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 Linkurious Enterprise user manual

Welcome to the user manual of Linkurious Enterprise!

We will be exploring the features Linkurious Enterprise offers. Each feature is throroughly explained. Examples and tips on how to use Linkurious Enterprise are given in order to help you make the most out of it.

The first three chapters, Spaces, First Visualization and Manage Visualizations will teach you the basics to successfully create and manage your visualizations.

The following chapters will walk you through the different features Linkurious Enterprise provides and explain how to use them in order to successfully visualize your graphs and extract the necessary knowledge from your investigations.

Just like our software, this guide assumes no prior knowledge of graph visualization techniques. By reading the user guide thoroughly, you will be able to use all the tools Linkurious Enterprise provides efficiently in order to find valuable connections and structural patterns in your data, improve your graph database and communicate your findings!

 Spaces

Spaces

In this chapter, we look into spaces and what you can do with them. Spaces are containers of visualizations shared with user groups. A space can be shared with one or multiple groups. Users who are part of the groups the space is shared with can access and edit all the space’s contents.

As shown below, you can see the list of spaces you have access to on the left section of the page. On the right, you can see the folders and visualizations that are created in the currently selected space. To ensure a common understanding of who has access to a space and its content, below the space's title information on the groups the space is shared with is shown. When clicked, a detailed list of the users belonging to each group is displayed.

Spaces dashboard


Managing visualizations in spaces

Users who can access a specific space can do the following by right-clicking on the visualization tile:

Right click to open context menu


IMPORTANT

Users who have access to a space can edit all visualizations stored in that space (i.e. they can open and edit, move, rename, duplicate, and delete these). However, only one user can edit the visualization at a time while other users who open it will be in View-only mode. See Managing visualizations to know more.


Managing folders in spaces

Folders can be created in any space to organize visualizations. Users can do the following:

Right click to open context menu

 First visualization

In this chapter, we will learn the basics of how to explore and visualize a graph database with Linkurious Enterprise.

Linkurious Enterprise Academy

If you want to be guided on how to use Linkurious Enterprise end user features, you can enroll to our academy and get certified for free by following this link : Linkurious Enterprise Academy

Two courses are publicly available:

 First visualization: At first glance

Here is a look at the interface of Linkurious Enterprise.

Dashboard

The dashboard lists the visualizations created by the user and those that have been created in a space. The following image is a typical dashboard of Linkurious Enterprise.

dashboard

Workspace

The workspace allows you to explore the graph database and represent it visualization as a node-link diagram.

workspace

 First visualization: Create a new visualization

Explore the graph

We can start exploring the data and get a quick overview of a node and its relationships by creating a new visualization.

We can now search for nodes and edges.

For example, if we want to look for the Person Timmy Carlson, we simply type the name of any property associated with this node. Here, we type Timmy, which is the first name of the person. Several results which contain the word Timmy in one of their properties are returned. We can click on the one that we're interested in.

Here we selected the Person Timmy Carlson. The node appears in the graph area.

 First visualization: Inspect data

In order to view the different properties of a node, we click on it. Information immediately appears on the left side of the screen.

Here we can see that there is a node with the id #7466. It has no caption and has a Person category. Below we can see the various properties associated with the node.

For example the node has a first_name property with the value Timmy.

We can scroll down to see more properties or use the search bar to find a property.

Notice the number next to the node, it is the number of undisplayed edges.

Inspect edges in the same manner.

Display the connections of a node

Time to find out about the particular edges of a node. The easiest way to get that information is to double-click on the node we are interested in. Here we are interested in Timmy Carlson.

Now we can see some nodes that are connected to Timmy.

Notice the white halo around each node? All the nodes surrounded by the white halo are connected to the currently selected node (or nodes). In this case, all the nodes are connected to Timmy Carlson.

The lines between the nodes represent the edges. All the edges have a direction from one node to another (represented by an arrow).

If we click on a given edge, the properties of that edge will be displayed in the left panel.

 Manage visualizations

In this chapter, we'll learn how to manage visualisations created with Linkurious Enterprise from a space. You can open, share, move, rename, duplicate and delete visualisations by right clicking on each visualization.

Visualizations are by default added to the space's homepage. From the space you can open, share, move, rename, duplicate and delete a visualization.

 Manage visualizations: Open rename delete

Opening a visualization

Visualizations can be opened by right clicking on a visualization to open the context menu and then clicking on the Open button or by double clicking on the visualization's card. Once opened, you will be redirected to the workspace!

Renaming a visualization

Visualizations can be renamed by right clicking on a visualization to open the context menu and then clicking on Rename. You can then enter the new name you wish to have for your visualization and save!

Deleting a visualization

Deleting a visualization is only possible through the dashboard:

The visualization is deleted after confirmation.

 Manage visualizations: Moving visualizations

Moving visualizations accross and within spaces

From the dashboard, you can move a visualization within a space by right clicking on it and from the context menu clicking on Move. Furthermore, from your private space My visualizations , you can move any of your visualizations to a public space again by right clicking on it and from the context menu clicking on Move. Both use cases are thoroughly explained below.

Moving visualization within folders in a space

To create a folder, you can click the NEW FOLDER button in the upper right corner of the dashboard.

Enter the name of your folder.

Hit Create. The folder is now created.

You can open the folder by either double clicking on it or right clicking to open the context menu. If you want to move a visualization into the folder, right-click on your visualization and hit Move.

You can select the folder you want to move your visualization to.

The visualization has been moved to the folder. There is a breadcrumb under the main title to show where you are at in the folder hierarchy.

Moving visualization from your private space to a public one

You can move private visualizations, which are visualizations that are currently in your private space 'My Visualizations', to a public space you have access to. To do that, you can right click on the visualization you want to move and from the context menu click on Move.

A visualization that is being edited by another user cannot be moved.

After clicking on Move you will be prompted to a modal similar to the one shown below. There, you will be able to find all the possible folders within your private space as well as all the public spaces and their folders that you can move your visualization to.

Once you have selected which space you want to move your visualization to you will be able to see who has access to it, in order to make sure that everyone you intended to share your visualization to is present in the selected space.

The move to a public space is final and can not be reverted.

After clicking on move, your visualization will be moved to the selected space, in our case to the Fraud space. Everyone who has access to the Fraud space will be able to access the visualization. All the filters, styles, comments, layouts and publications of the visualization will remain untouched when it's moved to the new space.

Users who the visualization was shared with but do not have access to the public space it has moved to, will lose access to it.

 Manage visualizations: Share

It is possible to share a visualization with another Linkurious Enterprise user. People we share a visualization with will be able to access it through the interface. If we right-click on a visualization, we can share it as follows:

We click on the Share menu and type the username or email of the person we want to share the visualization with.

We can give the following rights: View-only, Edit, or Edit and share.

 Manage visualizations: Duplicate

It is possible to duplicate a visualization. This feature might be useful when we want to try new things in our visualization and keep a record of the last version, this way the duplicate is used as a draft.

From the Dashboard

It is possible to duplicate a saved visualization from the dashboard as follows:

We then click on Duplicate and a copy of our visualization is displayed and directly accessible on the dashboard:

From the Workspace

It is also possible to duplicate a saved visualization from the workspace via the "Duplicate" function in the Menu:

The copy is then accessible from the dashboard.

Note that after duplicating from the workspace, the document we are then working on is the copy of the visualization.

It is possible to duplicate a visualization shared with you by another user.

If a user has shared a visualization with you but you are not allowed to modify it, duplicate this visualization. You will be able to modify the copy.

If the duplicate is done in a space, the copy remains in that space and inside a folder if created within a specific folder.

 Queries

In this chapter, we will learn how to create, manage and use queries! Queries are a powerful tool which helps users transform the way they work by accelerating and automating their investigation process. With the use of queries, a multi-step process can be shortened to a one-click one!

 Queries: Creating queries

Creating queries

Query language

Queries in Linkurious Enterprise are written using a graph query language. Linkurious Enterprise supports several graph databases: Neo4j, Memgraph, Neptune and Cosmos DB. Neo4j and Memgraph support the Cypher query language while Neptune and Cosmos DB support the Gremlin query language.

The Cypher query language is similar to SQL, it can be learned from Neo4j's online documentation.

Access Rights for queries

There are four levels of access rights associated with queries in Linkurious Enterprise.

Access Right Level Description
Cannot run queries User can not create or run queries
Can run existing queries User can execute any existing query that has been shared with them. User can not create new queries.
Can create read-only queries and run existing queries User can execute any existing query that has been shared with them. User can not create queries that will alter the data (a.k.a. write-queries).
Can create read/write queries and run existing queries User can execute any existing query that has been shared with them. User can create queries.

The above access rights are applied to groups. The group a user belongs to defines their query access rights.

Writing queries

A query can have dynamic inputs (e.g. {{"Country":string:["France","Germany"]}}) that are used to parameterize the query. When a query has dynamic input, it will require the input to be provided to run. Query inputs can be of different types, such as nodes, edges, text, numbers, etc.

If a query creates, deletes or updates the graph, it is called a write-query. Creating a write-queries is subject to the user's access rights.

A query must return nodes and edges. Any other value return by the query (numbers, text) will be ignored.

