New release changes

• New intuitive, feature richer graphical interface
• Improved mouse interaction, node and link properties can be edited using the context menu of the mouse
• Toolbars allow the users to quickly get to the features they need
• Keyboard shortcuts help frequent users to quickly interact with Cuttlefish
• Major bug fixes
• Better input validation

You can download Cuttlefish 2.0 from the sourceforge website: http://cuttlefish.sourceforge.net/

Below you will find a quick overview of the new features supported in the new version of Cuttlefish.

Main window

The screenshot to the right shows the new graphical interface of Cuttlefish. It has a menu on the top where you can find all Cuttlefish features. Cuttlefish has several toolbars: Mouse toolbar, zoom toolbar, simulation toolbar, and database toolbar. The first two can be used with any network, toolbars can be dragged around the window and can be closed if you do not need them. The simulation toolbar and the database toolbar (not displayed on the screenshot to the right) are available when you work with a Simulation or a Database network, respectively.

The mouse toolbar allows you to switch to a different mouse mode: In transforming mouse mode you can move the network around, in picking mouse mode you can move the nodes of the network, in editing mouse mode you can add new nodes and links.

The zoom toolbar allows you to zoom in and out the network, additionally, you can refresh the network layout.

Context mouse menu

A new context mouse menu allows you to edit the properties of nodes and links. A right click on a node or a link displays a menu with available options. For a node you can change the label, size, fill color, border color, border width, and shape of the selected node, for links you can edit the label, weight, width and color of the selected link.

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Cuttlefish menu

Network menu

The network menu allows you to create a new network, open an existing network, save or export the current network. The save operation is available only when you work with a network in CXF format (the official Cuttlefish file format). If you have opened a different network, e.g. a simulation or a database network, you can save the network in CXF format by using the "Save as..." option from the Network menu. The export menu allows you to export the current network into JPG or TikZ format, or to export the data representation of the network in an Adjacency list or Edge list format. On the right you see several screenshots of the Network menu.

Layout menu

From the Layout menu you can choose one of the available layouts in Cuttlefish, you can also Restart the layout. The Restart layout will automatically place the network in the center of the Cuttlefish window and will reset the Zoom to 1.

View menu

From the view menu you can hide/show toolbars. Toolbars that cannot be used in the current context, e.g. Simulation toolbar or the Database toolbar when you work on a CXF network, are marked as not available.

Database networks

Connecting to a database

The graphical interface of the database feature is entirely redesigned. When you choose to use a database network, first you have to enter the database connection information, e.g. URL, username, and password, before proceeding ahead. Note that the Database URL consist of the hostname and the database schema to which you want to connect, for instance, if you want to connect to a database running on the local machine and the database schema is foo, you will type "localhost/foo" in the Database URL field (and don't type the quotes :) ). If the information that you provided is incorrect, Cuttlefish reports a connection error and you need to correct the wrong information.

Database toolbar

After successfully connecting to the database, the Database toolbar appears on the top of the Cuttlefish window. Two drop-down menus allow you to choose the table that stores nodes' information and the table that stores the links' information. When you connect to the database, Cuttlefish automatically scans the database meta-data and finds tables that match the structure of nodes/links tables. For more information visit the database information page in the Wiki.

The database toolbar has four icons:expand, expand backward, shrink, shrink backward, and two buttons: Explore Network and Explore Node. The two buttons are available only after you have selected nodes and links table from the drop down menus.

Exploring a network

After clicking on Explore Network, the explore network window appears; see the screenshot to the right. In this window you can select various filters that are applied to nodes and links. For instance, you can filter nodes by their id, label, size, etc., after choosing a filter, you need to click on the Add button to the right. You can add multiple filters to form a conjunction of filter criteria. At any point, you can remove all filters by clicking on the Clear button.

Important to note is that at the bottom of the window Cuttlefish shows the number of nodes and links that are selected. If you have selected too many nodes, Cuttlefish displays a warning, to reduce the number of selected nodes/links you can add more filters.

Exploring a node

After clicking on Explore Node, the explore node window appears, as shown in the screenshots. You need to enter the id of the node that you want to explore and the distance at which you want to explore, e.g. Node Id 12 with distance 2 will display the node with Id 12 and all nodes that are at most 2 hops away from node 12. Note that again Cuttlefish shows the number of selected nodes and links. In case you select too many nodes, Cuttlefish will warn you.

If you select a node Id that does not exist in the database, Cuttlefish will inform you that the provided Id is invalid. The entered distance must be a positive integer.