NodeXL: Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel

Commented Unassigned: NodeXL stops downloading due to a networkerror [24337]

TJ013 — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:28:15 GMT

Hi, I'm trying to download NodeXL Excel Template version 1.0.1.238, but downloading stops at 1.8 MB due to a networkerror. Any idea what's going wrong and how I can fix it?
Comments: ** Comment from web user: TJ013 **

Tried it at home and everything worked fine. Think it has something to do with downloadrestrictions at work. Thanks for the support!

Commented Unassigned: NodeXL stops downloading due to a networkerror [24337]

tcap479 — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:09:26 GMT

The download worked fine for me when I tried it a few minutes ago and I haven't heard of others having problems with it, so my first guesses would be that 1) there was a network glitch when you tried it; or 2) there is a problem with the network on your end.

Please try downloading it again, and if the problem recurs, try connecting your computer to another wireless network, assuming that's how you're connected. If it still doesn't download and you're at work, try downloading it at home, or vice versa.

-- Tony

New Post: twitter rate limit and vertex relationship??

MarcSmith — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:31:01 GMT

Twitter controls what data it provides, and it delivers data with several limitations. First is the limit on total tweets delivered, which is set at 1,500 tweets under Twitter API 1.0 and has risen to 18,000 tweets under Twitter API 1.1. If your topic was discussed slowly at first and then became popular you could query at time 1 and get 4 days and query again at time 2 and only get 1 hour, if 1,500 tweets occurred in that time. Second, the total collection of tweets is somewhat random, not all tweets are delivered the same for two identical queries. Third, repeating a query at a later time is likely to generate different results.

The latest versions of NodeXL now make use of the 1.1 API which has changed the rules again, making the query for the "Follows" relationship pretty much impossible to use. On the positive side, the new versions of NodeXL using the latest Twitter API can get larger volumes of tweets (when they exist).

Regards,
Marc

New Post: twitter rate limit and vertex relationship??

kyoki5290 — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:38:37 GMT

Tony,

I did try the "since-until" method but it yielded the same results as yesterday--I only acquired data for 5/22/2013. It gave me about 101 rows of data when I should have gotten more than a thousand rows. I went ahead and did the same thing but changed the dates from 5/19/2013 to 5/20/2013 and only got 14 rows of data, when I know I should have received hundreds. I never had this problem before so I'm not sure what's causing it? All the previous times gave me data on a span of about 5 days.

Any other help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

-Aliya

Commented Unassigned: Importing Twitter date ranges [24333]

cclark1 — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:59:00 GMT

Hi,

I'm fairly new to Node XL and I'm trying to import Twitter data ranging from May 2nd-8th 2013 but Node XL imported only these past 5 days (May 18th-22nd). I don't understand why it's doing that? Why can I not obtain the date range I want? I'm searching #BRK2013 and @WarrenBuffett starting May 2nd for the 2013 Berkshire-Hathaway Annual Shareholder Meeting. I'd really appreciate it if someone could explain how I can import certain date ranges?

Thank you! :-)

C.Clark
Comments: ** Comment from web user: cclark1 **

Tony,

Thank you for your help!!! :-)

C.Clark

Created Unassigned: NodeXL stops downloading due to a networkerror [24337]

TJ013 — Thu, 23 May 2013 09:36:43 GMT

Hi, I'm trying to download NodeXL Excel Template version 1.0.1.238, but downloading stops at 1.8 MB due to a networkerror. Any idea what's going wrong and how I can fix it?

Commented Unassigned: Importing Twitter date ranges [24333]

tcap479 — Thu, 23 May 2013 04:21:18 GMT

Those are certainly good questions, but you're asking them in the wrong place. You might be able to get more information about Twitter's policies on the Twitter discussion forums, which you can find here:

https://dev.twitter.com/discussions

-- Tony

New Post: twitter rate limit and vertex relationship??

tcap479 — Thu, 23 May 2013 00:48:20 GMT

Aliya:

Please see if this discussion answers your question:

https://nodexl.codeplex.com/discussions/442022

-- Tony

New Post: twitter rate limit and vertex relationship??

kyoki5290 — Wed, 22 May 2013 17:09:20 GMT

Hello! I have one more question. I was reading on another post that you cannot choose specific dates for twitter data. However, on a few NodeXL projects I was working on a few weeks ago, I got twitter results based on a span of about 3-4 days. (Like if I did NodeXL on Thursday, twitter would give me data from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday). But when I attempted this again, I am only getting twitter data from today (5/22/2013). Can you please explain why I'm not getting data from yesterday and the day before? Thanks!

-Aliya

Commented Unassigned: Importing Twitter date ranges [24333]

cclark1 — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:28:45 GMT

Tony,

Thank you for the quick response! Is that something that might change in the future? Or is that set in stone by Twitter's limitation policy? I'm curious just curious, what's the reasoning for the Twitter limitation?

