RADAR: Radial applications´ depiction around relations for data-centric ecosystems

A data-centric ecosystem is the configuration of a central database along with all the applications that operate on top of it and are (a) dependent upon the database for performing their task appropriately and (b) closely related in terms of coding to the database. This paper presents first results towards addressing the issue of visualization of such a data-centric ecosystem in a reference “map”. We map SQL queries and relations to a graph and present alternative algorithms for the visualization of the graph. First we start with a barycenter-based method that puts all queries in a line and all relations in a parallel line, in a way that closely put nodes are the ones that are most similar (within the same line) and closely related (across lines). Then, we move on to extend it with a variant that involves multiple lines for the queries. Finally, we present our main algorithm Concentric Radial, for placing queries and relations in multiple concentric circles. This arrangement allows the extensibility of the diagram and the exploitation of the canvas, the customization to alternative application needs, and, finally serves better the purpose of spatial memory.