Welcome
Welcome to the Rhizosphere documentation pages! These pages contain all the information you need to use Rhizosphere from the end user perspective all the way down to the code internals and reference material for Rhizosphere developers.
Overview
Rhizosphere is an innovative project to provide in-browser html-based spatial navigation and interaction on structured data.
Rhizosphere is a data visualization tool: it lets you visualize, browse, filter and act upon datasets of your choice. Nowadays you're submerged by tons of data and information, stored in a variety of different places: the cloud, websites, spreadsheets, custom formats used by your applications.
Rhizosphere purpose is to provide a simple but effective way to flow through your data and help you locate the information that you know it's there, but it's lost amidst the noise. Until now, you have probably always used mostly one paradigm to organize information: tables and spreadsheets. They can be cumbersome when you need to sift through many parameters and dimensions. Rihzosphere is the alternative.
Rhizosphere is a web-based visualization, implemented as a pure javascript library. It runs within your browser and it doesn't require any additional plugins: no Flash, no Silverlight. It is tuned for multiple execution environments, from desktop PCs to smartphones and tablets. It can run both as a standalone full-page visualization and as an embedded component inside other webpages and online applications (like Google Spreadsheets or iGoogle).
Rhizosphere is small and fast: once minified and gzipped, the library is 26Kb on the wire (as of October 2010). We aim to provide sub-second performance for all the operations supported by the visualization, even when handling large datasets with thousands of datapoints.
Rhizosphere is flexible: we'd like to let you visualize your data no matter where you keep them and what format you are using to store them.
Rhizosphere is open. You're free to modify the source code and use it within your own projects according to terms of the Apache2 License. We welcome all sorts of contributions, from fixes to documentation typos to code patches: have a look at how to Contribute.
Motivation
Rhizosphere is driven by 5 main reasons:
- Data Overload: The cloud of data that links to our digital identity is getting bigger and bigger: pictures, documents, contacts, searches, shopping items... We dive deeper and deeper to find the needles we are looking for in our digital haystack. Structured and entity search become more relevant.
- Mobile and Cloud: Internet-connected mobile devices with advanced capabilities (touch-enabled smartphones and tablets) are the Next Big Thing. It shouldn't matter whether you are in front of your desktop or on the run, you should always be able to visualize the data you need.
- New interaction patterns: Ever increasing personal digital clouds, touch interfaces and the spread of native apps for mobile devices have changed the way users look for information. Interaction is now much stronger and physical. They no longer browse for information, they manipulate it.
- Simplicity: No matter how complex is the data you want to visualize and how hidden are the patterns you want to explore, you should be able to explore them with simplicity and ease without having to read a 200 pages manual to understand how the tool works.
- Speed: HTML5 and continuous speed improvements make browsers capable of rivaling native applications, in terms of interaction and speed. But they surpass native applications in portability and reach.
Next ...
Start by having a look at the library Features.