Overview

This guide covers installing and using the Web-Engine Graph plugin for WordPress.

• For an introduction to Graph - Graph guide
• For the product page - Web-Engine Graph for WordPress

Web-Engine Graph draws your site's content as a graph. Each record is a node, and the lines between them are the connections WordPress already holds: which posts belong to which categories, who wrote what, which pages sit under which parent, and where your menus lead. The graph opens on a new admin page, Graph, and is built from your own database each time the page is opened, so it is always current.

You can explore, filter and arrange the graph without an account. To save a graph and reopen it later, an Administrator connects the site to a free Web-Engine cloud account. Connecting is optional, and the plugin adds nothing to your site's public pages.

Installation

The plugin is installed from the Plugins screen of your WordPress admin.

1. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New Plugin and search for "Web-Engine Graph", or upload the plugin's zip file from that screen.
2. Click Install Now, then Activate.
3. Open Graph in the admin menu. Your site's graph is drawn straight away.
4. Optional, to save graphs: as an Administrator, click Register on the Graph page. A Web-Engine cloud page opens in a new tab; sign in or register there and approve the connection. The tab closes itself, and a Save button appears on the Graph page. See Saving and connecting.

The Graph page

The Graph page draws your site as records joined by connections. Everything on it comes from content WordPress already holds; the plugin adds no data of its own.

What is drawn:

• Posts and pages, plus your site's own custom post types. Only published content is read.
• Categories, tags and other public taxonomies, joined to the content that uses them.
• Users, joined to the content they wrote and to their roles.
• Navigation menus and their items, joined to the pages, posts and terms they link to. Both classic menus and block-theme navigation are read.
• Parent and child relationships between pages, and the same for any hierarchical post type.

Each record shows its title or name, and you can hover a record to see more about it, such as a post's excerpt or featured image, or a user's avatar. Records link through to the content they stand for, so the graph doubles as a way of finding things.

Filters

A stack of filters decides what is on screen. With no filters, everything is shown. Each filter adds one record type to the graph: posts, pages, a taxonomy, users, menus and so on. The filter bar sits above the graph; add a filter, choose its type, and the graph follows.

• All, include and exclude. Within a filter you can show every record of its type, pick records to include so only those are drawn, or pick records to exclude so everything of that type except those is drawn.
• Related. Turn on Related and the filter shows only the records of its type that connect to the records shown by the filters with Related off. For example, a Users filter with Related on, alongside a Posts filter that includes a chosen set of posts, shows only the people who wrote those posts.
• Order matters. The order of the filters is the order of the rows, clusters or columns a layout draws, so reordering the filters reorders the drawing. It never changes which records are shown.

How the stack is evaluated, and how Related filters combine, is explained in the Graph guide.

Layouts

The same records can be arranged in six ways. The Layout button in the toolbar opens a floating Layout window, which you can drag clear of the graph and leave open while you adjust it.

The window offers two kinds of entry:

• The six layout types - Manual, Series, Tree, Grouped, Hubs and Columns - which you can run over whatever filters you have built. Picking a type keeps your filters. Some types need a particular kind of filter to draw - a Tree needs a type with parents and children, a Series along dates needs a dated type - and the window tells you what to add when that is the case.
• Presets built for WordPress sites, listed under the type each one is: Posts timeline, Pages tree, Navigation, Grouped, Topics, Authors and Who writes what, plus a timeline or tree for each of your custom post types. Picking a preset replaces your filters with its own.

In brief, Manual lets you place every record yourself; Series lines up the records of one type by date or by title, with a range that limits the line to the most recent records, a span of dates or titles containing some text; Tree draws parents above children; Grouped packs one cluster per record type; Hubs puts each record of one type at the centre of what connects to it; and Columns gives each filter a column. Reset positions, at the foot of the window, lays the records out again from scratch.

Each type, its options, the filters it needs and every WordPress preset are described in the layouts reference. The ideas behind types, presets, pinned and free records and the detail level are in the Graph guide.

Saving and connecting

You can explore, filter and arrange the graph without an account. Your changes last until you leave the page, and the page warns you before you leave with unsaved changes.

To keep a graph and reopen it later, the site is connected to a Web-Engine cloud account. Registration is free, and connecting is optional.

1. As an Administrator, open the Graph page and click Register.
2. A Web-Engine cloud page opens in a new tab. Sign in, or register a new account, and approve the connection for your site.
3. The tab closes itself. Back on the Graph page the button now reads My account, and a Save button appears.

Once connected:

• Save stores the graph under a name you choose. Saving is always explicit; nothing is saved automatically. You can also press Ctrl+S (or Cmd+S on a Mac).
• Each graph keeps a history of saves. Reopening a graph shows its latest save; you can open an earlier save from the history, and the next time you save it becomes the newest entry.
• Saved graphs belong to the site rather than to one WordPress user, so any Editor or Administrator can open the graphs saved for the site.
• A save stores your filters, layout, positions and colours together with a snapshot of the records on screen. When you reopen a graph, the records themselves are read from your site again, so a reopened graph reflects your content as it is now.
• My account opens the cloud dashboard, where saved graphs are managed.

Who can use it

• Viewing the Graph page is open to any user who can edit other people's posts: by default, Editors and Administrators. The page reads every published post, term, user and menu on the site, so it is not offered to Authors, Contributors or Subscribers.
• Connecting the site to the cloud, and disconnecting it, needs an Administrator.
• Saving and reopening graphs is available to anyone who can view the Graph page, once the site is connected.

