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Coordinated Multiple Views

Vitessce supports coordinated multiple views, meaning that visualizations can be linked together on many properties. The implementation of coordinated multiple views in Vitessce follows a coordination model proposed by Boukhelifa and Rodgers (Information Visualization 2003).

Graph Representation​

The coordination model can be represented as a graph in which there are three types of nodes: coordination types, coordination scopes, and views.

Coordination model as graph representation - multiple coordination types - node encoding

Glossary​

The following terms have been adapted from the information visualization literature and are used throughout the Vitessce documentation.

Coordination Model​

The approach or architecture used to achieve view coordination (Roberts 2007).

Coordination Type​

The property or parameter being coordinated, such as "spatial rotation" or "heatmap zoom" or "gene expression colormap". Vitessce further requires that coordination type values conform to a JSON schema, for instance a primitive number or a more complex array or object schema. The Coordination Types page lists all coordinate-able properties.

Coordination Scope​

A named instance of a coordination type. Each (coordination type, view) tuple may map onto a different coordination scope. Views are "coordinated" if they are linked to a common coordination scope. Views may update their (coordination type, coordination scope) tuples if changes to the coordinated view connections are initiated by the user.

Coordination Value​

The value of a given coordination scope at a given time.

Coordination Object​

The container for a particular coordination type and its associated coordination scopes & values. Each coordination type has one coordination object.

Coordination Space​

The container for all coordination objects in a visualization system. In Vitessce, the coordination space is stored in the view config in a serializable JSON format.

Translation Function​

A function that translates values between the coordination space and a visualization implementation. Coordination values may be stored in an abstract format rather than the format required for any particular view. For this reason, coordinated views must define a translation function for each coordination type, which maps coordination values onto the native format used by the view. In the simplest case the identity function may be used.