Query editor

The query editor is where users can create, test and save new queries. It can be accessed by clicking on the {} icon in the top-left of a visualization. The Query Editor tab is split in two parts:

Accessing the query editor

Saving a query

When users have written, tested and perfected a query, they can save it for later use. When saving a query, the user is prompted for a Name, Description and Sharing settings.

Queries can be kept private, shared with everybody or shared specific user groups. Some important information on shared queries:

Saved queries can be consulted from the right panel of the workspace.

Examples of queries

The section below provides examples of different types of queries that users can create and use.

Read-only query without input

The following query returns all City nodes that have between 3 and 100 Company nodes connected to them via HAS_CITY edges:

MATCH (city:City)<-[hasCity:HAS_CITY]-(company:Company)
WITH
  city,
  count(company) as score,
  collect(company) as companies,
  collect(hasCity) as hasCities
WHERE score > 3 AND score < 100
RETURN city, companies, hasCities

Running standard queries

Write-query with input

The following query changes the profession of a person and adds some change logs in a property:

MATCH (n)
WHERE ID(n) = {{"Suspicious entity":node:["Person"]}}
WITH 
  n,
  apoc.date.currentTimestamp() AS currentTimestamp
SET n.change_log = 
    "Modification done by: " + {{"User":env:"email"}} +
    " on: " + toString(datetime({epochMillis: currentTimestamp})) + 
    ". Previous value: " + n.profession + 
    ". Comment: " + {{"Comment":string:{"placeholder": "Add a note..."}}}
SET n.profession = {{"Profession":string}}
RETURN n;

Queries that write in the database can be shared with any user group, including those that were not granted "Write" permissions on any node category. Be considerate as to who you share queries with, and who has the right to share queries (see "Access Right" section in administration manual).

Single-node query

The following query returns up to max nodes of type COMPANY that are neighbours of the input node:

MATCH (n)-[edge]-(company:Company)
WHERE id(n) = {{"Node":node}}
RETURN edge, company
LIMIT {{"max":number:10}}

Running a query with input

Single-node queries can be run on multiple nodes at once, the same way it is possible to expand multiple nodes at once.

Two-nodes query

The following query is a built-in query that finds the shortest path between two nodes:

MATCH (a), (b), p = allShortestPaths((a)-[*..{{"Maximum path length":number:{"default": 4, "min": 1, "max": 10}}}]-(b)) 
WHERE id(a) = {{"Source":node}} AND id(b) = {{"Target":node}} 
RETURN p LIMIT {{"Maximum number of paths":number:{"default": 5, "min": 1, "max": 50}}}

Running shortest path query

Multiple-nodes query

The following query returns only the nodes that are shared neighbours to each and every node of the input nodeset:

MATCH (n) WHERE id(n) IN {{"My nodes":nodeset}}
MATCH (n)-[e]-(m)
WITH m, collect(e) AS edges, count(distinct n) AS sharedNeighborCount
WHERE sharedNeighborCount = size({{"My nodes":nodeset}})
RETURN m, edges

running a query with a nodeset input

Single-edge query

The following query returns all the parallel edges of the selected node:

MATCH (a)-[e]->(b) WHERE id(e) in {{"edge":edge}}
MATCH (a)-[e2]->(b)
RETURN a, e2, b

running a query with an edge input

Multiple-edges query

The following query returns only the edges that share a node with the edgeset input:

MATCH (n)-[e:INVESTED_IN]-() WHERE id(e) IN {{"My edges":edgeset}}
MATCH (n)-[e2:INVESTED_IN]-(m) 
RETURN e, e2, n, m

running a query with an edgeset input

Query input syntax

This section provides a deep-dive into the different types of input variables can be used in queries.

To declare inputs in a query, use double curly braces to mark the start and end of input, for example:

MATCH (n)-[e]-(m) WHERE id(n) = {{"My node":node}} RETURN e, m

An input variable is made of 3 terms separated by a colon (:), the first 2 being mandatory:

A Query requiring input can take both graph and non-graph input:

node variable

Used to inject a single node ID in a graph query:

Examples:

nodeset variable

Used to inject a list of node IDs in a graph query:

Examples:

edge variable

Used to inject a single edge ID in a graph query:

Examples:

edgeset variable

Used to inject a list of edge IDs in a graph query:

Examples:

enum variable

Used to inject a string, numerical or boolean value in a graph query, from a list of choices:

Examples:

boolean variable

Used to inject a true/false value in a graph query:

Examples:

date variable

Used to inject a date-time in a graph query:

Examples:

datetime variable

Used to inject a date-time in a graph query:

Examples:

number variable

Used to inject a numerical value in a graph query:

Examples:

string variable

Used to inject a string of text in a graph query:

Examples:

env variable

Used to inject information about the user who runs the query into a graph query:

Examples:

list variable

Used to inject a string or numerical array in a graph query, from a list of choices with the possibility of making multiple choices:

Examples:

Previewing and testing queries

Once users are satisfied with their query, they can preview the results of their query by clicking on the Preview button. The preview allows users to visualize the results of their query and:

Previewing the result of a simple query

When a query contains input variables, a form is generated and displayed to the right of the query editor, allowing the query to be tested.

Previewing the result of a query with inputs

Write queries can not be tested.

Queries best practises

  1. If an input variable is followed directly by a closing curly brace character, users must add a space between the end of the input and the following closing curly brace character as shown in the example below.
    MATCH (n:PERSON)-[:HAS_ACCOUNT]->(b:BANK {name: {{"name":string}} })
RETURN n, b
  2. For Cypher: Any query containing the CALL statement will be evaluated based on the access mode (for more info, refer to Neo4j documentation) of called procedure. The query will either be allowed or denied, depending on the access mode of the query and the access right of the user.
    • Queries that include a call to any procedure with modes DEFAULT and READ are considered READ queries in Linkurious Enterprise.
    • Queries that include a call to any procedure with other modes such as DBMS, WRITE, SCHEMA are considered WRITE queries in Linkurious Enterprise.
  3. Queries can require a lot of computing resources from the database. Make sure to test your queries properly, and verify that you have enough computing power before sharing them. If overloaded, your database server may run slow or even crash, making the database unavailable.

 Queries: Running and managing queries

Running and Managing Queries

In this section we will learn how to manage, run and optimise the usage of queries in order to save as much time as possible with the use of this feature!

Accessing Queries

All queries which users have access to can be reached from the right toolbar on the workspace. Upon clicking on the {} button, users can view the list of all their queries sorted in alphabetical order.

Accessing Queries

From the right panel, users can do several things with the queries accessible to them. They can run, view details and add their queries to Favorites.

Editing and viewing details of queries

From the queries' right panel, users can edit, delete and view details of queries that they created. They can do that by clicking on ... menu on each query.

Manage Queries

Only the creator of a query can edit and delete it.

Editing Queries

When clicking on edit query, users are redirected to the query editor where they can perform changes to their query.

Deleting Queries

When deleting a query, the system will ask for a confirmation from the user to delete the query. Deleted queries will no longer be accessible to any of the users who had access to them and the action is irreversible.

Viewing details of queries

When users view the details of a query, they can view the query's name, ID, description, share settings as well as the raw graph query code. Moreover, users can load the query in the editor from the view details panel which will redirect them to the query editor.

Favorite Queries

Users can set queries as their favorite. They can do that by clicking on the three dots on a query's card and adding them to favorites. The benefit of having favorite queries is that they can be accessed much quicker.

Adding queries to favorite

All the user's favorite queries can be accessed at once via clicking on the Favorites tab at the bottom of the query panel.

Favorite queries are individual to each user.

Running Queries

All queries can be accessed and run from the right panel in the workspace. Depending on whether a query requires graph or user input, a form is displayed for the user to input the relevant information. Users can also search for a query to run by name or description.

Alt text

Depending on the nodes or edges that users have selected, the suggested queries tab of the queries panel will show queries that can be run with the current graph selection as input.

Query results and edges

A query can return nodes and edges. When running a query, Linkurious Enterprise will have a different behavior depending on whether the query returns some edges or node.

If the query does not return any edges, the system will add all mutual edges between the nodes in the result to the query result. For example, if the query returns nodes A and B but no edges, then running the query will actually return A, B and all edges between A and B.

Example:

MATCH (a:Person)--(b:Person)
WHERE a.name = 'John'
RETURN a, b

The system will add all edges between a and b to the result automatically.

If a query does return some edges, the system will not try to add any edges to the result automatically.

Example:

MATCH (a:Person)-[edge]-(b:Person)
WHERE a.name = 'John'
RETURN a, edge, b

The system will only return the edges explicitly returned by the query.

In addition to the automatically added edges, when adding the results of a query to a visualization, the system will always also add to the visualization the mutual edges between the nodes in the result and the nodes that were already in the visualization.

Example:

 Custom actions

In this chapter we cover the following topics:

Custom action example

Custom actions allow to open URLs that can be customized using data from the graph.

Custom actions allows a scenario such as:

Opening SalesForce with a custom action

Creating and managing custom actions

Accessing the custom actions panel

The panel can be accessed through the workspace, by opening the main menu and selecting "Manage custom actions ...".

The panel is available only to users who are authorized to create and manage Custom actions.

