WP GraphViz

GraphViz is a powerful tool for visualising network and tree structures that connect objects.

This WP GraphViz WordPress plugin provides a shortcode mechanism to create GraphViz graphics within blogs, using the shortcode mechanism and without the need to install a local DOT engine.

It’s working is based on the viz.js code as provided by Mike Daines:

https://github.com/mdaines/viz.js

Special thanks goes to Chris Luke as author of TFO Graphviz, e.g. for providing the inspiration for this readme:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/tfo-graphviz/

Installation

1. Upload wp-graphviz.zip to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
2. Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress.
3. Use shortcode [wp_graphviz]<dot code>[/wp_graphviz] in your posts or pages.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is GraphViz?
   GraphViz is a way of generating visualisations of structural relationships between objects. Almost any kind of diagram where something connects to something else can be drawn and automatically laid out using the DOT language.
2. How do I use this plugin?
   Use the [wp_graphviz]<dot code>[/wp_graphviz] shortcode. Various uses are explained in the “How to use” section below.
3. How do I write DOT?
   The online documentation for GraphViz is terse and not especially helpful, in particular the DOT language page is only helpful if you happen to be able to read an approximation of BNF. 

   There are however several other introductions to Graphviz and DOT, including an excerpt on the O’Reilly LinuxDevCenter.com site. Another approach would be to look at the examples in the Graphviz gallery.

   If in doubt, find an example and experiment with it.

Screenshots

1. The result of a test post using:
   [WP_GraphViz title="WP_GraphViz Title" type="digraph" id="testid" showdot="true"]
a1 -> a2 -> a3;
a3 -> a1;
a1 [style="rounded,filled", shape=box];
[/WP_GraphViz].

Changelog

• 0.1.0
  First version starting the plugin.

Upgrade Notice

• 0.1.0
  As this is the first version, there is no upgrade info yet.

How to use WP GraphViz

The shortcode syntax is:

[wp_graphviz <options>] <DOT code>[/wp_graphviz]

Where <options> is anything from this list. All are entirely optional:

• id="<id>"
  Provides the identifier used to link the generated image to an image map. If you use the simple option then it also provides the name of the generated DOT graph container (since GraphViz uses this to generate the image map). If not given then an identifier is generated with the form wp_graphviz_N where N is an integer that starts at one when the plugin is loaded and is incremented with use. 
• output="<png|gif|jpg|svg>"
  Indicates the desired image format. Defaults to `svg`. 
• simple="yes|no"
  The `simple` option provides a very basic DOT wrapper around your code such that the following is possible: 

  [wp_graphviz simple="yes"] a -> b -> c; [/wp_graphviz]

  The generated code would look like:

  digraph wp_graphviz_1 { a -> b -> c; }

  See the id option for a description of where the name of the digraph comes from. simple defaults to no.

  The generated image would look like:

  wpg_div_wp_graphviz_1
• title="<title>"
  Indicates the title of the image. This is used in the alt and title attributes of the image reference. This defaults to an empty string. Note that image maps may indicate a title string which will appear in tool-tips. 
• showdot="true|false"
  If set to “true“, this option will show the graph DOT code used to generate the graph itself. The default is “false“. It can be used to debug the DOT code e.g. when it is generated by another plugin.