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What's New?
VAI has created icon collections on our Support Site. Anyone with access to the Downloads area of the Support Site can download these icons and use them in VisuaLinks - as object images or for any other image needs.
Here are just a couple examples of the images available:
To access the icon collections:
1. Visit the VAI Support Site at support.visualanalytics.com.
2. From the Downloads menu, choose VisuaLinks.
3. If necessary, sign in to the Support Site.
Once you have signed in, you will see the items available for download.
4. Click the Add Icons Folder.
A list of the available icon collections displays.
5. Click the name of the .zip file you want to download.
6. Save the file anywhere on your computer.
7. Extract the files.
— As a VisuaLinks Administrator, you can extract the files to the VisualClarity/AddIcons directory.
This automatically adds the new images to the Icon Palette (the list of available images displayed whenever adding an object, defining objects in the model wizard, or anywhere else in the program that you access image files).
— As a VisuaLinks user, you can extract the files to a directory of your choice.
This allows you to access the icons as locally saved images.
Additionally, some of the icons currently provided with the
VisuaLinks software will be removed from the installation in our next
release and added to our Support Site collections - to reduce the amount
of space required to install the software. This way, you can download and
use only the images that you want.
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...that you can hide all of the meta-data (auto-generated values) in any data table?
Whenever you are working with data in a data table (in Query Results, Details or Favorites), VisuaLinks
provides "meta-data" (information about the data) in a number of columns. In the following example, there are
5 meta-data columns.
To quickly hide all of these columns - without losing the information - use the Options menu to select the
Hide Generated Attributes option.
This helps to clean up the table - showing only the actual data columns - as shown below.
Simply select the Hide Generated Attributes option again to re-display the hidden columns.
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...that you can set the column display in data tables?
In addition to hiding the meta-data columns, you can also select the individual columns you want displayed
and the order in which they display.
The Column Visible Settings command gives you a number of options for setting your table column display.
This window lets you:
- Hide all columns containing values related to the objects in the table (select Hide All Object Columns)
- Hide all columns containing values related to the associations in the table (select Hide All Association Columns)
- Hide individual columns (double-click the column(s) you want to hide in the right side of the selection table)
- Set the order of the column display (click a column name in the right side of the selection table and use the up and down arrow icons to move it)
- Reset the column display (select Reorder to Natural Order)
In this example, we moved the LAST_NAME column to the beginning of the display order.
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View Query Services
When working with large amounts of data in the View, it can sometimes be difficult to visually spot an individual item.
Or, you may be interested in finding a particular object, association, or even a single value within a cluster of data.
The View Query service searches the currently loaded data for specific values in specific attributes - just as the
Database Query service (discussed in the January 2004 issue) does
on your data sources.
The View Query can be used in Basic or Advanced mode where the Basic mode is designed to be quick and easy and the
Advanced mode is designed to allow for detailed or complex searches.
To open the View Query service, click the View Query
option in the Services Panel or click the  View Query
icon in the View (vertical) Toolbar.
By default, the View Query displays only the object types currently loaded in the View.
In the Types list, you can click to select one or more object types that you want to search.
The right side of the window fills with all of the attributes available for the selected object type.
For each attribute you want to search, you can:
- Type a value you want to search against in the text box, or click the  icon to populate the box with values and
select a value to search against.
- Use the  icon to select the search operator you want to use.
You can also decide whether to return only records that match all of your search criteria or all records that
match any of your search criteria.
Once you have executed the search, any matches found are loaded into a table in the Query Results Panel.
The results table for a View Query works in the same manner as any other results table - with one addition.
In a View Query results table, the drop-down lets you choose actions to perform on specific results.
Use the drop-down to select the type of action you want to perform and then click to select the items you want the
action perform on in the table.
To select multiple items, use Ctrl + Click. To select all of the items, use the  icon.
For example, to beacon all of the results, simply choose  Beacon
and then click the icon.
The VisuaLinks View Search helps you find specific values within a set of data.
