Social network visualization tools for PHP/JavaScript

Question

I'm looking for a tool that will allow me to display visualizations of social networks dynamically online. There are a lot of great visualization examples out there already:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_best_tools_for_visualization.php

http://socialmediatrader.com/10-amazing-visualizations-of-social-networks/

I know lots of sites have specific widgets (such as last.fm), but what I want is a flexible tool that I can integrate with my own database of people and organizations. At the most basic level, I need something that will show lines/arcs/edges between people and/or organizations, and include the ability to manipulate width, color, length, etc, or lines.

I'm aware of some tools such as XML/SWF Charts http://www.maani.us/xml_charts/index.php, but not sure that tool includes the ability to visualize social networks.

I'm most proficient in PHP/JavaScript/CSS, but would also appreciate hearing any suggestions for Python.

Answer 1

you could give GraphViz a try: http://www.graphviz.org

Answer 2

I really really recommend you to give Gephi a try (along with GXEF Explorer).

Gephi is an open source graph visualization and manipulation software written in Java. It runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Gephi is open-source and free.

• Gephi's plugin architecture allows you to write custom plugins. In your case you might wish to write a custom plugin to read data from your database to Gephi.
• But oh wait -- if your data is already in a database (MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL) you could even use Gephi's built-in database importer!
• Gephi definitely gives you the basic visualisations you expect from an SNA tool (lines/arcs/edges between objects and ability to manipulate width, color, length, etc. of both lines and nodes).
• Again, if you need some extra visualisation tools, you can write your own visualisation plugin
• Data from Gephi can be exported to CSV, GDF, GEXF and Graphml as well as to SVG and PDF.

For web intergration, you can export data from Gephi in GEXF format and visualise it in a webpage with GEXF Explorer (Flash-based GEXF graph visualiser with zoom and pan and hyperlinking support).

Hope this helps!