documentationfor yFiles for HTML 2.6

Introduction

yFiles for HTML is an extensive class library that provides algorithms and components for analyzing, viewing, editing, and drawing graph and network diagrams. It can be used to develop sophisticated Web applications for HTML5-capable browsers and platforms powered by ECMAScript Level 5 and greater engines in general.

Graphs and networks commonly comprise entities together with their relationships. Presenting such data as a diagram has the benefit that it visualizes complex structures and relationships. It facilitates communication of information by providing a clear picture of the data. On the other hand, creating, maintaining, and presenting diagrams are non-trivial tasks which involve

  • the visualization of entities, relations, and labels per se
  • a meaningful arrangement of all elements
  • interactive editing of the diagram
  • persistence

yFiles for HTML provides the features which facilitate these tasks.

This introduction gives an overview of the kind of purposes the yFiles for HTML library serves, and of typical applications and application domains. Finally, it provides an outlook of the content of this Developer’s Guide.

To learn the basic concepts of yFiles for HTML quickly, you can follow the steps of the Getting Started chapter.