Create a Visualization

On the Dragon1 platform, you can enter data in a repository. If you create relationships between the data, you are creating a model. If you filter out certain data, not interesting from the viewpoint of a certain stakeholder, you are creating a view.

A visualization is a graphical representation of a model or a view of one or more models.

You can create basically two types of visualizations: static and dynamic visualizations.

A static visualization is a visualization where you just draw shapes on the canvas and give them names.

A dynamic visualization is where you connect views of models or models directly to a visualization. Now, if the data or the relationships in the model change, the visualization is changed (updated). That is why it is called a dynamic visualization.

Your visualization can also be interactive. That is when you enter data that is shown in popup dialog boxes or if you provide click-through links on the shapes to other visualizations, so you can drill down visually through the data in the model.

If you place shapes in different frames or layers, you even create the notion of a presentation or time-lapse animation with it.

Every time it is up to you what type of visualization you choose.

How to Create a Visualization

To create a static visualization:

  • Go to the Visual Designer
  • Open a cabinet and expand a dossier and select a folder in the Explorer Treeview (create a cabinet, dossier and folder in the Architecture Repository)
  • Insert a visualization by clicking Insert Visualization in the Insert menu
  • The New dialog is shown. Type a name for the visualization, like application-landscape-as-is-2018. Click Save* and the visualization is created and stored as an empty canvas in the database.
  • You will see a visualization leaf added in the treeview
  • To change the name of the visualization, click on the name in the Menu bar, to open the dialog again to change the name of the visualization
  • Go to the Architecture Repository web application if you want to change more attributes.
  • Select the visualization by clicking on the leaf in the treeview. Now drag shapes from the shapes panel at the left bottom onto the canvas
  • If you want to have the shapes saved as entities in the repository, click on Save Entities. Every shape that does not have an ID will be saved and gets an ID. All shapes that already have an ID are skipped.
  • Select a shape on the canvas by clicking on it and click on the right mouse button and select Edit Attributes or go to the Inspector panel at the right and select Attributes.
  • Now add a title, description and image properties and give them a value you like.
  • Click on OK in the dialog.
  • Now save the visualization, click on publish and go to the Viewer to watch your visualization. On mouse over some dialog boxes may pop up.
  • In the near future, upon saving your visualization automatically, a bitmap will be generated that is used in search and the viewer for a preview of your visualization. Now, you have created a bitmap and linked it manually in the Architecture Repository.

How to create a Dynamic Visualization?

To create a dynamic visualization that shows the contents of a view of a model:

    Create a Model
  • Go to the Architecture Repository
  • Open a cabinet and expand a dossier in the Explorer Treeview
  • Select a folder in the Explorer Treeview
  • Click on Insert User Model in the Models and Views Menu
  • The New/Edit dialog is shown. Type a name for the model, like my-new-model and a title like My New Model.
  • Click OK to save the data.
  • Now you will see a model item added in the treeview
  • Click Insert Relationship on the Entities menu to insert a relationship item in a folder.
  • In the form select two Entity Classes and their types of entered data, to create a relationship
  • Link the model to the relationship
  • Click Save

    Create a View
  • Go To the Visual Designer
  • Open a cabinet and select the model item from the previous step.
  • You will see a model generated.
  • Click on Insert View in the Insert menu bar
  • The New/Edit dialog is shown. Type a name for the model, like my-new-view. In the architecture repository, you can add more attributes to the view
  • Click on the canvas and then click Edit Data.
  • In the Properties dialog of the canvas you add a view rule.
  • Create a field called Showentityclass and provide an entity class name that should be shown from the model data.
  • Create a field called Modelid and provide the id of the model to get the data from.
  • Create a field called Showentityclass2 and provide a second entity class name that should be shown from the model data.
  • Click OK and then Save to save the changes to the view rule.
  • Now click on View Data and you will see a view (i.e. a filter) generated from the model.
  • You can make use of layout options to have the view be drawn with a different layout (via the Arrange menu).

    Create a Visualization
  • Go To the Visual Designer
  • Open a cabinet
  • Select a folder and click on Insert Visualization on the Insert Menu
  • The New/Edit dialog is shown. Type a name for the visualization, like my-new-visualization
  • Click OK to save the name
  • Now you will see a visualization added in the treeview. In the architecture repository you can change more attributes of the visualization.
  • Add shapes on the visualization canvas by dragging icons from the icons panel at the left bottom corner of your screen.
  • Click on Save
  • Select a shape. Click right mouse button click and select Edit Data.
  • Now the properties dialog is shown. Here we add a rule to show view data in a certain pattern, using the icon of the shape.

      Add a Rule
    • Add viewid as property and provide the id of the view you want to use.
    • Add entityclass as property and name an entityclass that is part of the view data.
    • Add layout as property and provide Column, Row or Block as value.
    • Add columns and rows as property and give them values between 0 and 100.
    • Add width, height, spacing as properties and give them values.
    • Add original as property and give it the value Yes.
    • Click Apply in the Properties Dialog and Click Save for the visualization.

  • Select the canvas and click View Data.
  • Now the visualization will be generated in the Visual Designer.
  • You can now reposition the shapes and save the changed layout.
  • If new data is available in the model and view, it will be shown in the visualization.
  • Click on publish to publish the visualization in the Viewer.
  • Now go to the Viewer and select the visualization you published.
  • Using the tools at the left bar (this will become visible when you click something) you can slice and dice the visualization and leave comments on it.

How to Create an Interactive Visualization?

You can add clickable links, mouse over popup boxes, sound and videos in your visualization.

To create an interactive visualization:

  • Select a shape in the visualization
  • Click the right mouse button and Edit Data
  • Add property sourcurl and give an image url
  • Add property linkurl and give the url to which the user must be forwarded
  • Add properties entityclass, name and description and give them values
  • Click OK and the Save to save the visualization.
  • Publish the visualization and go to the Viewer
  • Now on mouse over a shape you see a dialog generated
  • If you provide a YouTube video link as sourceurl, the left bar in the Viewer will play the video.

How to Create a Playable Visualization (Presentation)?

You can create a presentation by placing shapes in different frames and layers on Dragon1. Next, you can use the frame show buttons on the player bar to walk through the frames, like they are slides in a presentation.

To create a presentation:

  • Insert a visualization
  • Drag shapes on the canvas (automatically they will be placed in Frame1)
  • Click on the next frame button in the player bar
  • Drag shapes
  • Click on the next frame button in the player bar
  • Drag shapes
  • Click Save Visualization
  • Click the Share button
  • Select worldwide for publication status and provide a name/title
  • Click OK
  • Go to the Viewer (dragon1.com/viewer)
  • Click on your visualization and see how you can browse through the slides
  • Use the 1080p page paper format to get the best online viewing results for a presentation
  • If you select auto-play in the page attributes, your presentation will be an automatic slide show
  • You can present your presentation on full screen. Use the buttons in the Viewer. You can use the browser keys on your keyboard to browse through your presentation.

Creating a playable slideshow provides a value for the frame viewing time. The Frame Viewing Time is the time a frame is shown. For instance, the value of 1 means that you will see 1 frame per second. The minimum value is 1 and the maximum value is 100.