Roamer 1.3 is Out!
We're releasing a new version of Constellation Roamer which adds some of the most-requested features as well as fixing a bunch of bugs. Here's the low-down.
Label Positioning
Not everyone likes how Constellation Roamer displays its centered node labels so we've added a "label_position" property which allows you to place the label, above, below, or to either side of your graphic.
We reckon a lot of people will turn the label background off and place the label to the right of the node.
<node
...
label_bg_enabled="false"
label_position="right" />
More Performance = More Nodes
The new version gets a performance boost that came with optimizations to Framework. The old Constellation Roamer was most comfortable displaying 50-75 nodes but version 1.3 easily doubles that number.
That means you can show more information without bogging down your users' CPU.
Tooltip Styling
There are now several configuration options which allow you to customize tooltips. You can change fonts and colors, control character embedding, and set a maximum width for wrapping.
See the full list of customizable visualization options for more info.
More Javascript Hooks
Roamer 1.3 adds the ability to dynamically set the "passthru" variable which is fed back to the server via the data URL. You can use this feature to dynamically change the dataset being visualized without having to reload the page.
There are also new methods for getting and setting the tree depth. This will give you finer control over how much information to display in one screen. For example, if you know the selected node has heaps of neighbors you might reduce the tree depth. Alternately, you can put the user in control and provide a way to adjust the depth themselves.
Finally, we've added a zoomToFit method which adjusts the zoom scale and centers the visualization on the screen.
var roamer = swfobject.getElementById( 'constellation_roamer'); // you can send any string to the backend roamer.setPassthru('data.php?dataset=4'); // increment the displayed tree depth var depth = roamer.getTreeDepth(); roamer.setTreeDepth(depth + 1); // fit the visualization to the screen roamer.zoomToFit();
Bug Fixes
We squashed a few bugs in this release, too.
- Tweaked the physics to reduce oscillations.
- Arrowheads now align to the edge correctly when the "selected_graphic_radius" node proerty is set.
- Added support for Danish characters.
- Fixed zooming issue.
- Corrected pixel-shifting problem with node images.
If you spot any bugs in the new version or if you're interested in seeing some new functionality, please contact us. Most of these changes were made because of your feedback!
Getting a Hold of 1.3
If you're already a Roamer customer, just download the updated SWF file and it will work with your current license. Swap and go.
For everyone else, we're also releasing a free (as in beer) version of Constellation Roamer so if you're keen to take the new version for a spin, you can download it here.