A Graph Based MindMap using Rails, Devise, and Neo4j¶ ↑
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Ruby version 2.3.1
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Rails version 4.2.6
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Neo4j - community latest is accessed
This is a very simple app that demonstrates a basic mindmap as a graph with a basic visualization tool. This has become more of a “proof of concept” than an actual MVP. I hope to continue to iterate on this in the future, but for now it provides a way to input and display graph relationships between nodes.
To try this out for yourself:
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clone or copy the repo
git clone https://github.com/SilverFox70/gestalt-graph.git -
bundle -
rake neo4j:install[community-latest] -
rake neo4j:start -
rails s
Visit localhost:7474 to see the Neo4j browser/dashboard
Visit localhost:3000 to test login/sign up.
As a helpful reminder, to avoid future frustration whenever you are using Neo4j, always be sure to also shut down the Neo4j server when you exit out of rails. I have noticed that if you fail to do this and the computer crashes, you might lose the data in your neo4j graph.
rake neo4j:stop
How to use this app¶ ↑
Login or sign up, and select “create map”. Go into your map and you will see options to add a new node. You can also create “categories”. You can edit nodes and their relationships quite easily, although to “see” what you have done, you will want to “View Graph”. Currently the D3 based force layout is pretty bare bones, and you might honestly be better served by viewing your graph at localhost:7474 via the Neo4j browswer.
A note on “security”: There are very few checks for authorization/authentication along the various routes. I didn’t need them for the purposes of development, but you might if you start building something new off of this.
Building an app from here…¶ ↑
Scaffolding is a quick way to generate resources if you would like to use the underlying visualization and interface to the graph database for some specific purpose:
rails g scaffold Post title:string body:string
This will scaffold the resource the same way as any Rails application except that the models will be ActiveNode models, not ActiveRecord models.
Please feel free to use a different markup language if you do not plan to run rake doc:app.