Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout

{{Infobox software

| name = Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout (MSAGL)

| author = Lev Nachmanson, Sergey Pupyrev, Tim Dwyer, Ted Hart, Roman Prutkin

| developer = Microsoft Research

| released = {{Start date and age|2015|02|26}}

| latest release version = v1.1

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|2022|01|28}}

| repo = {{URL|https://github.com/Microsoft/automatic-graph-layout}}

| programming language = C#

| operating system = Microsoft Windows

| platform = .NET Framework

| genre = Software framework

| license = MIT License

| website = {{URL|http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/msagl/}}

}}

Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout (MSAGL) is a .NET library for automatic graph layout.

It was created by Lev Nachmanson at Microsoft Research.{{cite web |title=Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout |url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/microsoft-automatic-graph-layout/ |website=Microsoft Research}}

Earlier versions carried the name GLEE (Graph Layout Execution Engine).{{cite web |title=Visualize Custom Graph with MS Graph Layout Engine |url=https://www.syncfusion.com/blogs/post/visualize-custom-graph-ms-graph-layout-engine.aspx |website=Syncfusion Blogs |date=14 August 2018}}

The MSAGL software supplies four programming libraries:

{{mono|Microsoft.MSAGL.dll}}, a device-independent graph layout engine;
{{mono|Microsoft.MSAGL.Drawing.dll}}, a device-independent implementation of graphs as graphical user interface objects, with all kinds of graphical attributes, and support for interface events such as mouse actions;
{{mono|Microsoft.MSAGL.GraphViewerGDI.dll}}, a Windows.Forms-based graph viewer control.
{{mono|Microsoft.MSAGL.WpfGraphControl.dll}}, a WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) based graph viewer control.

A trivial application is supplied to demonstrate the viewer.

Features

MSAGL performs layout based on "principles of the Sugiyama scheme;{{cite web|url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/notes-on-an-implementation-of-sugiyamas-scheme/|title = Notes on an Implementation of Sugiyama's Scheme|date = June 2006|last1 = Nachmanson|first1 = Lev| website=Microsoft }} it produces so called layered, or hierarchical, layouts" (according to the MSAGL home page). A modified Coffman–Graham scheduling algorithm is then used to find a layout that would fit in a given space. More detailed description of the algorithm can be found in {{US Patent |7932907}}.

At some time, it did not support a wide range of different layout algorithms, unlike, for instance, GraphViz or GUESS.

It does not appear to support incremental layout.{{cite web |title=Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout {{!}} Semantic Scholar |url=https://www.semanticscholar.org/topic/Microsoft-Automatic-Graph-Layout/2926312 |website=www.semanticscholar.org |language=en}}

Availability and licensing

MSAGL is distributed under MIT License as open source at GitHub.{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/Microsoft/automatic-graph-layout.git|title = Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout| website=GitHub |date = 17 October 2021}}