Makeflow Visualization with Cytoscape

We have created a new Makeflow visualization module which exports a workflow into an xgmml file compatible with Cytoscape.  Cytoscape is a powerful network graphing application with support for custom styles, layouts, annotations, and more. While this program is known more for visualizing molecular networks in biology, it can be used for any purpose, and we believe it is a powerful tool for visualizing makeflow tasks.  Our visualization module was designed for and tested on Cytoscape 3.2. The following picture is a Cytoscape visualization of the example makeflow script provided in the User’s Manual (http://ccl.cse.nd.edu/software/manuals/makeflow.html):

To generate a Cytoscape graph from your makeflow script, simply run:

makeflow_viz –D cytoscape workflow.mf > workflow.xgmml

 workflow.xgmml can then be opened in Cytoscape through File -> Import -> Network -> File.  We have created a clean style named specifically for visualizing makeflow tasks named style.xml, which is generated in the present working directory when you run makeflow_viz. To apply the style in Cytoscape, select File -> Import -> Style, and select the style.xml file.  Next, right-click the imported network and select “Apply Style…”.  Select “makeflow” from the dropdown menu and our style will be applied.  This will add the proper colors, edges, arrows, and shapes for processes and files.

Cytoscape also has a built in layout function which can be used to automatically rearrange nodes according to their hierarchy.   To access this, select Layout à Settings, and a new window will pop up.  Simply select “Hierarchical Layout” from the dropdown menu, change the settings for that layout to your liking, and select “Execute Layout.”  There is a caveat with this function.  With larger makeflow tasks, this auto layout function can take long to complete.   This is due to Cytoscape being designed for all types of graphs, and they do not appear to implement algorithms specifically for dags to take advantage of faster time complexities.  We have tested the auto-layout function with the following test cases:

Number of nodes	Number of edges	Time to layout nodes
114	258	20-30 seconds
2213	11526	2.5 hours
15245	30478	23 hours

After the layout completes, the graph should be visible in a clean fashion, and you can customize the display further to your liking with the various options available in Cytoscape.  For more information about Cytoscape, visit http://cytoscape.org