PHP Library to Generate xdot Files From dot Files

Question

Apologies in advance is I'm misusing terminology, and corrections are appreciated. I'm fascinated by directed graphs, but I never has the math/cs background to know what they're really about, I just like the tech because it makes useful diagrams.

I'm trying to create a web application feature that will render a dynamic directed graph to the browser. I recently discovered Canviz, which is a cavas based xdot renderer, which I'd like to use.

Canviz is awesome, but it renders xdot files, which (appear?) to contain all the complicated positioning logic

/* example xdot file */
digraph abstract {
    graph [size="6,6"];
    node [label="\N"];
    graph [bb="0,0,1250,612",
        _draw_="c 9 -#ffffffff C 9 -#ffffffff P 4 0 -1 0 612 1251 612 1251 -1 ",
        xdotversion="1.2"];
    S1 [pos="464,594", width="0.75", height="0.5", _draw_="c 9 -#000000ff e 464 594 27 18 ", _ldraw_="F 14.000000 11 -Times-Roman c 9 -#000000ff T 464 588 0 15 2 -S1 "];
    10 [pos="409,522", width="0.75", height="0.5", _draw_="c 9 -#000000ff e 409 522 27 18 ", _ldraw_="F 14.000000 11 -Times-Roman c 9 -#000000ff T 409 516 0 15 2 -10 "];

    S1 -> 10 [pos="e,421.43,538.27 451.52,577.66 444.49,568.46 435.57,556.78 427.71,546.5", _draw_="c 9 -#000000ff B 4 452 578 444 568 436 557 428 546 ", _hdraw_="S 5 -solid c 9 -#000000ff C 9 -#000000ff P 3 430 544 421 538 425 548 "];
}

The files I'm generating with my application are dot files, which contain none of this positioning logic

digraph g {

    ranksep=6
    node [
        fontsize = "16"
        shape = "rectangle"
        width =3
        height =.5
    ];
    edge [
    ];

    S1 -> 10
}    

I'm looking for a PHP library that can convert my dot file into an xdot file that can be consumed by Canviz. I realize that the command line program dot can do this, but this is for a redistributable PHP web application, and I'd prefer to avoid any binaries as dependencies.

My core problem: I'm generating dot files based on simple directed relationships, and I want to display the visual graph to end users in a browser. I'd like to do this without having to rely on the presence of a particular binary program on the server. I think the best solution for this is Canviz+PHP to generate xdot files. I'm looking for a PHP library that can do this. However, I'm more than open to other solutions.

Answer 1

Have you looked at Image_GraphViz ? It's really just a wrapper for the binary, but from the look of things, I don't think you'll find something better and this at least keeps you from having to do direct command line calls from your PHP script.

 $dot_obj = new Image_GraphViz();
 $dot_obj -> load('path/to/graph.gv');
 $xdot = $dot_obj -> fetch('xdot');