Sets – Connected Action

NodeXL allows users to gather vertices into named collections called “Groups”. This is handy whenever the entities in the network are made up of different types or an algorithm has divided the network into sub-regions based on how densely some vertices connect to one another. The Groups menu is found in the NodeXL>Analysis menu:

Since version v.132 of NodeXL it has been possible to Collapse a group of vertices (See: Expand and Collapse Groups of Vertices with NodeXL v.132). When a group is collapsed all of the vertices within that group are removed from the network graph and replaced with a single vertex with a size proportionate to the number of vertices in the group. A small “+” plus sign indicates that the vertex is a placeholder for a group of vertices.

If the user expands a collapsed group all of the vertices that had been hidden return to positions in the network visualization. The Groups menu has commands for creating, collapsing, and expanding groups.

NodeXL (v.166) now has the ability to automatically collapse or expand any group of vertices conditionally based on any attribute in the workbook using the Autofill Columns feature.

The NodeXL Autofill columns feature allows users to map data elements to display elements. At the bottom of this list (you may need to scroll down to see it) you will now find a new row: Group Collapsed?

There are several network metric attributes for each group that are created when the Find Groups and then the Graph Metrics command has been run on a network in NodeXL:

Selecting one of the data items in the drop down allows you to automatically decide if a group with those attributes will be presented in a collapsed or (default) expanded state. The data about each group include the number of vertices within the group, the number of connections between those vertices, the number of non-unique connections, the number of unique connections among the vertices, the number of self-connections, the number of unique connected components, the number of isolated vertices, the number of vertices in the largest component, the number of edges in the largest component, the maximum and average width of the largest component, and the density of the group.

These metrics allow for the automated processing of the graph to measure each group and apply a test to decide if a group is too dense or populous to be seen in an expanded state.

Clusters are now groups in NodeXL. Recently, the NodeXL team has been focused on a set of new features related to grouping sets of vertices together. In the previous version we released a feature that allowed all sorts of groupings to be recorded in the worksheet. What’s new is that the three clustering algorithms we have already provided are just one form of group, components (connected sets of vertices) are another, and user labeled sets are a third method of creating a group of nodes in NodeXL (this last feature is still pending). This release adds the ability to add vertices to a group and then collapse all of the vertices in that group to a metanode – a composite of all the nodes in that group. It is then possible to expand the collapsed vertices into the graph

These features are part of a larger effort to support time in which “time is but a group” – a set of nodes and edges present in a time slice. We are working on designs in which some groups are sequenced, allowing the user to move up and back through collections of vertices that may appear or disappear over different time slices/groups.

Here are the most recent features: 1.0.1.132 (2010-09-06)

After you group the graph’s vertices (NodeXL, Analysis, Groups), you can now select all the vertices in a group. Go to the Groups worksheet and click on a group name.
Once a group is selected, you can collapse it into a single vertex. Go to NodeXL, Analysis, Groups, Collapse Group. You can expand it again using Expand Group.
The Groups worksheet now includes a column that tells you how many vertices are in the group.
Bug fix: The NodeXL, Help, Check for Updates feature stopped working in version 1.0.1.131.
Bug fix: If you clicked NodeXL, Graph, Show Graph while editing a worksheet cell, you would get a message that started with “Unable to set the Hidden property of the Range class.”

1.0.1.131 (2010-08-19)

This version introduces the concept of “vertex groups,” or “groups” for short. A group is a set of related vertices. All vertices in a group are shown with the same shape and color. Clusters are an example of groups.
The worksheets that used to be called “Clusters” and “Cluster Vertices” are now called “Groups” and “Group Vertices.”
The NodeXL, Analysis, Find Clusters button in the ribbon has been moved to a new NodeXL, Analysis, Groups menu.
You can now group vertices by connected components, meaning that each group of interconnected vertices will have the same shape and color. Go to NodeXL, Analysis, Groups, Find Connected Components.
You can now group vertices using the values in a column on the Vertices worksheet — all vertices with degree greater than 100 in one group, all vertices with degree greater than 50 in another, for example.
If you open an older NodeXL workbook in this new version of NodeXL, the Clusters and Cluster Vertices worksheets will be automatically renamed.
You cannot open a new NodeXL workbook in an older version of NodeXL. If you attempt to do so, you will get a message that starts with “This document might not function as expected because the following control is missing: Clusters.”

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