Graphsy Blog

Just updated Graphsy with the convert/export feature.  Right now you can export your drawings to EPS, GIF, PDF, PS, and PNG.  I’m going to try to get it to export to vector based formats such as SVG as well, but I figured I should get these out now that I have them made.  Also I fixed a few minor bugs and one major.  The major bug had to do with how files were saved.  Graphsy would not save graphs larger than about nine nodes because you couldn’t send that much data in one go.  So I’ve changed that and added a status bar that shows you the progress of your save.  Next update will bring more shapes and maybe a way to manage them, though I haven’t really decided yet.  Let me know what you think.  Here is a screencap of the new file management pane:

Graphsy is going live today.  I’ve got some more screencasts up on the front page as well as a tutorial/help file and roadmap.  I have not yet populated the feature request, will do that later today.  I think for now I will let the first 100 users in.  Though if you leave a comment on this post containing the username you picked I’ll make sure you get into the alpha.  Javascript and Ruby on Rails seem to be functioning correctly, at least all of the test cases pass.  Please let me know if you have any problems.  For now go to www.graphsy.com to sign up. Let me know what you think.

You can now sign up for the alpha.  Activation codes will start going out on Monday, but signup link is now available for anyone to use. Go to www.graphsy.com and click on “signup” in the upper right corner.

Right now everything is pointing to a launch on Monday, June 28th. I’ve finally got a version working in Internet Explorer and Firefox 2.0. Though everything looks best in Firefox 3.0 and Safari, with Opera in a very close second. Just finished the last of the test cases. Each browser is able to pass most of them. The bugs are minor, all relating to offsets by a pixel or two of exactly where objects are placed. Should be acceptable. This weekend I will add onto the front page and fix the sign up page. The plan will be to allow everyone to sign up, but control the rate at which they are allowed into the system. At the very least the first 100 people will get in on Monday with more to follow as things keep being stable.

I am going to also populate the initial feature/bug request list and build a Roadmap page as of launch.   That roadmap will undoubtedly change as people start suggesting new ideas.  I’m getting really excited to see what you guys can come up with when pushing Graphsy forward.

I’m also going to record some more screencasts, this time explaining individual features of Graphsy.  I think I’m going to do a bunch of under 5minutes ones, but may also do a single large one capturing all of the different features at once.  What do you guys think?

That’s it for the update.  Hopefully the signup will go live on Sunday with accounts granted on Monday.  Keep checking back at www.graphsy.com and this blog for more information.

UPDATE: Graphsy is now accepting users: www.graphsy.com

Here is the screencast I promised yesterday.  I’ve demoed the basic graph drawing functionality in a previous post.  That screencast showed how Javascript and Ruby on Rails were used to make graph drawing possible as well as Graphsy’s context sensitive menus.  This screencast demos the file management and object options features.  I show how you can change the color of the nodes and edges as well as the color and font of the text.  This also demonstrates Graphsy’s request features page.

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Just wanted to post something to let people know what’s happening. I think the features for the 0.1 version are now set. I hit a little snag building the color picker. I thought I could get something already made, but after wasting two days playing around with some I decided that it would be easier to make my own than try to figure out what others thought. I did have one good choice, but the code for it was terrible, most of the variable names were global and clashed with the variables used in the prototype library. Had very strange behavior and had to get rid of it.

Now everything seems to be pretty much there. I’ve started to adjust it to run in Internet Explorer. I use a mac and so I’ve tested my code in Firefox 3.0, Opera, and Safari. I need to make sure that it works in IE, which it doesn’t right now, and Firefox 2.0. I really should have started testing my stuff with IE much earlier, now I’m haven’t lots of trouble tracking down where the differences are, and that’s holding me back.

I should have a lot of free time this week to finish that off and finalize the test suite.  I’m hoping to lunch Monday July 1st.  That would be great. I think tomorrow I’ll try to record a quick five minute demo highlighting the new features. Hope to post it tomorrow night or Tuesday morning.

UPDATE: Graphsy is now accepting users: www.graphsy.com
This is my first real post in a little while. Just want to catch you up with Graphsy’s progress. I got busy all of a sudden with some paper writing at work and so haven’t had as much time to devote to Graphsy. If you saw the previous screen cast you noticed that I’ve added some basic file management. I’m also almost done designing the Object Options pane, hopefully will find some time over the weekend or early next week. I have also been slowly adding a suite of test cases to Graphsy. That’s what I want to talk about today.

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UPDATE: Graphsy is now accepting users: www.graphsy.com

Here is the second, “highlights”, reel of the Graphsy screen cast.  In here you’ll see a small demonstration of loading and saving projects, as well as some graph drawing with javascript.  I make a small graph with four nodes and edges connecting them to the center.  This one is much shorter and starts drawing right away.  If you like it check out a longer version here.  Now you get to see all of the pieces in place, javascript and HTML in the front and Ruby on Rails and ImageMagick in the back.  Enjoy and let me know what you think.

UPDATE: Graphsy is now accepting users: www.graphsy.com

Here it is, the very first screencast of Graphsy.  In this video I’m demoing some of the basic graph drawing functionality of Graphsy.  You’ll see lines, nodes, and anchors.  The key here is to demonstrate the interface.  The front end is all Javascript and HTML while the back end is Ruby on Rails and ImageMagick. This is my first screencast so it’s not perfect, but I think it’s fine for what it is.  Hope you like it.  Let me know in the comments what you think.

OK, so here are some things about me and why I’m making Graphsy.  I the real world I am a PhD student at Drexel University in Philadelphia.  You can check out my personal research page.  My interest are in software engineering and development.  The research group I am a part of believes strongly in iterative design with a moto that “code is all”. Read the rest of this entry »