Dynamic Layout + Interaction.

[dgleich]

This isn't really an issue, so please close it if you want to move discussion elsewhere. (And let me know where :))

I've long wanted something like d3-force in Julia for exploring graphs of size 100-1000 nodes. After a few attempts to do something that called the javascript, I just ported over the key algorithms. It's still a work in progress, but passed a minimally useful functionality point. At the moment, it fairly heavily depends on GraphMakie.jl

https://github.com/dgleich/GraphPlayground.jl

e.g. I use the node interactions from GraphMakie to handle drags events/etc.

Questions / Issues

Was something like this in the 'plan' for GraphMakie that it would make sense to merge them at some point in the future? At the moment, it seemed like the better solution is to keep them separate, but if an eventual merger would make sense, that's something I'd like to keep in mind while working on it.

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In terms of the GraphPlayground.jl tool, there are two main components. There's the underlying force simulator that is scheduled to be 'outsourced' at some point as it can be used for other purposes entirely independently. Then there is the glue code between GraphMakie.jl and the force simulator. It's the glue code that might be the most natural point to think about what to do with.

[hexaeder]

Hey,
sorry for not responding for such a long time. I still haven't tried you package locally but the demonstration in the readme looks super cool! It might be a bit heavy to add to GraphMakie right now, but it think we should link to it prominently in the GraphMakie docs and maybe also include a short example there? And potentially downstream testes to make sure that GraphMakie does not break GraphPlayground?

Once the force simulator is split out, it might be a different story. Maybe it would be sufficient to put the glue code in a GraphMakie package extension if the force simulator is loaded. However, it might still be better to tell people to checkout GraphPlaygrounds rather than "hiding" this cool functionality behind using GraphMakie, GraphForceSimulator.

I also just remembered that @lazarusA asked me about such features in GraphMakie a long time ago at MakieCon.

[dgleich]

Agree it probably makes sense to keep them separate and look at how things evolve.

Let me think about finding tests for GraphMakie that would cause our usage to break. The key thing at the moment is that I use the :positions attribute update change the node locations. I imagine that may change, but it'll be pretty noticeable :)