C.Clark

New Post: Error trying to handle VertexClick event

tcap479 — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:24:51 GMT

Your guess is correct. Unfortunately, I can't think of a way to change the default behavior of the VertexClick event without modifying and recompiling the NodeXL source code.

A possible workaround is to handle the GraphMouseUp event instead of VertexClick. In my brief look at the source code (NodeXLControl.OnMouseUp(), which is at http://nodexl.codeplex.com/SourceControl/latest#362025 as of today), it doesn't look like the vertex will be redrawn in the default code. I'm not sure about that, but it might be worth a try. Of course, you would then get your group collapse on mouse up instead of mouse down.

Another option is to display a context menu in a GraphMouseUp handler and show a "Collapse Group" item in your menu.

-- Tony

New Post: NodeXLControl Vertices with same location when animating graph.

tcap479 — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:04:32 GMT

And thank you for letting me know the outcome. As I mentioned, I'm not sure of a good long-term fix (everything I've thought of has drawbacks), but now I know what to recommend if other programmers encounter this behavior.

-- Tony

Commented Unassigned: Error occurring when I Export Selection to a New NodeXL WorkBook [24327]

tcap479 — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:02:14 GMT

Hi,

I need to export a selected subgraph, but when I click "Export Selection to a New NodeXL WorkBook" unexpected problem occurred.
Comments: ** Comment from web user: tcap479 **

Thank you for letting me know, António.

-- Tony

Commented Unassigned: Importing Twitter date ranges [24333]

tcap479 — Wed, 22 May 2013 15:01:20 GMT

Twitter won't provide NodeXL with tweets older than nine days, and the period can be even shorter than that. Here is how Twitter describes the limits in their documentation (https://dev.twitter.com/docs/using-search):

"The Search API is not complete index of all Tweets, but instead an index of recent Tweets. At the moment that index includes between 6-9 days of Tweets. You cannot use the Search API to find Tweets older than about a week."

(The "Search API" is something NodeXL uses to get data from Twitter).

There is no way I know of to work around this Twitter-imposed limitation when using NodeXL.

-- Tony

Created Unassigned: Importing Twitter date ranges [24333]

cclark1 — Wed, 22 May 2013 14:45:16 GMT

New Post: Error trying to handle VertexClick event

Rbottema — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:20:31 GMT

Hello,

In a WPF project we are working with groups and we want to collapse them easily by clicking. So far it works using the following code:

private void nodeXLControl_VertexClick(object sender, VertexEventArgs vertexEventArgs)
{
    var groups = GroupUtil.GetGroups(nodeXLControl.Graph);
    var dict = GroupUtil.GetGroupIndexDictionary(groups);
    int groupID = -1;
    dict.TryGetValue(vertexEventArgs.Vertex.ID, out groupID);
    GroupInfo group = (GroupInfo) groups.GetValue(groupID);
    nodeXLControl.CollapseGroup(group.Name, true);
}

When binded to hovering it works, but when the event is binded to the VertexClick event, it throws an exception:

Smrf.NodeXL.Visualization.Wpf.VertexDrawer.TryDrawVertex: The vertex doesn't belong to a graph. It can't be drawn.

This is probably because NodeXL tries to select the vertex after it has collapsed it, so essentially removing it from the graph. Is there a way to stop the propagation of the event further on to NodeXL, or to change the default behavior?

New Post: NodeXLControl Vertices with same location when animating graph.

TonyDaviesHP — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:40:06 GMT

Tony,

I have updated the code using the workarounds (both of them for luck) and the issues have been fully resolved. Once again thanks for the prompt and detailed responses.

Tony D.

Commented Unassigned: Error occurring when I Export Selection to a New NodeXL WorkBook [24327]

afonsocosta — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:05:02 GMT

Hi,

I need to export a selected subgraph, but when I click "Export Selection to a New NodeXL WorkBook" unexpected problem occurred.
Comments: ** Comment from web user: afonsocosta **

Thanks! I changed my pc to english and the problem was solved.

Thanks,

António

Commented Unassigned: Error occurring when I Export Selection to a New NodeXL WorkBook [24327]

tcap479 — Tue, 21 May 2013 01:09:30 GMT

Hi,

I need to export a selected subgraph, but when I click "Export Selection to a New NodeXL WorkBook" unexpected problem occurred.
Comments: ** Comment from web user: tcap479 **

This might be a bug in NodeXL related to language. The feature works fine on my English computers, but I haven't tried it on a Portuguese computer. (I *think* that's the language in your screenshot.)

Can you please try temporarily switching your computer's Region and Language format to English, then try using Export Selection to New NodeXL Workbook again. (Instructions are below.) I'm not suggesting this as a long-term fix, but it might be a temporary workaround for you, and it will tell me how to describe the problem in the bug report I'll file.

