Overview
This page is a working reference to the layouts in Web-Engine Graph: one section per layout type with when to use it, what it is built around and which filters it needs, followed by the presets the WordPress plugin ships.
- For the ideas behind filters, types and presets - Graph guide
- For installing and using the plugin - Web-Engine Graph for WordPress
A layout decides where records are drawn; your filters decide what is drawn. The Layout button in the toolbar opens the Layout window, which lists the six types as tiles and, beneath them, the presets grouped under the type each one is. Picking a type keeps your filters; picking a preset replaces them with its own. Where a type needs something your filters do not yet supply, the window says what to add, and Manual is drawn in the meantime.
Some layouts are built around one filter in particular - the pivot. For a Series it is the filter whose records make the line; for a Tree, the filter with parents and children; for Hubs, the filter whose records sit at the centres. Where more than one filter would do, Graph takes the one nearest the middle of the stack. Every other filter is drawn as a row, cluster or column, in the order the filters have in the stack.
Manual
When to use it. When you want to arrange things yourself, build a picture by hand, or simply look at everything the site holds. It is the layout a graph opens on.
What it is built around. Nothing: you own every position. Records arriving from a change to the filters take the nearest free cell, placed in filter order, without disturbing what is already there.
Filters it needs. Any, or none. With no filters the whole site is drawn.
Options. None. Reset positions lays everything out again from the centre in filter order.
Series
When to use it. To read a type of record in order - the recent posts in date order with their categories and authors in rows above and below, or every page in alphabetical order with the menus that link to them.
What it is built around. The axis: the records of one type along a line. The pivot is the filter whose type has dates and sits nearest the middle of the stack, or along titles, the filter nearest the middle. Every other filter becomes a row above or below the line - the filters above the pivot in the stack are the rows above, nearest first, and the filters below are the rows below - with lines arcing from each row record back to the records on the line it connects to.
Filters it needs. Along dates, a filter on a type that has dates (in WordPress, any post type). Along titles, any filter at all. Picked over a stack with no dated type, a Series lays its line along titles instead.
Options.
- Dimension - Date, newest to oldest, or Alphabetical, by title.
- Records shown - the range of the line, which follows the dimension. Along dates: the most recent 10 to 100 records in tens (20 unless you change it), everything, or the records between two dates, each date optional. Along titles: the records whose title contains some text. The range is a layout option, not a filter, and it wins over a filter - a record outside the range is not drawn whatever filter names it. The rows have no range of their own; what the range takes off the line takes a related row's records with it.
- Above and Below - which record type is the row either side of the line. These are views over your filter stack: picking one adds, changes or removes that filter.
- Lanes - split the line into one lane per record of a related type, each lane headed by its record: posts by category, say, one line per category.
Pinned. Every record. A record's place on the line is its order, and a row's line is the position of its filter in the stack.
Tree
When to use it. To see how a hierarchy is shaped - the page tree, a hierarchical custom post type, or a navigation menu and its nested items.
What it is built around. A type with parents and children, each parent drawn above its children with the roots at the top. The pivot is the filter on such a type nearest the middle of the stack. Every other filter becomes a row above the roots or below the leaves. A parent that is not on screen leaves its child drawn as a root.
Filters it needs. A filter on a type that has a parent/child relationship. In WordPress that is pages, any hierarchical custom post type, and menu items.
Options. None to set: there is exactly one parent/child relationship a tree is drawn from, and the panel names it. Add filters for the rows you want.
Pinned. Every record; a record's depth is its level in the tree.
Grouped
When to use it. To see the site by type, at a glance: how many posts against how many pages, how many tags against how many categories, and who the users are, with the lines between the clusters showing how the types connect.
What it is built around. One cluster per record type, each packed by its content so a small type takes a small space beside a large one, with the clusters in filter order.
Filters it needs. Any. Reorder the filters to reorder the clusters.
Options. None to set. The panel reminds you that the clusters follow the filter bar.
Free. Records may be dragged about within their cluster. Reset positions packs them again.
Hubs
When to use it. To see what gathers around what: each category with its posts around it, each author with what they wrote, each menu with its items.
What it is built around. The hub type: each record of one type at the centre of the records that connect to it. The pivot is the filter nearest the middle of the stack whose type is joined to another filter's type. Records that connect to nothing gather in a cluster of their own.
Filters it needs. Two filters on types that are joined - categories and posts, users and pages, menus and menu items.
Options.
- Sort hubs by - Filter order, Newest first, Title or Most connections. Hubs and the records around them are drawn in this order.
- A record in several hubs sits with - The first hub, The largest hub or The nearest hub. A post in three categories is drawn once; the arcs show its other hubs.
Free. Members may be dragged about around their hub. Reset positions packs them again.
Columns
When to use it. To read a chain of relationships across the page: users, then the posts they wrote, then the categories those posts are in.
What it is built around. One column per filter, in filter order, each column sorted to shorten the lines to the column beside it, so the drawing reads left to right with as little crossing as possible.
Filters it needs. Any. Put the filters in the order you want the columns; a filter with Related on narrows its column to the records that connect to the rest.
Options. None to set. Reorder the filters to reorder the columns.
Pinned. Every record; a record's column is its filter.
Presets in the WordPress plugin
The WordPress plugin ships presets built from your site's own types, listed under the type each one is. Picking a preset replaces your filter stack with the preset's filters and settings. A preset appears only where the site has the types it is made of, and a site's custom post types get their own entries without any setup.
| Preset | Type | What it draws |
|---|---|---|
| Posts timeline | Series | Posts along a line by date, most recent 20, with categories in the row above and tags in the row below, laned by category. Every other post type that is not hierarchical gets its own Name timeline, with the rows taken from the taxonomies attached to it. |
| Pages tree | Tree | Pages by parent and child, roots at the top. Every other hierarchical post type gets its own Name tree. |
| Navigation | Tree | Every navigation menu as a tree of its items, side by side, each under its menu. |
| Grouped | Grouped | One cluster for every record type on the site. |
| Topics | Hubs | Each category (or the first taxonomy attached to posts) at the centre of its posts. |
| Authors | Hubs | Each user at the centre of the posts and pages they wrote. |
| Who writes what | Columns | Users, then posts, then the taxonomies attached to posts, with the users and the terms narrowed to those that connect, so a user who writes nothing is left out. |
Presets are named after your site's own post type names, so a site that calls its posts "Articles" sees Articles timeline.
A developer can offer fewer presets, rename them or change the one the graph opens on with the we360cloud_graph_presentation filter. The result is checked against the site's records, so a filter can only ask for a layout the site can draw.
Support
Need help with a layout? Submit a ticket and one of the team will get back to you, or join our Slack channel.