Opening the custom action panel

Managing custom actions

From the Custom actions panel, a user may:

Managing custom actions

Creating a custom action

In order to create a custom action a user:

Creating a custom action

URL template syntax

A Custom action contains a URL template with one of more variables that are replaced by actual values provided by the context.

Example:

The following variables can be used in a URL template:

Several variables can be used in the same template (e.g. https://google.com/search?q={{node.city}}+{{node.country}}), with the constraint that "node" and "edge" variables cannot be mixed.

Variables

Node ID

By default, a custom action with a {{node}} variable will be available on all nodes. To make this custom action available only for Company nodes, use the following syntax: {{node:"Company"}}.

If multiple "Node ID" variables (or "Node property" variables) are used in a single custom action, they need to all have the same node-category constraint (see example 3).

Examples:

  1. https://example.com/details?node={{node}}
  2. https://example.com/details?node={{node:"Person"}}
  3. https://example.com/node?id={{node:"Person"}}&name={{(node:"Person").name}}

Node property

By default, a custom action with a {{node.property_name}} variable will be available on all nodes. To make this custom action available only for Account nodes, use the following syntax: {{(node:"Account").property_name}}.

If multiple "Node property" variables (or "Node ID" variables) are used in a single custom action, they need to all have the same node-category constraint (see example 4).

Examples:

  1. https://google.com/search?q={{node.firstName}}
  2. https://google.com/search?q={{node.firstName}}+{{node.lastName}}
  3. https://google.com/search?q={{(node:"Person")."First name"}}
  4. https://google.com/search?q={{(node:"Company").name}}+{{(node:"Company").city}}

Edge ID

By default, a custom action with a {{edge}} variable will be available on all edge. To make this custom action available only for Transaction edge, use the following syntax: {{edge:"Transaction"}}.

If multiple "Edge ID" variables (or "Edge property" variables) are used in a single custom action, they need to all have the same edge-type constraint (see example 3).

Examples:

  1. https://example.com/edge_details?id={{edge}}
  2. https://example.com/edge_details?id={{edge:"Transaction"}}
  3. https://example.com/edge?id={{edge:"Transaction"}}&amount={{(edge:"Transaction").amount}}

Edge property

By default, a custom action with a {{edge.property_name}} variable will be available on all edge. To make this custom action available only for Transaction edge, use the following syntax: {{(edge:"Transaction").property_name}}.

If multiple "Edge property" variables (or "Edge ID" variables) are used in a single custom action, they need to all have the same edge-type constraint (see example 5).

Examples:

  1. https://google.com/search?q={{edge.amount}}
  2. https://google.com/search?q={{edge.amount}}+{{edge.date}}
  3. https://google.com/search?q={{(edge:"Transaction")."credit card"}}
  4. https://google.com/search?q={{(edge:"Transaction").country}}+{{(edge:"Transaction").amount}}

Visualization ID

A custom action with a {{visualization}} variable will only be available in regular visualizations (and not in the visualizations of alert's cases).

Examples:

  1. https://example.com/details?viz={{visualization}}
  2. https://example.com/details?viz={{visualization}}&node_id={{node}}

Alert ID

A custom action with an {{alert}} variable will only be available in the visualizations of alert's cases (and not in regular visualizations).

Examples:

  1. https://example.com/details?alert={{alert}}
  2. https://example.com/details?alert={{alert}}&node_id={{node}}

Case ID

A custom action with a {{case}} variable will only be available in the visualizations of alert's cases (and not in regular visualizations).

Examples:

  1. https://example.com/details?case={{case}}
  2. https://example.com/details?case={{case}}&alert={{alert}}&node_id={{node}}

Page

When the custom action is executed, this variable is replaced by a URL-encoded JSON object with the following format:

Examples:

  1. https://example.com/details?page={{page}}
  2. https://example.com/details?page={{page}}&source={{sourceKey}}

SourceKey

Examples:

  1. https://example.com/details?source={{sourceKey}}
  2. https://example.com/{{sourceKey}}/{{node:"Company"}}

Base URL

Examples:

  1. {{baseURL}}workspace/new?key={{sourceKey}}&populate=edgeId&item_id={{edge}}
  2. {{baseURL}}workspace/new?key={{sourceKey}}&populate=nodeId&item_id={{node}}
  3. {{baseURL}}plugins/my-plugin/show?key={{sourceKey}}&node={{node}}

Set of node IDs

By default, a custom action with a {{nodeset}} variable will be available on all nodes. To make this custom action available only for Account nodes, use the following syntax: {{nodeset:"Account"}}.

Example:

  1. http://example.com/nodes?ids={{nodeset}}
  2. {{baseURL}}plugins/my-plugin/show?nodes={{nodeset:"Company"}}

Set of edge IDs

By default, a custom action with a {{edgeset}} variable will be available on all edges. To make this custom action available only for HAS_ACCOUNT edge, use the following syntax: {{edgeset:"HAS_ACCOUNT"}}.

Example:

  1. http://example.com/edges?ids={{edgeset}}
  2. {{baseURL}}plugins/my-plugin/show?edges={{edgeset:"HAS_ACCOUNT"}}

Set of node properties

By default, a custom action with a {{nodeset.property_name}} variable will be available on all nodes. To make this custom action available only for Account nodes, use the following syntax: {{(nodeset:Account).propety_name}}.

Example:

  1. http://example.com/nodes?countries={{nodeset.country}}
  2. {{baseURL}}plugins/my-plugin/show?ssn_list={{(nodeset:"PERSON").ssn}}
  3. http://google.com/search?q={{(nodeset:PERSON).name}}+{{(nodeset:PHONE).number}}

Set of edge properties

By default, a custom action with an {{edgeset.property_name}} variable will be available on all edges. To make this custom action available only for TRANSACTION edges, use the following syntax: {{(edgeset:TRANSACTION).propety_name}}.

Example:

  1. http://example.com/edges?amounts={{edgeset.amount}}
  2. {{baseURL}}plugins/my-plugin/show_transactions?numbers={{(edgeset:"TRANSACTION").number}}
  3. http://google.com/search?q={{(edgeset:HAS_ACCOUNT).reference}}+{{(edgeset:TRANSACTION).device}}

 Search

In this chapter, we will learn how to search nodes and edges with Linkurious Enterprise.

We will first look at how to search nodes and edges then we will be looking at different advanced search options Linkurious Enterprise provides.

 Search: Searching for nodes

We may have millions of nodes in our graph. What if we want to look at a specific node?

We can use the search bar in the Workspace once we have created a new visualization.

We can look for a node by typing the name of any of its properties. Here, for example, we look for the property Instagram. We see the list of suggestions that match our search.

The search can be applied to all the nodes in the database or to all the nodes in the visualization simply by switching from ALL to LOCAL

All the entries in the database containing the word Instagram will appear. These results are sorted by relevance.

For each result we can see:

When we click on the result of our choice, it will be added to the workspace. Now we can visualize it.

How it works : by default, Linkurious Enterprise indexes all the properties of your graph. If any property of a node matches your search, it will be returned.

For example, you could find the Instagram node by typing instagram, or USA or 2010-03.

The search bar in the Workspace provides an Advanced Search option not available through the Quick Search Bar of the Visualizations Dashboard. We can thus reduce the results to the category we are interested in. Those options are described in the Advanced search section.

 Search: Searching for edges

We may have millions of edges in our graph. What if we want to look at a specific edge?

The fastest way is to use the search bar in the Linkurious Enterprise interface after we have have created a new visualization.

By default the finder will be set to find all nodes in the database. To search an edge, we click on the Edges button after typing the search value. To search only the edges present in the visualization, we click on the LOCAL button.

The search for edges works exactly like the search for nodes.

We simply type what we are looking for. We see the list of suggestions that match our search.

In the search result, we can see that there is an edge that has the value 1925000 for the property raised_amount_usd.

We choose the result we are interested in by clicking on it. It is immediately added to the workspace where we can visualize it.

 Search: Advanced search

You're looking for a specific node or edge, and the search bar has returned too many results?

This usually means that your search query is not specific enough. You may want to narrow down your search by specifying a particular node-category or edge-type to search on, and by adding conditions on specific properties.

Example

Searching for a company that contains the string facebook in any of its properties returns a large number of results.

Let's try to narrow it down.

When we click on the Advanced link, a new menu appears:

In the footer of the advanced search screen, we see the number of nodes whose properties contain facebook (353), and we're able to review them by clicking through the result pages.

In the header, in addition to having the search text, we have the followings options:

Setting a scope

Adjusting the fuzziness

Specifying a node-category / edge-type

Adding a property-value filter

In our graph, facebook is categorized as a Company. We are going to click and type Company on the category filter button to restrict our search to the nodes that have the category Company.

We can now see the different results.

In our graph, a Company can have properties like category, country, first_funding_at or founded_at and more. Not all the nodes categorised as a Company will have all the properties, though.

In order to narrow down our results, we are going to search multiple properties at once. To find Facebook, we are going to look for a company that uses "facebook.com" as its homepage url.

Now when we type facebook, the results are filtered to show only the nodes that have the category Company and the value facebook.com for the property homepage_url.

