intersection (could be named as raycastingIsDisabled)

Describe alternatives you've considered
I tried adding the attribute manually and writing a middleware function which would call the Three.js's native THREE.Mesh.prototype.raycast function after filtering out the intersected objects according to the attribute i added. It didn't work.

Additional context
A solution which is possible with the current version of the project would be very much appreciated as well. Maybe if I work on it another couple hours I will get to find it, but apparently there is no comfortable way of excluding the links from intersection.

dag-mode attribute doesn't work

Describe the bug
The aframe forcegraph component can't handle the dag-mode attribute. When adding it, the graph can't load. No errors in the console, just no graph in sight. It does work with the forcegraph vr component. I reproduced this error on several different projects and IDEs, always with the same result.

To Reproduce
Add the dag-mode attribute to an example.
I took the liberty to copy your example and add the dag-mode attribute here.

Expected behavior
The graph is visible and adapts according to the attribute.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Windows 10
• Browser: Chrome
• Version: 99.0.4844.74

Additional context
I haven't verified yet whether your example project contains any circles. The project I encountered this problem with does not contain circles and the behavior is the same.

Readme.md browser example: t is not defined

Hi again ! :)

Just a short issue to warn you: Your short example on the README doesn't work anymore if you don't have a <a-camera /> defined in your <a-scene>, and then bug with an error difficult to understand (t is not defined).

Also, you could take advantage of this README change to update the version of aframe in this example (0.8.2).

Thanks again for your awesome work, I'm beginning a new project, you may hear again from me soon ;)

node / link color

hey there,

I was trying to generate a color gradient for my network elements that I would like to pass like you specified in the API:
link-color: color

however, I have no idea in which format to store the color in the json object...
I tried hexadecimal code with and without the "#"
and I tried rgb arrays as a string and as an array - but neither worked.

could you point me to a sample graph where color is defined by node/link in the json specification?

thank you!

unkpg.com hosting seems to be blown

I cannot include the script using https://unpkg.com/aframe-forcegraph-component. When I navigate to the URL with my browser, this is the page I get:

Aframe Node with Image or other Entity instead of Sphere

Congratulations on your beautiful project for A-frame, Vasco

We are WebXR developers with A-frame and we would like to know how we can use Image or other Entity instead of Sphere.

We have already tried to make some adjustments with node-val or node-three-object and without effect.

Basically we would like to have an example like this: https://vasturiano.github.io/3d-force-graph-vr/example/img-nodes/ in A-frame.

Thank you very much for your return.

where are events defined?

Hi, I'm trying to add a click event to the nodes and wanted to see how you defined the on hover event in order to use it as a template - however, I could not figure out where your "on-node-center-hover" is actually defined..
I found the "onNodeCenterHover" definition in the forcegraph schema - but "on-node-center-hover" and "onNodeCenterHover" are nowhere linked in the code.. (searched the entire library for them but got only one hit for each with no connection between them..) where do you define that a mouseover on a node triggers the user defined method specified in the "on-node-center-hover" tag?

it seems like this is a fundamental thing but unfortunately I dont undestand it.
could you point me in the right direction?
cheers!

Oculus Go Support

Thank you so much for putting this together. I put together a visualization and am trying to use an Oculus Go in VR mode to do similar interactions like with the browser (moving around and hovering). I can't seem to move anywhere when I press buttons on the controller, only gaze around.

Sorry if this is a silly question as I am very new to the VR space. Is this a simple making sure the controller is fully supported by upping a version support thing? Or does this require a decent amount more programming in order to get the same functionality as you get from the browser?

add gitignore

add gitignore

handling clicks (not just hover)

Hi,

I'm trying to achieve this zoom-effect using the aframe interface. Non aframe-code: https://github.com/vasturiano/3d-force-graph/blob/master/example/click-to-focus/index.html#L20

The "on-node-center-hover" works fine, but I was wondering how clicks should be handled in the aframe component? I see no "on-node-click" callback handler in the API. Or should "onmousedown" just be checked during hovering?

Thanks for a great project!

Being able to customize more interactions like in 3d-force-graph

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I am currently trying to reproduce the "Dynamic data changes" example in aframe-forcegraph-component

Describe the solution you'd like
being able to use all the APIs, for example "graphData([data])" for incremental updates.

Describe alternatives you've considered
I tried other components like 3d-force-graph/ 3d-force-graph-VR/ 3d-force-graph-AR
They all works fine but I want to integrate force graph with new Aframe native webAR feature, and being able to use more APIs.

Additional context
I am quite new to ThreeJS so if there's already a way to do what I mentioned, please forgive me, and please point me a way for how to achieve that. Thank you!

Remove try catch

Hi again ;)

I'm using aframe-forcegraph-component with react and it seems that the tooltips elements are sometimes not defined when remove is called, so it generates an error. To solve it, adding a try catch seems to be enough (the warn is obviously not necessary, and if they are not defined, it's not really a problem that they are not removed..)

remove: function () {
    // Clean-up elems
    try {
      this.state.infoEl.remove();
      this.state.tooltipEl.remove();
      this.state.subTooltipEl.remove();
    } catch (err) {
      console.warn('Removing aframe-forcegraph-component:', err.toString());
    }
  },

typescript typings

Adding typescript typings would help with the use of this component from typescript code

Is graphdata from the 3d and 2d forcegraph libraries supported

I'm trying to make a dynamic graph that you can add and remove nodes from the graph and I was wondering if graphdata from the other versions of the library is supported, or how to do it in general?

Camera background in AR

I'm trying out the basic example from the repo. But in AR mode it doesn't have the camera background. It's plain color as seen in the screenshot below.

I'm on a Samsung S8 with Google Chrome.

superhands support for nodes and edges

Could you please provide super-hands ( https://github.com/wmurphyrd/aframe-super-hands-component ) support for user interactions with nodes/edges?