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graphcnv

Take textual graph descriptions and turn them into something that looks pretty.

This package is intended to integrate Graph::Easy into Wikimedia, the software behind popular wikis like http://en.wikipedia.org/.

For instance this input:

[ Bonn ] -> [ Berlin ]
[ Berlin -> [ Frankfurt ] { border: 1px dotted black; }
[ Frankfurt ] -> [ Dresden ]
[ Berlin ] -> [ Potsdam ]
[ Potsdam ] => [ Cottbus ]

would be rendered in ASCII as:

+------+     +--------+      .............     +---------+
| Bonn | --> | Berlin |  --> : Frankfurt : --> | Dresden |
+------+     +--------+      .............     +---------+
               |
               |
               v
             +---------+     +---------+
             | Potsdam | ==> | Cottbus |
             +---------+     +---------+

The HTML, SVG or PNG output would look similiar, except be more pretty :o)

Check the Signature

First you need to check the signature on the package to verify that it is untampered and intact. To do this you have to:

  • Install the Perl module Module::Signature from http://search.cpan.org

  • Get my key from http://bloodgate.com/tels.asc, import it into GnuPG with:

    gpg --import tels.asc

    You may also let the cpansign utility fetch it automatically from a keyserver, if that works for you.

  • Extract the package to a directory, change there and then:

  • Type on a console:

    cpansign --verify

    inside the unpacked directory.

If the last step says "good signature" or "SIGNATURE VERIFIED OK", everything is all right.

Note that if cpansign let GnuPG download my key from a keyserver, it might put a tels.asc file in the package directory, and then afterward complain that "tels.asc" is not in the MANIFEST:

Not in MANIFEST: tels.asc
==> MISMATCHED content between MANIFEST and distribution files! <==

You can safely ignore this warning.

NOTE: Please notify me immidiately if the signature does not verify. In that case do NOT install this software, your system might get compromised!

Installation

Install the following Perl modules into your system:

Heap
Config-Tiny
Graph-Easy
Graph-Easy-As_svg	(optional, for SVG output)

You can get these modules from http://search.cpan.org/.

Afterwards, you should be able to run this on any command line:

perl -MGraph::Easy\ 99

and it should report your installed Graph::Easy version (like v0.34).

Graph::Easy version 99 required--this is only version 0.34.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted.

If it says something about "Graph::Easy" not being found, you need to install it first as root (see above!).

Note: You do NOT need to install Graph::Simple (the former name of Graph::Easy), nor Graph (formerly used by Graph::Easy). If they are already installed, that will not do any harm, however.

Run the testsuite

Run in the directory of this package:

perl Makefile.PL
make test

All tests should pass. If not, please notify me.

Then place the contents of this mediawiki-graph.tar.gz file so that it is a subdirectory named 'graph' of your wiki installation like this:

http_docroot
	\ - cgi-bin			etc
	\ - wiki
		\ - graph		<-- here
		\ - math		etc

Make a backup of your wiki directory! I repeat, MAKE A BACKUP! You have been warned!

Now copy all the files from the extensions/ subdirectory of graph to to the extension dir of your wiki, like so:

http_docroot
	\ - cgi-bin			etc
	\ - wiki
		\ - graph
			\ - extensions	<-- from here
		\ - extensions		<-- to here

At present this is only one file, Graph.php.

Then include the following line in your LocalSettings.php:

include('extensions/Graph.php');

Now you should be able to edit any page of the wiki and insert:

<graph>
[ Bonn ] -> [ Berlin ]
</graph>

and hit preview.

If you get error messages like:

Error running graphcnv.

make sure that you can run manually (from your wiki directory):

./graph/graphcnv '[ Bonn ] -> [ Berlin ]' 'ascii'

and get a pretty ASCII art back.

CONFIGURATION

Inside the graph subdirectory there is a file called graph.cfg.sample. Copy it to graph.cfg like so:

http_docroot
	\ - cgi-bin			etc
	\ - wiki
		\ - graph
			graph.cfg.sample	<-- from here
			graph.cfg		<-- to here

Then edit it to your match your settings.

For more information please see http://bloodgate.com/perl/graph/ or send me an email.

SVG AND PNG OUTPUT

To enable SVG/PNG etc. output, you need to create a directory for the files that will be generated for the graphs. (Inlining the SVG code in the HTML page directly does not work, since no browser seesm to support this properly at this time).

The .svg (or .png) files are written to the output directory set in the config file, which defaults to ./images/graph/. So you need to make sure that this directory exists and is writable by the web server process:

http_docroot
	\ - cgi-bin			etc
	\ - wiki
		\ - images
			\ - graph	<-- create this directory
		\ - extensions		etc

You need also make sure that you web server process can write to this directory, so you might need to give it the same user/group as the process is using, f.i. chmod nobody.nogroup images/graph.

AUTHOR

Copyright (C) 2004 - 2005 by Tels http://bloodgate.com/

Contact: <nospam-abuse@bloodgate.com> (literally :)

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms of the GPL version 2.