We can see that the results are now filtered. We can now select the result we are interested in by clicking on the select box on the left side of the result, then on the ADD ALL button.

The same approach can be applied to searching for edges.

Linkurious Enterprise will look for exact matches for the values you enter in the search options menu.

 Search: Advanced syntax

Linkurious Enterprise offers a native user interface to do advanced search in the graph.

For advanced users, it is possible to directly use the search syntax in the search bar:

Syntax and examples

The search syntax accepts 3 expression types:

Value

Type

Property

More examples

Searching for numbers and dates

Numerical and date search only works with Elasticsearch on properties declared as "Number" or "Date" in the graph schema. To learn more please check how to configure numerical/date search.

Authorized operators:

These operators must be followed by a number or an ISO date string (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd).

Examples:

 Manipulating the graph

In this chapter, we'll learn how to manipulate a graph, and more precisely the different options Linkurious Enterprise provides to explore and work on a visualization.

We will see how to select nodes and edges we are interested in and how to expand. Then we will learn how to hide them, how to apply a layout to the graph, how to pin nodes, how to undo/redo all actions and some useful shortcuts.

 Manipulating the graph: Auto-save

Auto-save status

The auto-save status is displayed in the bottom left corner of the workspace. There are 3 possible statuses:

Save a visualization

New visualizations are not automatically saved. In order to save a visualization, click on the Menu and then "Save...". Once saved, the Auto-save is switched on.

Switch auto-save off

At the bottom left of the screen click on "Auto-save ON": Auto-save ON

Switch auto-save off in the confirmation popup (see below). Auto-save is now switched off: modifications are not saved.

Warning

If you close the visualization and open it again, Auto-save will be ON again.

Save as a new visualization

You can duplicate a visualization by clicking "Save as..." in the main menu. The new visualization is open in the current window, and Auto-save is enabled.

Warning

If Auto-save is OFF in the original visualization, any unsaved changes will be lost

 Manipulating the graph: Select nodes and edges

The easiest way to select a node or an edge is to simply click on it. It is also possible to select multiple nodes at once.

To do so, click on the ... in the top menu.

Or right-click on the background.

By selecting the sub-menu Select, you have the following options:

The following options are also available in addition to the sub-menu Select:

Shortcuts are also available for this actions. See the list of Workspace shortcuts.

 Manipulating the graph: Expand nodes

Expanding a node displays all the nodes connected to it.

Generally, you can do it in three different ways:

###Expand options The Expand button in the context menu and property panel shows the following options:

##Selective Expand The Selective Expand feature prevents adding too many neighbors at once. The popin provides options to:

###Nodes that exceed the expand threshold When expanding nodes that have more edges connected to it than advanced.expandThreshold but less than advanced.superNodeThreshold, you see the following Selective Expand popin:

Selecting only one category allows you to expand nodes of that category and select a specific edge type it is connected to. In the example below, we select node CITY and edge type INVESTED_IN:

Selecting multiple categories allows you to expand nodes of those categories without the option of selecting the edge types. By default, all edges are selected.

###Nodes that exceed the super node threshold In the visualization, a super node is marked with a plus badge along with the number of connections it has.

When expanding nodes that have more node neighbors than advanced.superNodeThreshold, you see the following Selective Expand popin. Here the popin has the full list of relationships and categories to expand:

Note however that it is not possible to expand multiple nodes at the same time when at least one of the selected nodes is a super node.

 Manipulating the graph: Node Grouping

Node grouping enhances network exploration, accelerating the analysis workflow. It simplifies the understanding of complex networks by grouping together nodes that share the same information.

Accessing the node grouping panel and creating a node group rule

To be able to group nodes, you first need to create a node grouping rule, which will then enable users to activate grouping in their own investigations.

The node grouping panel is accessible by clicking on the following icon in the toolbar at the top right of the screen.

The node grouping panel will then open, listing the available grouping rules.

If no grouping rule exists, a button will allow to create a first grouping rule.

To create a grouping rule, click on the "Create rule" button at the bottom of the node grouping panel.

Clicking on this button opens a modal with the node grouping rule creation form.

To create a rule, you need first to choose a title. This title will be visible in the group caption. Next, you'll need to select the property on which the grouping will be based.

Nodes can be grouped by one property value. In the example below, we want to group all “Person” category nodes, which share the same value for the "nationality" property.

The grouping rule is based on the schema of your database. Therefore, to select the property to group by, you'll first need to choose the category to which this property belongs.

Once you've created a grouping rule, you'll find it in the list of available rules (in the right panel).

A grouping rule is available to all users of the same datasource. Only the rule creator or an administrator can delete it.

Group nodes in a visualization

You can activate and deactivate grouping rules in your visualization to change its appearance and discover new information more easily.

You can only activate one grouping rule at a time. Activating a second rule will automatically deactivate the previously activated one.

In the example above, we want to focus our investigation on people with a nationality that has been flagged as suspicious by relevant authorities. Rather than looking at each “Person” node to check each one's nationality, we can activate the "Person of same nationality" rule.

After activating the grouping rule we can see three groups of nodes in this visualization. The first one groups all those whose nationality is "Spanish", the second “French”, and finally the third "Russian". We can then decide to begin our investigation by focusing on the nationality we're interested in. All grouped nodes remain accessible, and all associated functionalities (such as expand, queries, and custom actions) remain available.

For a better analysis experience, grouping will change where nodes are positioned in the visualization. Because of that, the pinned nodes belonging to groups will be automatically unpinned.

 Manipulating the graph: Edge Grouping

Edge grouping is a feature that allows users to group parallel edges sharing the same type to make visualisations more readable.

Example: Consider the following visualisation, we would like to group all the edges which has the type HAS_TRANSFERED.

The Edge grouping panel can be accessed by clicking on the following Icon on the right top of the screen.

The Edge grouping panel will open with the different edge types to group, in our example HAS_TRANSFERED, HAS_ADDRESS, etc.

By clicking (enabling) the HAS_TRANSFERED button we will see that all the parallel edges with the same direction of that type are grouped in the visualisation as in the following figure.

Please note that the number in the caption appearing next to the edge type indicates the number of edges within that group.

Accessing the edge grouping properties panel

By selecting the edge group, a panel is opened on the left that displays information about the grouped edges.

At the top of this panel, you'll find basic information, including the type and the count of the grouped edges. Then right below, you will see the list of aggregated properties related to the grouped edges.

If the properties are totally or partially invalid, an information message will be displayed in the aforementioned left panel to warn you.

Numerical Properties

For numerical properties within a given edge group, aggregation will be performed using the following numerical operators: Sum, Average, Minimum, and Maximum. The count of valid properties that have been used to compute the mentioned operators can be found before the operators.

Properties that are set as currency in the schema will inherit the currency format and symbol.

Date Properties

If a given edge group contains a date or date-time property, the left panel will display:

Date or date-time properties will inherit the formatting set in the schema.

 Manipulating the graph: Lasso

It is possible to select the nodes within a particular area of your visualization. For that, Linkurious Enterprise provides a lasso.

To do so, click on the ... in the top menu or right-click on the background. Select Lasso.

Move the lasso around the nodes you are interested in selecting to select them.

You can also use the lasso by pressing the ctrl key (cmd on MacOS) while dragging with the mouse to draw the outline of the desired selection.

Release the mouse when you are finished and your selection is activated.

 Manipulating the graph: Hide

Your visualization is getting too complex and you may want to remove from a visualization (i.e. hide) a few nodes or edges from a visualization to make it easier to understand. Notice that hidden nodes an edges are not deleted from the database.

In the picture below, three nodes are selected. Simply click on the Remove icon to remove them from the visualization.

The six nodes are now removed from the visualization.

The Toggle Lasso option can be used to select the nodes we want to hide. We need to make sure the central node is not selected, otherwise all the edges connected to this node will also be hidden.

 Manipulating the graph: Layouts

Camera controls

At the bottom right of the workspace there are controls allowing to "Zoom in", "Zoom out", and "Locate", i.e. center the screen on the current selection.

Layout controls

Run a layout

Using a layout on the graph brings clarity. To refresh the current layout, right-click on the background, or click on the "More" menu at the top of the workspace, and choose "Refresh layout" in the context menu.

To apply another layout, you can follow the same steps and choose "Layout settings", or you can do it by clicking on the layout setting icon on the right.

By default the layout is run automatically on the whole graph in some conditions, such as when an expand is performed. It is possible to switch to an "Incremental expand" mode in the Layout settings.

Note that "Incremental expand" and "Pin on drag" are user preferences which are going to be applied to all your visualizations.

Force-directed layout

This is the default layout, enabled in "fast mode" option. You may turn this option OFF for better looking but slower results.

Hierarchical layout

The hierarchical layout organize nodes in different layers by aligning nodes of each layer vertically or horizontally. It produces a tree-like structure if there is a single root node (the node at the top of the tree):

You may choose a root node, by using the search or selecting a node from the graph and clicking "Set the selected node as the root node" button".

You may choose the orientation, for instance "Top to bottom" places the root node at the top.

Radial layout

Radial layouts position nodes around the currently selected node (used as center of the layout) based on their graph-theoretical distance (shortest path in the graph). This is useful for revealing layers in data and for drawing the rest of the graph in its relation to the pre-defined focus node.