 The View Search tool is a simple "find" tool that
looks for specific values in any attribute.
Simply enter a value into the text box (at the top of the View) and click the icon.
You can also use the icon to choose a search operator
against your search value - just as with any query.
Any matches found are loaded into the Query Results Panel and can be worked with in the same manner as any other View Query results.
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Finished Intelligence (Proactive Analysis)
The following example was derived from a review of the SAR-MSBs (Suspicious Activity Reports - Money Services Businesses) dealing with all addresses located in
the 90210 ZIP code. The nature and structure of SAR-MSB filings were covered in the August 2004 and October 2003 newsletters.
The SAR-MSB database contains over 80 addresses in the 90210 ZIP code - made popular by the TV series with the same name. A partial
sample of the result set from the database is shown below. As can be seen, not all the CITY attribute values show this as
Beverly Hills because there are abbreviations including B H as well as L A and there are even values for Harbor City and South Gate.
The ZIP_SUSP_LAT and ZIP_SUSP_LONG were calculated using the Disambiguator® function for ZIP code centroid.
Selecting all the values in the results set presents each of the unique addresses as is shown in the diagram below.
In these examples the specific values (e.g., street names/numbers) are hidden from view.
At this point the data is "walked" one level to show the additional connections. In the SAR-MSB model, ADDRESSes are
directly connected to SUBJECTs which is shown as the large circle shown to the right of the ADDRESSes. Newly displayed
data is always ordered according to the number of connections - thus, there is a SUBJECT shown near the 11:30 position
that reveals multiple connections (shown with additional spacing before/after the object).
Clearly, this indicates we have a potential target entity to pursue. What is difficult to see in above diagram is whether
or not any of the ADDRESSes are connected to multiple SUBJECTs. By initiating a redraw of all the data in the display, the
following diagram emerges, which quickly reveals that there are instances of multiple connections between SUBJECTs and ADDRESSes.
The next-to-last network is of most interest because it contains a SUBJECT with connections to 5 ADDRESSes within
the 90210 ZIP code. Immediately, we know that there will also be a minimum of at least 5 SAR-MSBs because a SUBJECT
can only list one ADDRESS per SAR-MSB. Looking closely at the ADDRESSes shows that they represent the same location -
with slight variations in the street name, abbreviations, and numbers which are hidden from the label in this example.
These 5 ADDRESSes can be merged together into a single object to help clean up the screen real estate (no pun intended) in the view.
Other important visual clues to notice in this diagram include the link thickness. The thick blue link between the
SUBJECT and the ID NUMBER indicates that all 5 of the SAR-MSB transactions supported this connection (e.g., the
driver's license was presented as the identification in each of the transactions). The thick brown line from the
SUBJECT to the PHONE shows consistency for listing a particular work number in the transaction.
Finally, the SSNEIN (Social Security Number / Employer Identification Number) with the red "X" exposes the improper
use of a SSNEIN referenced in a DEATH-MASTER file (a database of over 90 million records of deceased people).
Interestingly, the thicker line to this particular SSNEIN shows repeated use of the same number, which represents
intentional use of this number, as opposed to a typo or transposition error. The second SSNEIN is off by one digit
from the other SSNEIN.
At this point, we have a "well-qualified target" to pursue under a full and formal investigation. Since there is a
lot of repetitive information in the display, it can be reorganized and presented in a much more refined format.
As shown below, we have merged together all of the SAR-MSB objects into a single entity with a label showing the
total amount and the date range of the transactions. Additionally, we performed an
HTTP Search (Google) to generate
the embedded map, created a legend, and added additional text annotations to clarify the content. The final result
is shown below as a well-presented diagram with full back-up and documentation.
To summarize, the following steps were performed to identify this target:
1) Query all ZIP codes = 90210
2) Walk the 80+ ADDRESSes out 1 level
3) Select the network with the largest SUBJECT to ADDRESS ratio
4) Expand out an additional level
5) Consolidate similar/duplicated objects
6) Add the title, legend, map, and labels
7) Save results / print
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