Getting started
Learn how to create your first network graph visualization with Node Mapper.
A network graph is composed of two basic items:
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Nodes and Edges.
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In layman's terms Nodes are Balloons and Edges are the Arrows that connect the Balloons to each other.
In the Spreadsheet template you will open in Step 2 you will find weird concepts like Nodes, Edges, Entities, ID, Names and Type of Entity. Before you open it, read this list to understand the lingo:
- Nodes have a unique identifier or ID: 1, 2, 3 or A, B, C...
- Nodes are Entities.
- A Entity can be a person, place, company, institution, place, animal, object, etc.
- Each Entity has a name.
- Edges are the links that connect two or more Nodes.
Here is how a Node + Name + Type attribute looks like:
| Node ID | Name of Entity (or name of Node) | Type of Entity (or type of Node) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ricardo Martinelli | Person |
- Because Node Mapper wants to be open to whatever way you want to describe a Entity, a Type of Entity can be very strict (choose to only use type descriptions like: person, company, institution or place) or very flexible open and creative (choose other type descriptions like: offshore company, proxy, drug lord, unicorn, Scientology ring leader, dark money donor, cat lover, policy wonk, sports writer, etc).
An example:
| Node ID | Name of Entity (or name of Node) | Type of Entity (or type of Node) |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | X Group | Offshore company |
- Open the Spreadsheet template. The template has 3 pages:
- Data: Includes an ID column, a Name column, a Type of entity column like you see in the image:
- Connections: Includes a Source column, a Target column and a Type column.
Source is where you add the ID of a Node and Target is where you add the ID of another Node. Type is where you add the type of connection or relation. Something very important to remember is that connections can be: Bidirectional: 1 and 2 are married to each other. The connection points to one another. Unidirectional or one way: 1 is the owner of 3. The connection points from one to the other. This is also called Directed graphs and Undirected graphs.
Example image:
- Nodes: Includes a ID column where you add the unique identifier of each Entity.
Now that you understand all the jargon. PENDING::::::::
- Replace the data of the 3 pages of the Spreadsheet template with your own data. PENDING
- Publish the spreadsheet to the web
- Copy the url of published spreadsheet
- Pase the url it in the url field of PENDING
- Click on load data, choose settings, preview and save the network visualization
- Copy the url of the network visualization to share it with others or
- Copy the embed code and paste it in your website
For a much more detailed and scientific explanation about what are Nodes and Edges, see Wikipedia articles Graph Theory and Network Theory. Go here for what`s an Entity?