You must choose a root node, by using the search or selecting a node from the graph and clicking "Set the selected node as the root node" button".

Example:

Note that you will not be able to apply the radial layout for visualizations with more than 1500 nodes.

 Manipulating the graph: Pinning nodes

It is possible to pin the nodes on your graph visualization. Pinning a node allows to fix it at a specific place on the graph.

To pin a node, we can either select Pin on the tooltip opened by right-clicking, or click on the ... in the actions menu.

A pin symbol appears on the node.

If we pin a node, this node will stay at the same place when we move the rest of the graph, for example using the force-directed layout option:

We have the ability to pin nodes automatically on mouse drag, that could be done from the layout settings.

 Manipulating the graph: Undo/redo

You now have the possibility to revert your last action on a visualization.

You can revert only the last action you do in the visualization.

For example, after expanding a node, clicking the undo button (or using the shortcut ctrl-z or cmd-z on MacOS) will revert the expand by returning the graph to its previous state.

After reverting the expand, you can go back and re-run it by clicking on the redo button (or using the shortcut ctrl-y or cmd-y on MacOS).

We have now the same nodes in the same positions as before.

Some actions cannot currently be undone :

 Manipulating the graph: Shortcuts

Depending of your operating system, you will have to use the ctrl key (Windows, Linux) or the cmd one (MacOS) to trigger actions.

Camera

Selecting

Creating and Editing

Undo / redo

 Manipulating the graph: Publish

Linkurious Enterprise offers the possibility to publish interactive visualizations online. Published visualizations can be accessed with an URL or embedded in a Web page à la Google Maps. They contain a snapshot of graph data at the time the visualization is published. The visualization author can update or un-publish his visualizations anytime. Anyone can explore these visualizations interactively, enabling easier collaboration around graph data.

We can publish a visualization from the Workspace via the left menu:

Before publishing a visualization, we can choose various options to customize the interface:

The options are:

In the screenshot above, we have disabled the share option. We can see that the Share button on the right of the screen disappeared. Finally, we can publish it:

The visualization is now available online! We can share the link or integrate it into a web page by adding the script of the web widget into the source code of a web page.

If the server that hosts Linkurious Enterprise is accessible via intranet only, published visualizations will be available within the organization and won’t be available outside.

 Manipulating the graph: Export

We have created a visualization and we want to share or modify its content. We open the Workspace menu, then click on the Export button.

The visualization data can be exported in the following formats:

After clicking on a format, we can configure the export (PNG and SVG) and click on Download. The file is automatically downloaded by the browser.

The PNG export available here will create an image of the complete graph even if we are currently zooming to a specific area. Here is an example:

This feature is different from the Screenshot button available on match and guest visualizations: it creates an image of the displayed area on the screen only.

 Design

In this chapter, we'll learn how to adjust the captions, the colors and the sizes of nodes and edges. This will help you make your visualizations more meaningful.

All these features are available on the Design panel that can be open by clicking on the following icon on the right top of the screen:

The Design panel will open with the Styles and Nodes tabs pre-selected:

Styles set in a new visualization are automatically re-applied to newly created visualizations. Users can reset their styles to default styles at any time from the gear icon at the bottom-rigth part of the Styles or Captions panel.

Default styles

Default styles may be defined by an Administrator of Linkurious Enterprise. Users can then change these styles after creating or opening a visualization.

By default, every node category has a pre-assigned color.

 Design: Captions

Linkurious Enterprise lets you choose which properties should be displayed on the workspace next to every node and edge.

On the example below, only the names of the nodes are displayed by Linkurious Enterprise. In order to customize this, we need to open the Design panel and select the Captions tab.

On the Captions tab, we can see the different properties of the nodes in our graph. The Name property is currently the only one shown. Let's add then the Country to the visualization; to do so, we click on Country. This property is now added to the displayed properties listed in the red area.

The text displayed next to the nodes is now different: instead of Quality Event Planner we can see Quality Event Planner - United States.

The same approach can be used for the edges, whose list is available on the Edges tab.

Linkurious Enterprise will use the properties in the order they appear in the list. By placing the cursor on one property already in the caption list, we have the possibility to change the order or to remove properties.

If a node doesn't have a property, Linkurious Enterprise won't show a caption for that property for that node.

 Design: Nodes color

If all your nodes or edges have the same color, it is difficult to distinguish them without looking at their individual properties. A great way to solve this is to color the nodes according to a certain category or property.

For example, our nodes with category LOAN may have a type property that we would like to highlight; Linkurious Enterprise enables us to color the nodes according to a particular property, here type.

This way, a condo and a house loan will have different colors despite having the same category; it will be easier to distinguish them visually.

In the picture below, we see that company Hello New World Ltd is connected to many loans. At first glance we have no idea where these loans are for.

Let's open the Design panel on the right corner of the screen and hit the Styles tab.

We can see all the node categories and, clicking on them, we can see their properties and property values.

Clicking on the desire property we can see all the values from the nodes in the visualization; from here, in two steps, we can change the color based on a value:

  1. Click on the color icon

  1. Select one color from the list or insert one other color on the input using the color name (e.g. blue), its hexadecimal color code (e.g. #0000FF) or its rgb, rgba (e.g. rgb(0, 0, 255), rgba(0, 0, 255, 1))

We repeat the process until we have a new color for each value:

All the nodes that do not have the property or none of the values for which we applied a rule will remain with the color of their category.

 Design: Edges color

Coloring edges works exactly the same as coloring nodes.

We only need to click on the Edges tab of the Design panel and choose a given color based on the type of an edge or the value of an edge property:

 Design: Nodes size

By default, all the nodes have the same size.

It is possible to apply different sizes to nodes depending on their categories and/or property values. This makes it possible to differentiate nodes with a specific category and/or property.

There are two ways of applying a style for the size: Static and Dynamic:

For example, the following visualization represents 140 companies that received funding from Acme Corp VC firm. Which companies received the biggest funding? Hard to know by simply looking at this graph:

We are going to dynamically size the different companies according to their funding_total property in order to visualize which ones are the most successful. For that, let's use the Linear scale function.

  1. Click the upper right corner to open the Design panel.
  2. Click the size icon next to the category Company.
  3. Choose Linear option then select Logarithmic.
  4. From the property list, select funding_total property.

Now we can see that the size of the nodes with the category Company has changed – the larger the size of the node is, the bigger the funding total value is.

We can quickly identify the most successful investment of investor "Acme Corp".

 Design: Edges size

By default, all the edges have the same size (width).

It is possible to apply different sizes to edge width depending on their property values. This makes it easier to differentiate edges.

There are two ways of applying a style based on edge size: Static and Dynamic:

For example, the following visualization represents 14 bank accounts that have either sent to or received funds from the account in the center. Which accounts have sent or received the largest transfers? Hard to know by simply looking at this graph:

We are going to dynamically size the different bank transfers according to their amount property in order to visualize the largest ones. For that, let's use the Linear scale function.

  1. Click the upper right corner to open the Design panel.
  2. Select the Captions tab
  3. Click the Set width icon next to the edge type HAS_TRANSFERED.
  4. Choose Dynamic option then select Linear.
  5. From the property list, select Amount property.

Now we can see that the size of the edges with the type HAS_TRANSFERED has changed – the larger the size of the edge, the bigger the amount transfered.

 Design: Icons

Linkurious Enterprise allows you to change the appearance of nodes by adding icons, letters or numbers.

We open the Design panel and choose the Styles and Nodes tab:

We can now see all the node categories and apply an Linkurious Enterprise icon, letter, number or custom icon to each one of them in three steps:

  1. Click on the + icon for a given category

  1. Select the desired library (Linkurious Enterprise icons library, letters, numbers or custom icons)

See how to add custom icons on our administrator manual. After adding the desired images they will be visible on the custom icons section and can be applied like a regular icon.

  1. Select an Linkurious Enterprise icon, letter, number or custom icon to apply

It is also possible to apply icons based on node property values.

In the example above, we have chosen 4 different icons to differentiate the nodes according to their category:

 Filters

In this chapter, we will learn how to filter the nodes and edges within a visualization according to their category/type or property values.

This technique will help you to focus on the relevant information in your graph and avoid information overload.

 Filters: Filter panel

Overview

Open the Filter panel using the funnel icon in the top-right corner. It contains:

Property types

The type of a property is represented with the icon next to the property name.

There are 5 possible types:

If the property type was not set in the Schema, it was automatically detected by the visualization as a "String" or a "Number" property.

If it is not detected as the correct type, you may change it by clicking on the type icon.

Filter on node-categories or edge-types

Click on the toggle button next to a category to hide all the nodes matching that category.

All "hidden" nodes are displayed in light grey in the visualization.

Click the toggle again to show those nodes again in the visualization.

Filter on properties

To filter on properties, unfold a property in the category tree. Filtering options depend on the property type.

Filter on String

For a String property, all values found in the visualization are listed. For each value:

Also a "Missing values" row is displayed when some nodes don't have that property.

Filter on Enumerations

Enumerations accept only the authorized values declared in the Schema. All other values are considered as "invalid". Nodes that don't have the property are considered as "missing values".

