New Graph Extension on Wikimedia Projects

by Chris Koerner on 18 May 2015 17:36 (EDT)

Tags:	Extension, Graphs, MediaWiki, Visualization, Wikimedia

Yuri Astrakhan announced the availability of a new graph extension that looks interesting. It allows contributors to insert graphs and maps into a wiki page via a visualization grammar known as Vega plus D3 (a popular javascript library for data visualization). You can create and edit your visualizations using Lyra - an "interactive visualization design environment". Like an IDE, but for charts and graphs.

From the description, "Graph and allows very complex data transformations, filtering, and soon even animation & interactivity. Combine that with the power of wiki template parameters and Lua scripting, and the results could be stellar. Up to you really. Vega+d3 gives us a huge list of charting options and maps with numerous projections and ability to highlight individual regions. Lastly, graphs could be rendered either in a browser (more interactivity), or on the server (faster load)."

From Yuri, "There is also a Graphoid service to convert graphs into images. Currently, Graphoid is used in case the browser does not support modern JavaScript, but I plan to use it for all anonymous users - downloading large JS code needed to render graphs is significantly slower than showing an image."

If you have a need for visualizing information within your wikit, take a look at the Graph extension. Feedback and suggestions can be given in Phabricator with the #graph tag.

Here's a recording of a Google Hangout from the MediaWiki Youtube Channel demoing the new Graph extension and the Lyra editor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7DTn9jHnI0

You can read the full announcement here: https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2015-May/081665.html