Re: [topicmaps-comment] mapping topic maps on a relation database

["Thomas B. Passin" <tpassin@comcast.net>]

[Lars Marius Garshol]>
> * Lars Marius Garshol
> |
> | BTW, how far did you get with TouchGraph visualization? I tried it
> | out myself briefly (a 1-hour Jython hack on top of our engine), and
> | while it did very well for small topic maps (5-40 topics) it didn't
> | do at all well for larger things like the Italian Opera topic
> | map. Have you been able to get round that problem somehow? (I have
> | some ideas about how to do it, but would be curious to hear yours.)
>
> * Murray Altheim
> |

A while ago, I experimented with Touchgraph, too.  I wrote a stylesheet that
turned an xtm topic map into the Touchgraph XML syntax.  I pasted that into
the TG source view page.  It worked like a charm.  It could handle more than
5-40 topics OK, but when you got up to hundreds, it was a bit hard to work
with.  You have to get clever about expanding and limiting the view, but it
really does work.

I was able to make the Opera topic map work this way, but it took a lot of
patience to get TG to do enough layout so you could see enough to start
working with.  Not really practical for general use as is, but it's very
stimulating because it's so close to what one would want.

In case anyone wants it, I've attached a zip file  containing my xslt
stylesheet and the TG-format Opera topic map.  To load the map, bring up TG
as an app, get the source view up, then delete the xml that's there and
paste the new xml in.  When you close the source view dialog, TG will go to
work showing the new graph.

When it's first layed out, all the objects will be on top of each other.
Just drag one with the mouse and layout will start.  I highly recommend
experimenting with a small map before trying out Opera.  Opera will work,
but it takes patience and experience to learn how to expand it, move around,
and limit the display depth so you can see things.  But truly, it is
possible.

Oh, yes, this was with TG1.20.

I normally don't include atttachments, and I hope you will excuse me in this
one case.

Cheers,

Tom P

Attachment: opera_tg.zip
Description: Zip compressed data