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Constellation is a graph-focused data visualisation and interactiveanalysis application enabling data access, federation and manipulationcapabilities across large and complex data sets.

• Vision Statement

• Core Values

• Prerequisites

• Download Constellation

• Run Constellation

• Build Constellation

• Package Constellation

• Contributing to Constellation

• Documentation

• Training

• Common Troubleshooting Checks

• Acknowledgments

Constellation is a first class, domain agnostic data visualisation andanalysis application enabling the user to solve large and complex dataproblems in a simple and intuitive way.

• Users: data analysts, data scientists, and all peopleinterested in graph data analysis.

• Data analysis domains: graph datasets with rich feature datae.g. social networks, network infrastructure, chemical composition,etc.

The most important value is making sure Constellation stays performant.If this means we have to sacrifice some functionality if it will degradeperformance then that’s what we will do. Features are “easy” to add butkeeping the application performant is harder.

Constellation is designed to provide a broad range of functionality withthe idea of being a “bridge between tools”. For example Constellation’sMap View is not meant to be a fully fledged mapping tool; for that useArcGIS.

We value sensible defaults in features so you can just use them ratherthan having to fill out a form of parameters first. This means thatrunning analytics like the “Cosine Similarity Analytic” will beaccurate but if you want to tweak this then you will have to use adifferent method like a Jupyter Notebook.

• The OpenGL graph display works with NVIDIA and ATI graphics cardsthat support OpenGL 3.3 or later. It is known to not work with olderIntel on-board graphics cards.

Download Constellation by going to thereleasepage.

Unzip the constellation.zip bundle and double click theconstellation64.bat for Windows or run thebin\constellation shellscript for Linux and MacOSX.

Note that if you are running Constellation in a virtual machine and have issuesusing VirtualBox then give VMWare a go as it seems to have better support forOpenGL.

To build Constellation from source code do the following:

• Download Azul’s Zulu distribution of JDK 21 with JFX 21, either theWindows 64bit,Linux 64bitorMacOSX 64bit

• DownloadNetBeans21

• Updatenetbeans_jdkhome in netbeans.conf(e.g.C:\Program Files\NetBeans-21\netbeans\etc) to point to the Azul ZuluJDK you downloaded(e.g. C:\Program Files\Azul\zulu21.32.17-ca-fx-jdk21.0.2-win_x64)

• Clone this repository

• Open the Constellation module suite from NetBeans

• In the Projects view, expandImportant Files >Build Script > Right click >Update dependencies and clean build. This can take around 20minutes to download the first time depending on your internetconnection so feel free to get a ☕ and come back later.

• Start Constellation by right clicking onConstellation >Run

To package Constellation in a zip bundle do the following:

• In NetBeans, expandConstellation >Important Files

• Right click onBuild Script and run thebuild-zip

• Navigate to thedist folder to getconstellation.zip file

• If you want to use a specific JRE(e.g. zulu21.32.17-ca-fx-jre21.0.2-win_x64) then copy this to thesame level as thebin folder and call itjre. This is thedefault folder name Constellation expects but you can change thisfrometc\constellation.conf.

Note that Constellation “Core” (which is this repository) is designed tobe domain agnostic and work standalone. The version of Constellationavailable for download fromthe officialwebsite is built with additional pluginsand managed via theConstellation-Applicationsrepository.

For more information please see thecontributingguide.

• Constellation 101 Slides(coming soon)

• Overview Video(coming later)

• Quick Start Guide

• User Guide(coming later)

• Built in documentation to Constellation exists

• ConstellationTraining

• DeveloperGuide

• Example ModuleTemplate

• You can check whether your graphics card is supported by followingthese steps:

1. Click onFile >New Graph to create a graph

2. Click onExperimental >Build Graph >Sphere Graph tocreate a random graph.

3. If you can see a graph try to interact with it using the mouse.

4. If the graph view remains blank, you may not have a supportedgraphics card.

• Click onHelp >JOGL Version to see the graphics cardcapabilities of your machine.

• Click onHelp >Show Logs to view Constellation loginformation.

Third party libraries and assets were used in development ofConstellation, please viewattribution list fordetails.