On a multisite network each site has its own graph, built from that site's content, and its own cloud connection.

Limits

By default the graph reads up to 500 posts of each post type, 200 terms of each taxonomy, 500 users, 200 menus and 500 menu items, so that a large site still produces a graph a browser can draw. Where a cap cuts a parent out, its children are drawn without one; a connection is never drawn to a record that is not on screen.

Developers can change these limits with the we360cloud_graph_max_records filter. It receives the default cap and the record type being read - a post type name, a taxonomy name, user, menu or menu-item - and should return a positive number. Anything else is ignored and the default stands.

add_filter( 'we360cloud_graph_max_records', function ( $max, $record_type ) {
    if ( 'post' === $record_type ) {
        return 2000; // read up to 2,000 posts
    }
    if ( 'user' === $record_type ) {
        return 100;
    }
    return $max;
}, 10, 2 );

Raising a cap means a larger page load and a busier graph, so raise it only as far as your site needs.

Privacy and external services

The graph view itself makes no call to any outside service: drawing, filtering and arranging the graph uses only your site's own database. The plugin contains no analytics or tracking code, loads no scripts, fonts or images from other servers, and bundles all of its JavaScript.

The plugin can connect to the Web-Engine cloud (www.we360.cloud), a service operated by Web Engine Limited, to save graphs and reopen them later. The connection is optional. Nothing is sent until an Administrator connects the site. After that, the site talks to the cloud only in these circumstances, and every request after connecting carries the site's access token:

• Connecting. When an Administrator clicks Register, their browser opens a page on www.we360.cloud carrying the Administrator's email address, their name (first and last name, or display name if those are empty), the site's domain, the address to return to on the site, and a one-time security code. Once they approve, the site exchanges a code for an access token with the cloud directly, sending the site's domain.
• Checking the connection. When a graph is saved, and when the cloud refuses a request, the site asks the cloud for the connection's status. No site content is sent.
• Saving a graph. The site sends the graph's name, its filters, its layout positions, its colours and display settings, and a snapshot of the records on screen with the connections between them. Each record carries its title or name, type, link, WordPress ID and, for content, its publication date. User records carry the display name, the author page link and roles. The save also records the site's domain and the plugin's version. Post content, excerpts, email addresses and passwords are not sent. A large save is sent in several parts.
• Listing and reopening saved graphs. The site asks the cloud for the list of saved graphs, the saves within one, and the filters, layout and colours of the save being opened. The records themselves are read from your site again, not from the save.
• Opening My account. The site sends its domain to the cloud and receives a sign-in link for the cloud's dashboard.
• Uninstalling. When the plugin is deleted and no other Web-Engine plugin is installed, the site sends its domain to the cloud so the cloud can revoke its access token.

The plugin sends nothing else.

• Web-Engine cloud terms of service
• Web-Engine cloud privacy policy

Uninstalling

Deleting the plugin from the Plugins screen removes the options it stored in WordPress. If no other Web-Engine plugin (such as Web-Engine Sentry) is installed, it also tells the cloud the site is leaving, the cloud revokes the site's access, and the site's connection details are deleted. If another Web-Engine plugin is installed, the connection is left for that plugin to use. On a multisite network, deleting the plugin removes its data from every site.

Deleting the plugin does not ask the cloud to delete graphs you have saved. To have them deleted, contact support@web-engineer.co.uk or submit a ticket.

FAQ

Do I need an account?

No. The graph, the filters and the layouts all work without one. An account is needed only to save a graph and reopen it later. Registration is free.

Can I use it without connecting to the cloud?

Yes. Without a connection the graph is drawn from your site's database and nothing is sent anywhere. Your changes last until you leave the page; the page warns you before you leave with unsaved changes.

What is sent to the cloud?

Nothing, until an Administrator connects the site. After that, the site contacts the cloud only when someone saves, lists or reopens saved graphs, or opens My account, and when the plugin is deleted. A save contains the records that were on screen at the time: each one's title or name, type, link, WordPress ID and publication date, and the connections between them. For users, that is their display name, the link to their author page and their roles. It never contains post content, email addresses or passwords. See Privacy and external services for the full list.

Who can see the graph?

Users who can edit other people's posts: Editors and Administrators by default. See Who can use it.

How do I disconnect or remove my data?

Delete the plugin from the Plugins screen. See Uninstalling for what that removes, and how to ask for saved graphs to be deleted.

Does it work on multisite?

Yes. Each site in a network has its own graph, built from that site's content, and its own cloud connection.

Is anything tracked?

No. The plugin contains no analytics or tracking code and loads no scripts, fonts or images from other servers.

Is there a limit on how much is drawn?

By default up to 500 posts of each post type, 200 terms of each taxonomy and 500 users. See Limits for how to change that.

Does it change my public site?

No. The plugin adds nothing to your site's public pages; it only adds the Graph page to the admin.

Changelog

1.0

• First release.
• Draws a site's posts, pages, custom post types, terms, users, roles and menus as a graph of connected records.
• Filter stack with include, exclude and related filters.
• Six layouts: Manual, Series, Tree, Grouped, Hubs and Columns.
• Optional saving to a Web-Engine cloud account, with a history of saves for each graph.

Support

Need help with the plugin? Submit a ticket and one of the team will get back to you, or join our Slack channel.