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I have never used D3.js before, but fell for the examples right of the bat. I am to make a diagram representing systems/servers and company projects. The diagram will function as a report for the systems communication and integration status. We want the user to get an easy intuitive visual on how the systems commuicate, what is communicated, and to be able to click on a "communication line" to get a detailed status. The backend is under control, but we need to build a frontend which sparkles.

My first thought was that a forced-directed layout was perfect for this, but I am not sure. The following example would be perfect, except it is made in a framework I do not wish to use (too expensive), and it does not contain any event handling. But the presentation in this example is what we are looking for.

Can I get any community input? Is the example I provided possible to make in D3.js (I would be surprised if I get a no on this question)? Can I get any tips which would kickstart me on this project?

Thanks in advance to all you brilliant people out there. :-)

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up vote 2 down vote accepted

In case you want the data to be visualized using some lucrative animations using the power of d3.js the above mentioned example would look good in forced-directed layout. Following this example http://bl.ocks.org/1377729 One could replace the node values with images and get it. Well, on the other hand if one wants just the statically visualized data to be presented that could be done in various no. of softwares or even flash. Thus choice totally depends on how lucrative one wants to make. Hope this could help. Cheers.

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So, you're saying that d3.js would be overkill for this project? I've come to understand that d3.js would provide an easy way to make this graph possible, due to it's simple yet dynamic api - and I've actually already sold this in as the "cheap" alternative to flash. Cheap as in less hours to create something useful. It's not the animations I'm looking for. It's the opportunity to visualize event driven data from a server/system/project point of view. The physics in the animations are of course a bonus. –  Øystein Amundsen Nov 1 '12 at 7:59
I went for a force directed layout. This is way cooler than I first imagined... –  Øystein Amundsen Nov 20 '12 at 20:08
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