layoutGraph {Rgraphviz} | R Documentation

## A function to compute layouts of graph objects

### Description

This is a wrapper to layout graph objects using arbitrary layout engines. The default engine (and so far the only implemented engine) is ATT's Graphviz.

### Usage

    layoutGraph(x, layoutFun = layoutGraphviz, ...)

### Arguments

`x` | A graph object
`layoutFun` | A function that performs the graph layout and returns a graph object with all necessary rendering information
`...` | Further arguments that are passed to `layoutFun`

### Details

Layout of a graph and its rendering are two separate processes. `layoutGraph` provides an API to use an arbitrary algorithm for the layout. This is archived by abstraction of the layout process into a separate function (`layoutFun`) with well-defined inputs and outputs. The only requirements on the `layoutFun` are to accept a graph object as input and to return a valid graph object with all the necessary rendering information stored in its `renderInfo` slot. This information comprises

for nodes:

nodeX, nodeY

  the locations of the nodes, in the coordinate system defined by `bbox` (see below).

lWidth, rWidth

  the width components of the nodes, `lWidth+rWidth=total width`.

height

  the heights of the nodes.

labelX, labelY

  node label locations.

labelJust

  the justification of the node labels.

label

  node label text.

shape

  the node shape. Valid values are `box`, `rectangle`, `ellipse`, `plaintext`, `circle` and `triangle`.

for edges:

splines

  representation of the edge splines as a list of `BezierCurve` objects.

labelX, labelY

  edge label locations.

label

  edge label text.

arrowhead, arrowtail

  some of Graphviz's arrow shapes are supported. Currently they are: `open`, `normal`, `dot`, `odot`, `box`, `obox`, `tee`, `diamond`, `odiamond` and `none`. In addition, a user-defined function can be passed which needs to be able to deal with 4 arguments: A list of xy coordinates for the center of the arrowhead, and the graphical parameters `col`, `lwd` and `lty`.

direction

  The edge direction. The special value `both` is used when reciprocrated edges are to be collapsed.

To indicate that this information has been added to the graph, the graph plotting function should also set the laidout flag in the `graphData` slot to `TRUE` and add the bounding box information (i.e., the coordinate system in which the graph is laid out) in the format of a two-by-two matrix as item `bbox` in the `graphData` slot.

AT&T's `Graphviz` is the default layout algorithm to use when `layoutGraph` is called without a specific `layoutFun` function. See `agopen` for details about how to tweak `Graphviz` and the valid arguments that can be passed on through .... The most common ones to set in this context might be `layoutType`, which controls the type of layout to compute and the `nodeAttrs` and `edgeAttrs` arguments, which control the fine-tuning of nodes and edges.

### Value

An object inheriting from class `graph`

### Note

Please note that the layout needs to be recomputed whenever attributes are changed which are bound to affect the position of nodes or edges. This is for instance the case for the `arrowhead` and `arrowtail` parameters.

### Author(s)

Florian Hahne, Deepayan Sarkar

### See Also

`renderGraph`, `graph.par`, `nodeRenderInfo`, `edgeRenderInfo`, `agopen`,

### Examples

    set.seed(123)
    V <- letters[1:5]
    M <- 1:2
    g1 <- randomGraph(V, M, 0.5)
    edgemode(g1) <- "directed"
    x <- layoutGraph(g1)
    renderGraph(x)

    ## one of Graphviz's additional layout algorithms
    x <- layoutGraph(g1, layoutType="neato")
    renderGraph(x)

    ## some tweaks to Graphviz's node and edge attributes,
    ## including a user-defined arrowhead and node shape functions.
    myArrows <- function(x, ...)
    {
    for(i in 1:4)
    points(x,cex=i)
    }

    myNode <- function(x, col, fill, ...)
    symbols(x=mean(x[,1]), y=mean(x[,2]), thermometers=cbind(.5, 1,
    runif(1)), inches=0.5,
    fg=col, bg=fill, add=TRUE)

    eAtt <- list(arrowhead=c("a~b"=myArrows, "b~d"="odiamond", "d~e"="tee"))
    nAtt <- list(shape=c(d="box", c="ellipse", a=myNode))
    edgemode(g1) <- "directed"
    x <- layoutGraph(g1, edgeAttrs=eAtt, nodeAttrs=nAtt, layoutType="neato")
    renderGraph(x)

[Package Rgraphviz version 2.24.0 Index]