Filter on True/False

True/False accept only "true" and "false" values. All other values are considered as "invalid". Nodes that don't have the property are considered as "missing values".

Filter on Number

The chart displays all the property values taken by the nodes that hold a value for that property.

By clicking on the "+" icons, you can filter based on the property value by adding a lower bound and/or an upper bound:

It is possible to:

Nodes in the visualization:

It is possible to hide all nodes that have a missing value or an invalid value. They are displayed by default.

Filter on Date or Datetime

Date and Datetime properties can only be filtered using the Timeline.

 Filters: Timeline

The Timeline is available if at least one property has been set as Date or Datetime property by the administrator in the schema.

The Timeline panel can be open through the "clock" icon in the upper right corner of the workspace.

The Timeline displays the distribution of values of one or multiple properties at once.

In the top left corner of the panel is displayed the list of properties being plotted in the Timeline. You may change the list of selected properties by clicking on the "Modify" button next to that list.

At the bottom right, the zoom level allows to change the step of the histogram.

It is possible to filter nodes and edges holding the properties selected in the Timeline by adding a lower bound and/or upper bound using:

To remove a bound, clear the corresponding date picker.

Some statistics are displayed on the right-hand side of the panel:

 Comments

In this chapter, we will learn how to add comments on visualizations.

Comments help you share information with any other member of your team that has access to a visualization.
You can make your visualization available to other members of your team either via individual sharing or spaces.

 Comments: Comments panel

Open comments panel

The comments panel is available on every visualization, to open it, click on the comment icon in the top right toolbar.

Note that the visualization should be saved before you can add a comment.

Add a comment

Writing Comments

To save your comment, just click on the comment button after typing the information you want to share.

The comments are visible to anyone who has access to the visualization.

It is possible to delete your own comments. Only you are allowed to do so.

Comments added by users who have been deleted or no longer have access to the visualization will still be visible.

Mentioning Colleagues

From the comments panel, you can mention any user who has access to the datasource, by typing @. After typing @, a list of suggested users according to what you type will appear. Users can be searched for by their email and username. When you have found the user you would like to mention, you can click on them or press enter. Mentioned users will then be notified via email.

In order to receive notifications, confirm with your admin that your email notifications are correctly configured.

Add a comment with a mention

 Edit data

In this chapter, we will learn to edit, add and remove nodes or edges to our graph.

 Edit data: Edit properties and categories

Important note :

The Linkurious Enterprise team recommends, as a best practice, not to go beyond the following :

Linkurious Enterprise best performances are not guaranteed beyond these limits.

Nodes are made of one (or multiple) categories, and a set of properties. Edges are made of one type, and a set of properties.

Properties are simple key-value pairs (e.g. name: "James", age: 31).

Node categories are used to tag a node (e.g. Company). Some graph databases (e.g. Neo4j) support multiple node categories.

Edge types are used to define the nature of an edge (e.g. FRIEND_OF).

Editing a node (resp. edge) allows for 3 kinds of actions:

  1. Add / remove a node category
  2. Edit an existing property
  3. Add a new property

Editing permissions are related to the configuration of Access Rights. If you are not able to edit a node (resp. an edge), see a specific property, or perform one of the above actions, please get in touch with your administrator.

It is a limitation of most graph databases that the type of an edge cannot be edited once the edge has been created.

Editing a node / edge

If we select a node or an edge, we can edit it by right-clicking on it or clicking on the More option in the Selection panel. An Edit option is displayed in the context menu unless you are not authorized to edit that node (resp. edge).

Next, we click on Edit, which will open the node or edge edit modal.

Node edit modal

Edge edit modal

Adding and removing a category

Only available on nodes

To add a category to a node we need to type the desired category. After typing the first character, categories already present in the database that match will be shown. The first option on the list is to create a new category with that name.

A node needs at least one category. It's impossible to create a node without one.

To select one category (even new), we need to click on the list. If the input changes its color to green, your choice has been accepted. Next, we click on the Add button and, if we want to save the changes, on the Save button.

To remove a category, we need to click on the cross on the right side of the category.

If a node only has one category, it cannot be removed.

These changes will only be saved after clicking on the Save button.

Note: edges can only have one type, therefore it is not possible to either add, remove or replace an edge type.

Adding, Editing or Removing a property

Editing an existing property

To edit an existing property, we only need to change its value. An administrator has the ability to configure the type of a property:

If no type was configured for the property, it's considered as a Text property.

When editing a property, failure to input a value corresponding to the property type results in an error when trying to save. Once a valid value is input, click on the Save button.

Invalid values

When the value saved in a property is inconsistent with the type declared by the administrator, a warning is displayed. In order to edit this value:

Property type conflict

When nodes have multiple categories, properties might be configured so that a single property has 2 conflicting types. For example if the administrator configured:

In such as case, a warning is displayed and the user is not able to edit the property until the administrator resolves the conflict.

Adding a new property from the node edit modal

To add a new property, we need to fill in the name of the property and provide a value new_property, and new_property_value, for example--and click on the Add button.

This property does not have a type yet and so will be considered to have the Text type.

Removing a property

To remove a property, we only need to click on the Delete button. You cannot delete properties that have been marked as mandatory by an administrator. Mandatory properties have a red asterisk.

The edge edit modal works exactly the same way

Adding a new property from the Schema

 Edit data: Create nodes and edges

The easiest way to create a node or an edge is to right-click on the background or click on the More option in the top menu.

For edge creation, we can select one or two nodes and right-click on one of them to automatically use the selected nodes as source and target.

Create a node

First we need to select or create a new category for the node using the marked input.

When we begin typing compa the category Company appears on the list along with the option to create a new category named compa.

Let's select Company and click on the Add button. The company is then added, and since a category is already present in the database, the properties list will be filled with those properties already on Company nodes.

We can now fill the desired properties or create new ones at the end of the list and click the Save button to add the new node to the visualization.

The new node is now saved and added with the inserted data. The node is also automatically selected.

Create an edge

The easiest way to create an edge between two nodes is to select them and then right-click on one of them or on the More option in the selection panel.

After clicking on Create Edge the edge creation modal will open with three important fields:

Since we already selected two nodes, the target and the source are automatically filled. Using the opposite arrows on top, it is possible to switch between source and target. If we open the edge creation modal without any node selected, we can use the source or target inputs to search for nodes present in the visualization.

Next, we need to select a type for the edge (unlike with node creation, in edge creation type is required). Clicking on the type input will show all types present in the database. Let's select HAS_CITY

As with nodes, we can add as many properties as we want to an edge. When we are done, we click on the Save button.

Finally, we can see in our graph our new edge:

It is also possible to create a new edge without selecting any node by right-clicking on the background or by clicking the More button in the top menu.

 Edit data: Delete nodes and edges

Delete nodes

If we want to delete one or more nodes from our database, we need to select the nodes we want to delete and right-click on one of them or on the More option in the selection panel.

After clicking Delete x node(s) from database a confirmation modal will appear.

After clicking on Confirm, the node will be deleted from the database.

Delete edges

If we want to delete one or more edges from our database, we need to select the edges we want to delete and right-click on one of them or on the Delete option in the selection panel.

After clicking Delete x edge(s) from database a confirmation modal will appear.

After clicking on Confirm, the edge will be deleted from the database.

 Geography

In this chapter, we will learn how to display graph data on a geographic map.

 Geography: Geographic data

Nodes must contain geographic coordinates as properties. Latitude and longitude data must be expressed in decimal degrees (e.g. "38.8897,-77.0089") as available in many geographic information systems (GIS).

The Administrator should configure which property is the latitude property, and which property is the longitude property of the nodes of the data-source. Without configuration, Linkurious Enterprise will try to use properties called "latitude" or "lat", and "longitude", "long" or "lng".

When geographic coordinates exist in a node of the visualization, we can switch to the geo mode.

 Geography: Display a geographic map

The Geo mode switch is available in the lower righthand corner of the Workspace. We can enable and disable the geo mode at will to switch between the standard "network" view and the geographic view.

Click on it to display the geographical map. Nodes are positioned on the map according to their geographic coordinates. Other nodes present in the visualization can be hidden by the "geo coordinates" filter.

Linkurious Enterprise includes some different layers that can be selected by clicking on the layer button in the lower righthand corner of the screen.

We can zoom in and out, drag nodes on the map to improve readability, select nodes and edges, etc. If we want to move the nodes to their original position we can always reset their coordinates by right-clicking on the background:

Finally, we can publish an interactive widget from Workspace menu > Publish with the geographical layers.

 Alerts

Introduction

This chapter focuses on the lifecycle and workflow of alerts. Here, information on how to set up, edit and navigate alerts can be found. Moreover, a lexicon with useful terms around the feature can be accessed.

Automated detection of patterns in the graph database

The next section, is a step-by-step guide on how to create alerts.

 Alerts: Setting up alerts

Setting up Alerts

In order to create an alert, navigate to the Alerts section from the top navigation menu and then click on the Alerts Dashboard button.

The alerts dashboard, where you can manage the different alerts created.

When on the alerts' dashboard, simply click on the Create an alert button which will re-direct you to the alert creation form page.

The alert creation form.

Only users with the right to create alerts can access the form.

