Asset Diagram Panel

The Asset Diagram panel is used to create and visualize diagrams where nodes represent real assets and edges represent RDF property relationships between those assets.

Unlike the Simple Diagram Panel, every element in an Asset Diagram has a backing presence in the RDF graph: creating a node opens a dialog to create a new asset instance, and drawing an edge between two nodes creates an actual triple in the asset collection.

Canvas Controls

The pointer tools along the left edge decide what a click or drag on the canvas does:

  • Hand: Drag anywhere on the canvas, including on a node, to move around the diagram. Clicking a node or edge still selects it, but nothing can be moved or edited. Diagrams open with this tool for users who can only view them.

  • Select: Select, move and connect nodes, and edit their labels. Diagrams open with this tool for users who can edit them.

  • Add nodes: While this tool is on, each click on an empty area of the canvas adds a node there. Existing nodes and edges are left alone. Click Add nodes again, or press Esc, to go back to Select. This tool is only offered to users who can edit the diagram.

In the bottom-right corner:

  • Zoom out and Zoom in change the zoom level, which is shown between them. The zoom level ranges from 45% to 250%. The mouse wheel zooms as well.

  • Overview shows a miniature of the whole diagram above the zoom controls. Drag the frame in the miniature to move around the diagram. Click Overview again to hide it.

With any tool, hold Space or Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) and drag to move around the diagram.

Navigation & Selection

  • Add Node: Turn on Add nodes and click an empty area of the canvas to open the Create Asset dialog, using the type currently chosen in the Node type selector. Closing the dialog without creating an asset adds nothing, and Add nodes stays on.

  • Select Node Type: The Node type selector overlaid on the canvas controls which asset type is created when adding nodes. It defaults to the asset collection’s main class (or root class) and can be reset to that default at any time.

  • Drag Node from tree: Drag an existing asset from the resource tree onto the canvas to add it as a node

  • Pan View: Use the Hand tool, or hold Space or Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) and drag the canvas

  • Zoom: Use the mouse wheel or the zoom controls in the bottom-right corner

  • Bulk Selection: With the Select tool, click and drag on an empty area to use the Marquee tool to select multiple items

Node & Edge Manipulation

These use the Select tool.

  • Move Node: Click and drag the center of a node

  • Create Edge: Drag from the border of a node (blue highlight)

    • The available relationships are determined by SHACL property shapes on the source and target asset types.

    • If multiple relationships are allowed, the most recently used one is automatically selected.

    • If no relationship is allowed between the two assets, or all allowed relationships already exist between them, a notification is shown and no edge is created.

    • To cancel edge creation while dragging, Right-click.

  • Delete: Select an item and press Backspace or Delete

Labels & Styling

  • Edit Node Labels: Double-click a node or an existing node label to modify its text content

  • Edit Edge Relationship: Click the label on an edge to open a drop-down and select a different relationship. Only relationships allowed by SHACL shapes between the two asset types are shown.

  • Color Styling: Select one or more nodes to reveal the Context Menu. Its color button opens the color dialog. The selected nodes take on the color as you pick it, with an outline in a darker shade of the same color.

Keyboard Shortcut Summary

Action

Input

New Node

Add nodes, then click the canvas

Stop Adding Nodes

Esc, or click Add nodes again

New Edge

Drag Node Border

Pan Canvas

Hand + Drag, or Space / Ctrl + Drag

Zoom

Mouse Wheel

Edit Node Label

Double-Click

Delete Selection

Del / Backspace

The diagrams themselves are represented as assets in RDF using a dedicated diagrams ontology. Nodes become instances of diagrams:Node and edges become instances of diagrams:Edge. Nodes store the x/y position and width/height information in an extensible data model.

Nodes are linked to the asset that they represent using the property diagrams:asset. Similarly, edges store a reference to the predicate they represent via diagrams:asset. The available edge relationships between nodes depend on the type of the asset and SHACL property shapes that exist with matching sh:class constraints between them.

The RDF-based representation also means that Data Foundation features like importers, exporters, SPARQL query and ADS scripting can be applied on them. For example, diagrams can be generated programmatically from other data.

A consequence of the representation is also that edit permissions are required to modify the diagram, even to move or resize nodes.

Toolbar Features

  • Refresh diagram forces a manual refresh of the visualization from the underlying RDF representation. This is usually not necessary because the diagram should update itself after any edit, regardless of where they originated from.

  • Fit diagram in view zooms and pans so that the whole diagram is visible.

  • Focus diagram globally selects the asset that represents the diagram itself. This can be used, for example, to edit the label of the diagram, or add descriptive comments.

  • Remove or delete opens a menu with:

    • Remove selected nodes from diagram (keep assets) removes the selected nodes from the diagram visualization only. The backing assets and their RDF data remain untouched in the asset collection. Any selected edges are also removed, and their backing triples are deleted. Only available when at least one node is selected. Pressing Del or Backspace does the same, and also works on selected edges alone.

    • Delete selected items and their backing assets asks for confirmation, then permanently deletes the selected nodes and edges along with their backing assets and RDF triples from the asset collection. Only available when at least one node or edge is selected.

  • Export diagram can be used to save the diagram as an image.

  • Select a diagram shows the available diagrams, allowing users to switch between them. This includes diagrams that are stored in the current asset collection, but also any included asset collection. Diagrams that are stored in included collections are always read-only.

  • Create asset diagram can be used to create a new, empty diagram.

  • Delete diagram opens a confirmation dialog to permanently delete the selected diagram. Choose Delete diagram to remove only the diagram’s visual layout while preserving the underlying assets, or Delete diagram and data to also permanently delete backing assets owned by this collection. Unowned resources are skipped.

See Also

Further Reading on TQ Data Foundation