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Constellation Roamer 1.2.5 Release

December 17, 2008 - 16:30 — daniel

A new update for Constellation Roamer is now out. Version 1.2.5 fixes a bunch of bugs and adds some of the most commonly-requested features. Here's what you'll find in the new release.

New Zooming Controls

That's right, the new version includes a zoom slider and zoom in and out buttons. The interface is similar to Google Maps so most users will know exactly where to find it and what to do with it.

There's also an auto-zoom and recenter button which scales the visualization to fit the page. This is great for seeing the entire structure of your graph data all at once.

Tooltip Styling Properties

The configuration file now has three properties for changing the appearance of node and edge mouse over tooltips. You can now control the color of the font, the tooltip line, and the background.

Clearing and Reloading Graph Data

Version 1.2.5 adds a couple Javascript methods for manipulating the graph data model.

ConstellationRoamer.clearGraphData empties the loaded graph data. This isn't useful in the static XML interface mode but in REST tree mode it will clear cached data and reload node information as the user traverses the graph.

ConstellationRoamer.reloadGraphData has a different effect depending on the interface mode. Static XML implementations will see the entire graph data set reloaded and the visible graph will immediately be updated to reflect changes. In REST tree mode the tree rooted at the currently-selected node is reloaded from the server.

These methods make it possible to display changes to the graph data without reloading the embedding page.

Preventing Visualization Config and Data Caching

Flash will automatically cache the configuration XML file so it doesn't need to be loaded every time Roamer initializes. This could be a problem if your configuration file has changed.

One solution is to rename the configuration file each time it is updated. You will need to update the config URL in your HTML embed/object tags but this will effectively force Flash to reload the file the next time a user visits your website.

Another option is to add the string [timestamp] somewhere in the URL. This string will be replaced by the current UNIX timestamp. By including this in your URL, it forces Flash to look for a new configuration file every time Roamer initializes. Here's an example URL:

http://example.com/constellation_roamer/config.xml?t=[timestamp]

The same problem occurs with the graph data XML file so the same solution is implemented for the data.url property in the configuration file. Just include the string [timestamp] somewhere in the URL and that will ensure the graph data is loaded fresh every time.

Bug Fixes

This update also includes a number of bug fixes.

  • Cleaned up tooltip implementation
  • Cleaned up scrollbar implementation
  • Fixed problem where nodes would expand in a circlular layout
  • Fixed problem where only the first newline character was converted to a new line break
  • Fixed problems with crossdomain scripting. Now all subdomains within the license domain can access the SWF
  • Fixed problem where the onChange event was being triggered everytime the visible NodeRenderers changed
  • Fixed problem reading depth_loaded property

Bring on the Feedback!

All of these features and bug fixes were added because of your feedback. If you have any suggestions for improving Roamer or if you find any problems, don't hesitate to contact us.