General Settings

Alerts have general settings that concern their frequency, sharing options and more. These settings are spread on the top and bottom of the creation page.

Name and Description

On the top of the page, users are asked to enter the alert's name and description. The alert name is a mandatory field. The alert description is optional and can be used to give context on the alert's usability and purpose. The description of the alert can be viewed on the Unified case list by hovering over the alert title or opening the case preview where analysts will be investigating their cases.

Frequency, sharing options and enabling the alert

By default the alert, when enabled, will run every hour. It is possible though to adapt the frequency based on specific needs (for example the frequency of database updates).

We advise you to not go below the hourly frequency if your alert is too complex.

If the sharing options of an alert are not altered, it is only visible to its creators and Admin users. In order to make it visible to users,sharing options should be activated. This can be done by clicking on the Share alert toggle. Users are then asked to choose between sharing the alert with all users or one or more groups that have access to the datasource.

If an alert is shared via one of the above options, only users with "process alerts" or “create and process” rights will access it.

Finally, an alert will run only when activated. This can be achieved by clicking on the Enable alert toggle.

Saving Alerts

As creating an alert can be a complex process, users may have to test patterns and queries using the Linkurious Enterprise query system or consult investigators to ensure the consistency of the data returned. Therefore, there is the possibility to save an alert at any step during its creation.

Once the alert title is complete, the alert can be saved by clicking on the Save button (for your alert to run properly the target and at least one model should be correctly filled in). In case of pending errors within the alert (either on one of the models or on the attributes query), a window will exhibit the detected errors/warnings. There will exist the possibility to return to the alert creation page or continue with saving the alert.

In order for an alert to function properly, both for models and case attributes, the below criteria must be met:

When the alert is enabled in the setting, the alert can be saved and run by clicking the Save and Run button.

Alerts performances

Running an alert can be a heavy process. Depending on the alerts' properties, users could notice the interface slowing down for a few minutes while an alert is running. We recommend scheduling the run of alerts in production outside of business hours to allow for a seamless experience.

Subsequently, many parameters can affect the performance of alerts. In order to optimise the performance of your alerts, we recommend taking into consideration the following points:

  1. Models: The number and complexity of models and the size of your dataset

    The performance of an alert to run is directly related to the queries you will make on the database. Each model you configure for an alert will run directly on your entire dataset. Therefore, the more complex the query is (e.g. because it will have to cross the whole network) or the more results it will return, the longer your alert will take to run.

  2. Case attributes: The number of columns configured and the complexity of the query that will calculate the custom attributes

    The performance of the query that calculates the case attributes depends on the performance of the system the database is installed on. If the database is running on an undersized server, the computation will be slowed down.

  3. System: The configuration of the system on which Linkurious Enterprise runs The performance of Linkurious along with your database are directly related to the configuration of the system they are installed on. You can consult the Linkurious installation requirements for more information.

Example: For an alert of 5 models with a case attribute query that will generate 10 columns, it takes 8 minutes to generate 5000 cases on a system with 5GB of RAM and 2 CPU.

Once the alert has run, its cases can be found on the Case List and the Unified case list.

Models and Target

Target Field

In order for cases to be deduplicated properly, users have to set a target for their alert. The target is the entity used to deduplicate and group pattern occurences. The value of the target can be anything and it will have to be used in all the models that will be added to the alert.

You can set as a target a node, an edge, multiple nodes, multiple edges or a subgraph but no scalar values or any type of data stored in entities.

Models

The models of an alert are the detection patterns which users set. These patterns are called models. Each pattern has to be specified within a model using the Cypher query language. To create a model, click on the add a model button.

The model creation form.

The model name and model query are mandatory fields and are needed in order to save a model. The model query should be a read query. In case the user writes a write query, saving the model will not be possible. Once the model is successfully saved, it will become visible on the list of models on the alert creation page. From there, if the model has any syntax errors or if the target is not found within the model, users will be able to see them. Consequently, users are able to edit and or delete models by clicking on the corresponding buttons.

Incomplete models or models with errors are flagged in the alert creation page.

Complete model error in the template creation form.

Case Attributes

Once the models are created for an alert, cases will be returned once it has run. However, an analyst might need to access further information on cases in order to make informed decisions on their criticality.

To help prioritise and assign the most important cases to investigate, attributes can be created for each case. These attributes can be used to help prioritise cases (e.g. by calculating a "risk score"), to display information that makes it easy to assign cases to investigator (e.g. by displaying the type of fraud used), or to display important information about the target of the alert for quick decision making.

There are two types of syntax errors in the attribute creation query: the errors on the Linkurious Enterprise query template syntax and the errors related to the Cypher language. These errors will be notified when saving the alert but are not blocking it.

In order to set up the case attributes, a Cypher query has to be written to either call directly or perform calculations on the data of a case. Once the query is written, columns that will appear in the lists of cases, need to be configured. In order for the above to be done, click on the add a column button and fill in the corresponding fields:

In order for the columns to be properly displayed, the type of the case attribute fetched from the query has to match the one you choose as a type.

The title field is mandatory.


IMPORTANT

Please note that users of alerts who don’t have access to specific node categories and/or edge types can still access this information in the case attributes if the created queries return them. They will not see the nodes and/or edges in the visualization/case view but the data will still be displayed in the alert columns.


Go to the next section to follow a complete example of an alert setup.

 Alerts: Alert creation example

Introduction

In this chapter, we will learn how to use alerts to identify cases of fraud. With alerts, Linkurious Enterprise can regularly return new potential cases of fraud detected in your database. Once these cases are visible in the interface, they can be assigned to the investigators of your team, they can use the tools available in Linkurious Enterprise to ensure that the fraud case is genuine.

We will cover the use case of money laundering through the purchase of real estate to illustrate how to create Linkurious Enterprise Alerts.

Money laundering through the purchase of real estate (or real estate ML) consists of hiding the origin and injecting fraudulent funds into the legal economy by making a profitable investment. There are different ways to identify real estate fraud. Here are some of them:

  1. A discrepancy between the usual income of the owner and the property value.
  2. An anonymous owner, as a result of recourse of either a company or similar arrangements.
  3. A property underestimated or over-evaluated.
  4. The indication by a country that there is a risk of money laundering by its citizen in another country.
  5. The location of the property (represented by location where the loan is done) is not in relation with the buyer location.
  6. Politically exposed persons.
  7. Transaction speed.
  8. The company or type of company owned by the buyer is suspicious.
  9. Shared intermediaries or common intermediaries for several mortgage loans in a specific time period.

As can be seen, there is a wide variety of different schemes for a fraud case. And a fraudster may use different schemes each time they try to launder funds in order to cover his tracks and hide his illicit activities. Linkurious Enterprise' alert system takes into account and aggregates these different schemes in order to detect and return all data related to one targeted entity.

Here we will create an alert in which we will target a person potentially guilty of laundering money through the purchase of real estate.

Defining the target of the alert

The target is the entity suspected for fraud. It is this entity that the investigator will inquiry during his investigation.

The target is left to the discretion of the alert creator but it will have to be used in each query describing a pattern in order for the system to work and for the alert to return cases.

In our example, the investigators will have to prove the responsibility of an individual in the potential fraud cases generated by the alert. This person will be our target. We will call him here "p" and we will make sure that each query will return a node of type person identified as "p".

Defining the models of the alert

In our example, the first pattern we want to detect is a discrepancy between the owner incomes and the monthly instalment for the loan: if one-third of the buyer's monthly income is less than the monthly cost of the loan to purchase the property, then it may be a case of money laundering.

Here is how this pattern will be translated via the Cypher language:

match (l:MortgageLoan)<-[e:HAS_LOAN]-(p:Person) 
with e,l,p,p.annual_revenues/36 as max_monthly_instalment
where  max_monthly_instalment < l.monthly_instalment
return p, l, e

As can be seen, we have identified the buyer (an entity of type Person in the given database) by the term p – our defined target – and returned it, along with the entities necessary for the investigation: the loan and the link between the two entities.

