Introduction to DGML

Here is what a simple directed graph with three nodes and two links between them looks like






















which looks like this:

The complete XSD schema for DGML is available at http://schemas.microsoft.com/vs/2009/dgml. DGML not only allows describing nodes and links in a graph, but also annotating those nodes and links with any user defined property and/or category.

Applications supporting DGML

• Visual Studio 2010, a suite of tools for Software Developers including support for generating DGML graphs from relationships in code and for viewing any DGML document generated by any other tool.

See also

• XML
  XML
  Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
  
  
• GraphML
  GraphML
  GraphML is an XML-based file format for graphs. The GraphML file format results from the joint effort of the graph drawing community to define a common format for exchanging graph structure data...
  
  , an XML format for graphs
• GXL
  GXL
  GXL is designed to be a standard exchange format for graphs. GXL is an extensible markup language sublanguage and the syntax is given by an XML document type definition...
  
  , graph exchange format based on XML -- GXL
• GML
  Graph Modelling Language
  Graph Modelling Language is a hierarchical ASCII-based file format for describing graphs. It has been also named Graph Meta Language.-Example:A simple graph in GML format:graph [ comment "This is a sample graph" directed 1 id 42...
  
   is another widely used graph exchange format. -- GML
• Dot Language
  DOT language
  DOT is a plain text graph description language. It is a simple way of describing graphs that both humans and computer programs can use. DOT graphs are typically files that end with the .gv extension. The .gv extension is preferred, as .dot also is used by Microsoft Office 2003.Various programs...
  
  , a format for describing graphs and their presentation, for the Graphviz
  Graphviz
  Graphviz is a package of open-source tools initiated by AT&T Labs Research for drawing graphs specified in DOT language scripts. It also provides libraries for software applications to use the tools...
  
   set of tools.

External links

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio homepage of Visual Studio
• http://schemas.microsoft.com/vs/2009/dgml page describing the XSD schema for DGML
• http://www.lovettsoftware.com contains videos showing how to use DGML graphs in Visual Studio
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd409365.aspx, documentation on how to use DGML