 |
|
|
 |
What's New?
Terminate Query
Terminate Query is one of our most-requested features. This feature allows you to stop various service events (or execution tasks),
as desired. VisuaLinks runs in a multi-thread environment. As such, you can have multiple services running concurrently (Database Query,
Network Miner, Summarize, etc.). However, processing large data sets can be very time consuming. We introduced the Terminate Query tool to
help you manage the tasks being processed by various services. When activated, Terminate Query stops any activities (events) that might be
underway at that moment for the selected service, or services. To use the Terminate Query feature, click the Terminate Query icon and choose
the service, or services, you want to terminate. The Terminate Query icon is located in the upper, right-corner of the VisuaLinks interface:
The Terminate Query icon brings up the "Stop Events For Selected Services" window, as shown below:
This window lets you:
- Terminate all services executed by the current user. The user name checkbox (in Figure 2, the user name jqpublic
(Jane Q. Public) is shown) terminates all services for Jane Q. Public.
- Terminate individual services executed by the current user. Each service you want to terminate can be selected using the
checkbox next to the service name.
For example, assume the user has initiated a Cross Database Query request. While processing, the user clicks the
 icon and selects the
checkbox next to "Cross Database Query." Once the Yes button is clicked, the Terminate Query does two things:
- Stops the processing logic within VisuaLinks and terminates the selected event.
- Sends a terminate request to the database driver to release all the resources. If supported by the specific
database server, this will terminate any database processing associated with the service.
When the termination completes, the status will be displayed in the Status Bar (at the bottom of the VisuaLinks window).
Terminate Query is a very powerful tool that helps you manage day-to-day functions.
|
|
|
 |
Here are a few tips and tricks to help you use VisuaLinks quickly and more efficiently.
|
 |
How Many Objects Are There?
VisuaLinks 3.0 lets you display a summary of the objects and associations currently displayed in the View.
From the View menu, choose Show Statistics. An example of the results is shown below.
|
|
What's in that Model?
You can now review the design and content of a model without opening the Model Wizard. Any where that you
select a model for an activity (Database Query, Network Miner, etc.), you can also click the
 icon to display the structure of the currently selected model.
The following three figures illustrate this new feature.
|
|
|
Where did the Service Center Go?
In VisuaLinks 3.0, the services are displayed in a panel. This keeps the service icons at your "fingertips" at all times.
Click the Services tab in the panels (on the left) to bring the services forward.
|
|
|
|
 |
This month, we take a quick tour of VisuaLinks 3.0, due out in just a few weeks. In our What's New section, we look at several
specific features. Here, we will give you a whirlwind tour of our latest version.
The first thing you'll likely notice about VisuaLinks 3.0 is the substantial changes to the user interface. VisuaLinks 3.0 now
supports Advanced and Beginner user levels.
The Beginner level sports a reduced number of icons and features. The following fiqure shows the default settings for both.
The next change you might notice is that there is no Service Center window. The Service Center has moved to a panel,
keeping it at your "fingertips" rather than requiring you to access a menu to open the Service Center.
The image at left shows the Services Panel. This panel responds to the Beginner and Advanced user level
settings, reducing the number of icons available in Beginner mode. This is shown in the first image, above.
We have also streamlined the toolbars, collapsing the previous three toolbars into two toolbars.
The new Presentation tools are available in their own toolbar at the bottom-right of the View, as shown below.
You might also notice changes to the Placement Settings Panel (shown at right). You'll see that we've added two new placement
settings: Centrality, incorporating our Social Networking Analysis feature, and Parallel Coordinates, which shows the discrete
values of each object in the View and very quickly highlights common values. These placement settings will be covered in a
future edition of the LinkLetter.
Additionally, there is context-sensitive help available for each placement. Clicking the Help button at the bottom of the
panel displays help specific to the currently-selected placement.
Next, you might notice some changes to the Main Menu as well as the addition of a new menu bar in the View area.
The new View menus consolidate a number of View manipulation functions into one place. These menus
will be described in detail in future issues of the LinkLetter.
|
|
 |
This month we discuss one of the most powerful new features of VisuaLinks 3.0: integration with our Digital Information Gateway
(DIG) product. VisuaLinks 3.0 allows you to query DIG as a data source - as though your DIG Server was just another database
server.
The implication of this is that VisuaLinks can now query both structured and non-structured (text) data sources and display
the results in a link chart format. Additionally, because of DIG's new Server-to-Server capability, a single query to a
DIG server can automatically query multiple other DIG servers in the same or other agencies.
Our link chart will demonstrate the value of this by following a law enforcement investigation from querying local data to
querying remote databases and text sources in other agencies.
We start our analysis by querying against our local case database for Joe Crook. This is an open case we are currently
investigating. The figure below shows the results of this query.
We can see that Joe Crook has been arrested once and is affiliate with two cases. Additionally, we know of one address
for Joe and find that two vehicles are referenced in the two cases we have for Mr. Crook.
Note that the case files (shown as file folders in the images in this article) are composed of both structured data from
databases as well as data pulled from unstructured sources (e.g., word processing documents).
The next step in our analysis is to execute data walks against neighboring law enforcement agencies for relationships with
the objects in our analysis so far. Our agency maintains DIG Server-to-Server configurations with a number of other agencies.
Our first data walk will be to the Smallville Police Department. The figure below shows the results of that data walk.
As you can see, we find additional affiliations for Joe Crook. We see that there are three cases and one arrest for two of
the subjects we located. We also see a phone number, three addresses, an organization (e.g., a gang) and other subjects.
Unlike the cases we queried in our local databases, the cases in our data walk to the Smallville PD does not include the
actual case information. However, we do see a "Pointer" that instructs us to contact Sgt. Fred Friday to get additional
information.
During our conversation with Sgt. Friday, he informs us that he is aware of related activity for some of the subjects we
acquired from their DIG Server in Whoville. He explains that their Whoville DIG connection is not yet available.
Luckily, our Whoville PD connection was installed last week.
We conducted a data walk from this link chart to the Whoville DIG Server. The results are shown below.
Our data walk to the Whoville PD DIG Server bears up the suspicions of Sgt. Friday. There is, in fact, data related to these
subjects at the Whoville PD. Again, we don't see all the data, but we do get a pointer reference to Lt. Greg Gannon for
further information.
Our conversations with Sgt. Friday and Lt. Gannon ultimately lead to the creation of a multi-jurisdictional task force to
investigate the illegal activities of Mr. Crook and his associates. During the course of the investigation, the investigative
work-product data is saved to local databases for each agency involved.
With some simple configuration changes at each of the DIG Servers, all investigators at each contributing agency are given
read access to the data for this investigation. Though data is saved locally, in various database formats, all agencies are
kept apprised of the progress of the case through the DIG-to-VisuaLinks interface as well as through customized DIG reports
that summarize ongoing case data.
Although this scenario has not occurred, yet, the technology and capabilities discussed are real and are available today.
We have demonstrated the ability to query DIG Servers through VisuaLinks. Additionally, with the DIG "Server-to-Server"
capability, the queries and data walks conducted through the VisuaLinks-to-DIG interface actually transparently queried
multiple DIG Servers. With a single VisuaLinks query we were able to simulate pulling data from multiple agencies simultaneously.
With the release of VisuaLinks 3.0, Visual Analytics' technologies are paving the way for graphical analysis in a Virtual
Data Warehouse - data stored in disparate locations and in disparate formats made available homogeneously through VisuaLinks
and DIG.
|
|
|
 |
|
