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summon.js


What is summon.js

summon.js is a javascript library that provides rapid prototyping of 2D visualizations. summon.js gives the user an "infinite white board" on which to draw. The user can then scroll and zoom through the drawing similar to Google Maps. This very simple form of interaction actually covers a surprisingly wide variety of visualizations commonly encountered in scientific settings. For example, this user interface works well for many visualizations in computational biology, such as phylogenetic trees, hierarchical clustering trees, sequence alignments, large heatmaps, and tracks within genome browsers.

Another subtle feature is that zooming can also be done independently along horizontal and vertical axes. Therefore, the user can plot in the coordinate system most comfortable for the context. This reduces effort in planning out pixel real estate. In addition, text labels are also designed to resize themselves automatically based on the current view or even clip if the text is not sufficiently large.

summon.js is currently under frequent development. See more details on the github page. This library was inspired by the python module of the same name: SUMMON.

Examples

Here are a few simple examples of summon.js in use: 01_basics.html, 02_basics.html, and 03_tree.html.
Last Updated: Sat Aug 18 21:50:44 EDT 2012