Thanks,
Tony

1. In the Windows Start menu, go to Control Panel, Region and Language. (Unfortunately, I don't know the names in your language.)

2. In the Region and Language dialog box, go to the Formats tab.

3. In the Formats tab, set "Format" to "English (United States)".

Updated Wiki: NodeXL Teaching Resources

shakmatt — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:02:48 GMT

NodeXL Teaching Resources

A number of instructors have been using NodeXL to help teach social network analysis. It is relatively easy to use compared to many other network analysis and visualization tools, while still providing a rich set of metrics and visualization features. It is also free and integrates with the already familiar Excel 2007 or 2010. This page is meant to collect information that can be useful in teaching with NodeXL. Please email Derek Hansen (shakmatt@gmail.com) if you have been using NodeXL in your teaching or have resources that may be helpful to other instructors.

Derek Hansen, Ben Shneiderman, and Marc Smith have written a book titled Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World published by Morgan Kaufmann. The book includes 3 parts: Part 1 introduces social media and network analysis, Part 2 is a tutorial introducing core network concepts while walking through the major features of NodeXL, and Part 3 is a collection of case studies written by various network experts analyzing different social media tools (e.g., email, forums, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, wikis, and hyperlink networks). If you are planning on using the book in any classes please send me a note indicating the class you'll be using it in and I'll add you to the list below. The datasets used in the book are included below.

Book Slides with Images

Slides from Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a Connected World that include all images and their descriptions are below:

NodeXL Sample Files (version 1.0.1.219 or later, for 32-bit or 64-bit machines)

IMPORTANT NOTE: After downloading these files make sure and use the Import --> "From NodeXL Workbook Created On Another Computer" to open the files. This will create your own copy and make sure that these versions open well in the most recent version of NodeXL that you have hopefully downloaded. Make sure you are using version 1.0.1.219 or later.

Kite Network dataset - the simple kite networks used to teach basic network metrics
Serious Eats dataset - a multimodal network connecting people to blogs and/or forums
US Senate 2007 dataset - the co-voting network of US Senators in 2007
Les Miserable co-appearance network - the network of characters in Victor Hugo's book based on their appearing in the same scenes together.
css-d_email list network - a network of those posting to the css-d email list in Jan and Feb of 2007 (email addresses are anonymized)
ABC-D_email list network - Discussion list network discussed in Chapter 9 of the book. Note that Eigenvector centrality is calculated slightly differently, as is Betweeness Centrality (which used to be normalized to the node with the highest score, but no longer is).
Ravelry_Raw - Raw bimodal dataset of Ravelry users connected to 3 different discussion forum groups (discussed in Chapter 9 of book).
Ravelry Completed - Ravelry dataset and completed visualization that matches Figure 9.10 in book.
The following Enron Datasets are based on a subset of all available Enron email messages coded by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley (see
http://bailando.sims.berkeley.edu/enron_email.html). Slight variations in numbers of email messages may result from different ways of handling non-standard email messages.
Enron_Dataset_Unfiltered - includes all 1,801 edges derived from work-related messages occurring later in the collection that discuss the California Energy Crisis.
Enron_Dataset_FERC_only - includes subset of unfiltered dataset that includes the term FERC somewhere in the email message (this is the one analyzed in Chapter 8 of the book).
Enron raw messages - Raw Enron messages that can be imported into NodeXL as described in Chapter 8 of the book)

A very large and growing collection of images and NodeXL files are uploaded to the NodeXL Graph Gallery. Click on the image you like and look for the Download as NodeXL file link at the bottom of the page. Many of these graphs show off NodeXL's latest features which are not covered in the book.

Other Files of Interest

Serious Eats Affiliation Matrix Example - an Excel file that shows how to transform the bimodal Serious Eats data into two unimodal networks of people-to-people and forum-to-forum

Assignments based on NodeXL

Feel free to use and/or modify the assignments provided below with proper attribution. If you have your own assignments to share please send them to Derek Hansen at shakmatt@gmail.com

Facebook assignment for beginners. (see IT 101_Facebook_Lab.docx). This assignment was created by Derek Hansen for BYU's IT 101 students who have never been exposed to network analysis before. Students can complete it with some training in approximately 1-3 hours.
Advanced visualization, analysis, and interpretation assignment. (see Social Network Analysis Homework Assignment.docx). This assignment was created by Derek Hansen for BYU's IT 515R: Web and Social Media Analytics course. Students work on this for several weeks. Ideally they will first get feedback from peers and the instructor on the goals of their analysis and the data they'll be using. Next they create a draft visualization that is shared with their classmates and the instructor for feedback. Finally, they present the results to the class and post them to the NodeXL Graph Gallery (after anonymizing data if it is private).