If you want to reproduce and test our example, here are all the queries used for each pattern:

  1. A discrepancy between the usual income of the owner and the property value.

    match (l:MortgageLoan)<-[e:HAS_LOAN]-(p:Person) 
with e,l,p,p.annual_revenues/36 as max_monthly_instalment
where  max_monthly_instalment < toFloat(l.monthly_instalment)
return l,p,e

  2. The indication by a country that there is a risk of money laundering by its citizen in another country.

    match (p:Person)-[e:HAS_LOAN]->(l:MortgageLoan)
where p.nationality in ["Russia","North Korea", "China"]
return l,p,e

  3. The location of the property (represented by location where the loan is done) is far away from the buyer location.

    match (l:MortgageLoan)<-[e:HAS_LOAN]-(p:Person)
where point.distance(point(l),point(p))/1000 > 300
return l,p,e

  4. The company or the type of company owned by the owner is among a list of sensitive fields.

  // We distinct two patterns here:
  // - Company got the loan
  match (l:MortgageLoan)<-[e:HAS_LOAN]-(c:Company)<-[:HAS_CONTROL]-(p:Person)
  where c.industry in ["Military/Government/Technical","Oil/Gas Transmission"]
  return l,c,p,e
  // - Person got the loan
  match (l:MortgageLoan)<-[e:HAS_LOAN]-(p:Person)-[:HAS_CONTROL]->(c:Company)
  where c.industry in ["Military/Government/Technical","Oil/Gas Transmission"]
  return l,c,p,e

Setting up the case attributes

We want to set up some columns that will allow the investigator to quickly understand what type of scheme the fraudster is using to launder funds as well as information about the buyer:

Let's now take a look at the query that will help us add the above attributes.

    match (p:Person) where id(p) in {{"target":nodeset}}
    with p, p.annual_revenues / 36 as max_monthly_instalment
    match (l:MortgageLoan) where id(l) in {{"context":nodeset}}
    with p,max_monthly_instalment,
        sum(point.distance(point(l),point(p))) as total_distances,
        collect(l) as loans,
        sum(toFloat(l.monthly_instalment)) as debt_ratio,
        sum(l.purchase_price) as total_properties_value,
        sum(l.duration) as loans_duration,
        count (l) as total_loans
    with p,
        loans,
        total_properties_value,
        total_loans,
        loans_duration,
        total_distances/total_loans as average_distance,
        loans_duration/total_loans as average_loan_duration,
        max_monthly_instalment - debt_ratio as available_debt_ratio
    return p, total_properties_value, total_loans, average_loan_duration, average_distance, available_debt_ratio

In the first line, we want to specifically look up the entity representing our target. To do so, we use the Linkurious Enterprise query templates syntax to specify what type of entity we are looking for. We can thus use 4 different variables to target distinct elements in the data of a case:

so, with these lines:

match (p:Person) where id(p) in {{"target":nodeset}}
with p,
     p.annual_revenues / 36 as max_monthly_instalment

we fetch the person node identified as our target, and return it along the result of the third of its revenues.

In the same way, this line:

match (l:MortgageLoan) where id(l) in {{"context":nodeset}}

will return all entities of type node and category "MortgageLoan" contained in the data returned by the cases.

Navigate to the next section where we dig deeper into the different ways alerts' cases can be processed.

 Alerts: Alerts Navigation

Navigating Alerts

Alerts' cases can be accessed in two pages. This section, guides you through these views and their features.

Alerts Dashboard

The Alerts Dashboard displays the alerts available to users.

It is always accessible to those who have the right to “Create & Process Alerts” (see Access Rights). However, users who have the right to “Process Alerts” can only access the dashboard if at least one alert exists.

From the Alerts Dashboard, we can:

When at least one folder exists, the file tree is displayed on the left.

The blue badge displayed above alerts and folders is there to inform users on cases requiring attention (cases with the status: open and assignee: unassigned).

Users clicking on 'Back to Cases' are navigated to the Unified case list.

Unified Case List

The unified case list is where all the cases a user has access to can be displayed. It is accessible to all the users who can access and/or create alerts. The list of cases displayed can be adjusted using filters.

A "by default" filter is applied every time a user accesses the page, which shows the cases which have status Open or In progress and are assigned to the currently logged in user. This enables users to focus on the evolving cases which they are responsible for.

The unified case list is always sorted in descending order, meaning the newest case is always displayed first. Sorting can be modified according to the needs of the user by sorting the remaining columns of the unified case list. To go back to the initially sorted view, sort by the "created at" column in a descending order.

Users can navigate to the 'Alerts Dashboard', where they can also create alerts, when clicking on the 'Alerts Dashboard' button.

Filters

Different combinations of filters can be applied. Users can filter by one or many Alert folders, Alert names, Alert models, Case statuses and Assignees. When filters are cleared, by clicking on the clear button, all the cases a user has access to are displayed.

By default, the unified case list displays basic information common to all cases. The case ID, alert name, folder name (if any), the models that generated the case and their sum, case creation date and time, last updated at date and time, case status and the investigator assigned to it.

Filtering by one alert

When filtering by one alert, all columns (case attributes) of that specific alert are displayed on the unified case list table. Moreover, they're also displayed on the filters panel where users can apply filters on them. The columns of the 'currency' type show the appropriate symbol and adhere to the currency format defined during the alert's creation.

Depending on the type of the columns' data users can filter on numerical, currency or text values.

**

Filters and sorting are persisted to help users not lose the context of their work when navigating in the app.

Filtering monetary values is handled in the same manner as filtering columns of the 'number' type.

Case Preview

The case preview can be accessed by clicking on the case's ID. From the case preview the case view can be opened. Moreover, details on the information the case holds such as alert name, alert description, case attributes and number of comments as well as the timestamp of the latest comment are shown. Furthermore, users can change the status and assignee of a case, exactly in the same manner they do on the case view, from the case preview.

Bulk assign cases

Users can assign one or multiple cases to another user or themselves in one go, from one or many alerts at a time. This is particularly useful for a team leader dispatching the workload among their team, especially in combination with the usage of filters.

To use this feature, the user needs to select one or many cases from the unified case list (clicking on checkboxes). The “ASSIGN” button will activate upon the first selection. Users can pick cases from the different pages of the list. The number of cases selected will show next to the “ASSIGN” button.

Once the user is done selecting cases, they will pick a user name from the dropdown list that opens upon clicking on the “ASSIGN” button. Only the users who have access to all the alerts to which the selected cases belong, will show on the list. If a user is lacking access to at least one of the cases’ alert, they won’t be displayed. Also, if new filters are applied or if filters are cleared, the current selection of cases is unselected.

Download the unified case list information

From the unified case list, users can download an excel file containing all the cases which the applied filter returns. This file contains information which will enable analysts to monitor the team's activity and share it with fellow colleagues. and answer possible questions a they may have, such as:

The file begins to download once the button is pressed. In the downloaded file, for each case, you will find its id, creation datetime, status, assignee username, assignee email, assigned datetime, dismissed or confirmed datetime, the alert name and folder name the case belongs to as well as the export datetime.

In case the applied filter returns more than 500k cases, download would not be possible.

Case List

The "Case List" shows a list of newly detected cases for each alert. Each row in the list is a case.

By default, cases are ordered by creation date. You can change sorting order by using custom columns, if the alert creator has defined any.

A case has a status that is either Open, In progress, Confirmed, or Dismissed. New cases have the Open status by default.

The list of cases can be filtered by status. For example, the image below shows the list of dismissed cases. We can also see who has changed the status of those cases.

You can also filter the list of cases by assignee. In the example below, we can see all the cases opened and assigned to the current user.

If a user has no cases assigned to him, his name will appear greyed out in the list.

Within the list of cases, you can assign them to users that have the right to process the alert.

To do so, you can select cases from multiple pages by checking the checkbox on the left of every row.

You can also select all the cases within a page by clicking on the checkbox on top of the list of cases.

Once cases are selected, you can assign them to a single user by clicking on the button "Assign".

To take a decision, you must investigate on a case. Simply click on the ID of a case to open the case view.

Download the alert case list information

From each alert's case list view, users can download an excel file containing all the cases of the alert. This file contains information which will enable analysts to monitor the team's activity, share it with fellow colleagues and answer possible questions a they may have, such as:

The file begins to download once the button is pressed. In the downloaded file, for each case, you will find its id, creation datetime, status, assignee username, assignee email, assigned datetime, dismissed or confirmed datetime, the alert name and folder name the case belongs to and the columns as well as the export datetime.

The next section focuses on case investigation and exploration best practises.

 Alerts: Investigating cases

Case Investigation

You can investigate a case by clicking on the case's id in the case list or the unified case list. By doing so, you will be redirected to the graph of said case where you can:

Features that are present in the visualization workspace such as, geomode, filtering, grouping, layouts and more are also present in this view in order to help you while investigating! Nodes' and edges' details can be accessed when clicking on them from the left panel. Moreover, the case can be exported.

Adding Comments & Mentioning Colleagues

From the activity panel, you can add comments and mention any user who has access to the datasource, by typing @. After typing @, a list of suggested users according to what you type will appear. Users can be searched for by their email and username. When you have found the user you would like to mention, you can click on them or press enter. Mentioned users will then be notified via email.

In order to receive notifications, confirm with your admin that your email notifications are correctly configured.

Changing Status & Assignee

You can change the status of the case (from the top-right of the page). screenshot: changing the status of a case

When changing the status to either In progress, Confirmed or Dismissed, you will be prompted for an optional note, to document the decision for future reference. screenshot: adding a note when confirming a case

You can assign the case to someone directly through the information panel. To do so, you just need to click on "Assign" button next to the assignee username. You will find the history of assignement in the activity panel, with comments and status changes.

Saving Updates

You can save the current state of the investigation by clicking on the "Save" button that appears after you update the graph (e.g. by adding a node).

 Alerts: Lexicon

Alerts Lexicon

In this section, you can find useful definitions of commonly used vocabulary within the Alerts feature.

 Guest Mode

What is the Guest mode

The Guest mode is a way to share graphs with people who do not have an account on Linkurious Enterprise.

Key characteristics:

The Guest mode is available once an Administrator has enabled it.

Standard user interface:

Guest mode user interface:

Share a visualization

There are 2 options to share a visualization with the Guest mode:

  1. From the dashboard, right-click on a visualization and click Share
  2. From the workspace of that visualization, go to Menu > Share

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