GEF/GEF4/DOT

Note to non-wiki readers: This documentation is generated from the Eclipse wiki - if you have corrections or additions it would be awesome if you added them in the original wiki page.

Introduction

The GEF4 DOT component provides support for Graphviz DOT, in terms of

• an Xtext-based .dot file editor
• support for Graphviz-based generation of PDF-output for .dot files
• a GEF4 Zest-based DOT Graph Viewer

It is internally decomposed into two modules, namely DOT and DOT.UI. There are also a couple of undeployed DOT Examples that demonstrate usage of the (still internal) API. The user documentation is provided in terms of the GEF4 DOT User Guide.

---

DOT

• feature: org.eclipse.gef4.dot
• bundle: org.eclipse.gef4.dot

The DOT module of GEF4 DOT realizes the serializer and parser for the 'DOT Editor' as well as import/export functionality used by the 'DOT Graph View' and the 'Sync Graphviz Export' end-user features, as outlined in the GEF4 DOT User Guide. It does not provide any public API (yet), but exposes its internal API (guarded by an x-friends directive).

{Root}

• package: org.eclipse.gef4.dot.internal

The {Root} package provides an importer (DotImport) and exporter (DotExport) between a Graphviz DOT and a related GEF4 Graph representation. The imported or to be exported graph has to make use of the attributes defined in DotAttributes.

DotImport

DotImport provides support for importing a Graphviz DOT into a GEF4 Graph data model, using the attributes defined in DotAttributes.

/* We can create Graphs based on Graphviz Dot files and strings */
DotImport dotImport = new DotImport();
Graph graph = dotImport.importDot("graph { 1--2 ; 1--3 }");
Graph digraph = dotImport.importDot("digraph { 1->2 ; 1->3 }");

Internally, DotImport is based on an Xtext-based parser. It uses the generated Xtext switch API to dynamically create GEF4 Graph graphs from the DOT abstract syntax tree (represented as an EMF model).

DotExport

DotExport can be used to serialize a GEF4 Graph-model, which uses the attributes defined in DotAttributes to a Graphviz DOT as follows:

/* Set up a directed graph with a single connection: */
Graph graph = new Graph.Builder()
.attr(DotAttributes._TYPE__G, DotAttributes._TYPE__G__GRAPH)
.node("n1")
.attr(DotAttributes._NAME__GNE, "1")
.attr(DotAttributes.LABEL__GNE, "Node 1")
.node("n2")
.attr(DotAttributes._NAME__GNE, "2")
.attr(DotAttributes.LABEL__GNE, "Node 2")
.edge("n1", "n2")
.attr(DotAttributes.LABEL__GNE, "A dotted edge")
.attr(DotAttributes.STYLE__GNE, EdgeStyle.DOTTED.toString())
.build();
 
/* Export the graph to a DOT string or a DOT file: */
System.out.println(new DotExport().exportDot(graph));

Internally, DotExport is based on Xtend to keep its runtime dependencies minimal.

DotAttributes

DotAttributes defines the (currently) supported Graphviz attributes.

DotExecutableUtils

DotExecutableUtils is a utility class that can be used to execute the native Graphviz DOT executable, which is internally used by the 'DOT Graph View'.

---

DOT.UI

• feature: org.eclipse.gef4.dot.internal.ui
• bundle: org.eclipse.gef4.dot.internal.ui

The DOT.UI module of GEF4 DOT realizes the DOT editor as well as the DOT Graph View as end-user features, as outlined in the GEF4 DOT User Guide. It does not provide any public API (yet), but exposes its internal API (guarded by an x-friends directive).

{Root}

• package: org.eclipse.gef4.dot.internal.ui

The {Root} package provides org.eclipse.gef4.common.attributes.IAttributeCopier implementations that can be used to transfer attributes defined by DotAttributes into those defined by org.eclipse.gef4.zest.fx.ZestProperties.

Dot2ZestAttributesConverter, Zest2DotAttributesConverter

Dot2ZestAttributesConverter and Zest2DotAttributesConverter are org.eclipse.gef4.common.attributes.IAttributeCopier implementations that allow to convert between attributes defined by DotAttributes and org.eclipse.gef4.zest.fx.ZestProperties. This is internally used by the 'DOT Graph View' to render a DOT input based on Zest, but can e.g. also be used to use the native DOT executable to perform layout for Zest.