Courses that Use NodeXL

Social Media Analytics, Fall 2012, State University of New York at Buffalo. Instructor: Sanjukta Smith
Web and Social Media Analytics (IT515R), Winter 2012, Fall 2012, Brigham Young University's Information Technology Program. Instructor: Derek Hansen
Social Network Analysis for Engineers, Summer 2012, University of Tokyo's School of Engineering. Instructor: Petr Matous
Network Analysis of Social Media Data, Winter 2012, University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Instructor: Itai Himelboim
Communities of Practice (LBSC 708P), Spring 2009, Summer 2010, Spring 2011, University of Maryland's iSchool. Instructor: Derek Hansen
Complex Systems in Business (BMGT808L), Spring 2009, University of Maryland's Smith School of Business. Instructor: Bill Rand
Social Networks (SOC709), Fall 2009, University of Maryland's Sociology. Instructor: Alan Neustadtl
Social Computing and Web 2.0 (BUDT 758v), Fall 2009, University of Maryland's Smith School of Business. Instructor: Xiaoqing Wang
Social Networks (COM 380/580), Spring 2011, Illinois Institute of Technology's Communication Department. Instructor: Libby Hemphill. Syllabus
Group Processes (Sociology 419/519), Fall 2009, Ohio University, Instructor: Howard Welser
Principles of Marketing and Retail / Distribution Management, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa's Shidler College of Business, Instructor: Jennifer D. Chandler
Communication in Groups & Organizations, Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, Instructor: Robert Kraut
Social Network Analysis (IEMS 341/COMM 395 & IEMS 441/COMM 525), Northwestern University's Industrial Engineering & Management Science and Communication Studies, Instructor: Noshir Contractor (with graduate student Brian Keegan)
Journalism in the Networked World (JOUR 390), Northwestern University's Journalism School, Instructor: Rich Gordon (with graduate student Brian Keegan)
Online Research Methods (DEMO8087), Australia National University's Australian Demographics and Social Research Institute, Instructor: Robert Ackland
Special Topic in Social Research (DEMO8081), Australia National University's Australian Demographics and Social Research Institute, Instructor: Robert Ackland
Six Degrees of Separation (UHON 350), Fall 2010, Southern Illinois University. Instructor: Scott McClurg.
Project Strategy module course, VIA University College, Denmark. Instructor: Peter G. Harboe
Data Analytics (LIS 7491), Winter 2011, Winter 2012, Wayne State's School of Library and Information Science. Instructor: John H. Heinrichs
Business Analytics (MIMS2010SBA), IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, Instructor: Jie Mein Goh
Literature in a Wired World (ENGL278W), University of Maryland's Department of English, Instructor: Marc Ruppel
Information Visualization (ITCS 4121/5121), Spring 2011, University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Instructor: Jing Yang
Social Networks - Theories and Applications (COMM3342), Spring 2011, University of Texas at Dallas. Instructor: Cuihua (Cindy) Shen.
Current Trends in Social Computing (IS30290), Term 2, 2012-2013, UCD School of Information & Library Science. Instructor: Eric Cook.

See Courses on Social Network Analysis for a list of Social Network Analysis courses more generally.

Selected NodeXL Publications

Himelboim, I., McCreery, S., & Smith, M. (2013). Birds of a feather tweet together: Integrating network and content analyses to examine cross-ideology exposure on Twitter. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 18(2), 40-60. DOI: 10.1111/jcc4.12001
Bonsignore, EM, Dunne, C, Rotman, D, Smith, M, Capone, T, Hansen, DL, Shneiderman, B (2009). First Steps to NetViz Nirvana: Evaluating Social Network Analysis with NodeXL. International Symposium on Social Intelligence and Networking (SIN09), Aug 29-31, Vancouver, Canada.

Smith, M, Shneiderman, B, Milic-Frayling, N, Rodrigues, E, Barash, V, Dunne, C, Capone, T, Perer, A, Gleave, E (April 2009). Analyzing (Social Media) Networks with NodeXL. Proc. Communities & Technologies Conference, Springer (June 2009).

Hansen, DL (2011) Exploring social media relationships, 43-51. In On the Horizon 19 (1).

Hansen, DL, Smith, MA, Shneiderman, B (2011) EventGraphs: Charting Collections of Conference Connections. In Forty-Forth Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS). Also see EventGraph SlideShare Presentation

Hansen, DL, Shneiderman, B, Smith, MA (2010) Visualizing threaded conversation networks: mining message boards and email lists for actionable insights, 47-62. In Proc. Active Media Technology 2010, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6335.

Hansen, D, Rotman, D, Bonsignore, E, Milic-Frayling, N, Rodrigues, E, Smith, M, Shneiderman, B (Submitted). Do You Know the Way to SNA?: A Process Model for Analyzing and Visualizing Social Media Data. HCIL-2009-17 Tech Report.