# EDGESExplorer: Simple force layout diagrams from edge lists stored in Google Spreadsheets [NodeXL Gephi]

When I initially pushed TAGSExplorer to the world one of the first reactions I got was from my friend Tony Hirst who [suggested having a simple version which let users select two columns to generate a force layout diagram](https://hawksey.info/blog/2011/10/tagsexplorer-intro/#comment-14284) (that’s what I think he was suggesting anyway ;). I’ve played around with [other ways to get online network (force layout) visualisations](https://hawksey.info/blog/2011/10/nodexl-to-web-via-d3/) from tools like NodeXL and Gephi, but these need a high level of faff. To take an edge list ([here's an example of edge data](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqGkLMU9sHmLdHNnV3BxaVk1MXF1VHJDbkFyc2cySUE&hl=en_GB#gid=0)), upload it to Google Spreadsheets and then point a browser window it makes the process a lot easier. So stripping out some of the extra code from TAGSExplorer gives:

\*\*\* [EDGESExplorer – A tool to generate force layout diagrams from a Google Spreadsheet](http://hawksey.info/edgesexplorer/) \*\*\*

[![EDGESExplorer](https://hawksey.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/image9.png "image")](http://hawksey.info/edgesexplorer/)

## How to use it

1. Generate or upload a 2 column edge list (target/source) to Google Spreadsheets
2. File > Publish to the web…
3. Copy the spreadsheet url and paste it in <http://hawksey.info/edgesexplorer>
4. Click ‘get sheet names’ and select the sheet with your data on
5. Enter the comma separated column letters for where your data is stored
6. ‘go’

## Advanced tips

You can specify a 3rd column with link styles for each of your edge rows. The default is solid but there are two more options ‘dashed’ and ‘dashedblue’ Like [TAGSExplorer the data used for your diagram is queryable](https://hawksey.info/blog/2011/11/tagsexplorer-queryable/) so you can refine what you see. ## Something for TAGS users

If you are using a more recent version of my [Twitter Archiving Google Spreadsheet (TAGS)](https://hawksey.info/blog/2011/02/twitteralyticsv2/), v2.3 or greater, you can generate an edge list for follow/followee relationships from the Summary sheet data. To do this create a sheet called ‘Edges’ then run Twitter &gt; Get Protovis. Here’s [an example from the #devxs tweets I captured](http://hawksey.info/edgesexplorer/?key=0AqGkLMU9sHmLdDFOSGdyS2g2NHktU1hkd3UzYWJSRUE&sheet=obb)(note the relationships are generated from the Google Social Graph API so aren’t 100% accurate. The [code for this is based on Tony Hirst’s Friendviz](http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/twitter/friendviz.html)) BTW I had a query about whether the code for this is open-source and for [the processing/generating d3.js svg area the answer is yes](https://gist.github.com/1363725) (I feel the html and css parts include too much from [yohman's](http://gis.yohman.com/) [Twitter Smash](http://bl.ocks.org/1271916) so I’m asking for approval first). PS I now have a nagging voice in my head to turn EDGESExplorer into a Google Gadget as a replacement to [the protovis version](https://hawksey.info/blog/2011/06/friendviz/). Anyone?