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GML 2 LGF converter |
About
GML2LGF converter converts traditional GML files into
Lemon Graph
Format that can be used by the
LEMON Graph Library.
This library is very useful especially for the researchers of the field of Computer Science,
who may want to analyze generated or real-world network topologies described
in GML language by the effective C++/LEMON library.
Therefore, this app enables them to convert such gml files into lgf files
in a very fine-grained and customizable manner.
This application was developed by Levente Csikor
Requirements
GML2LGF converter is based on Python 2.7 and Kivy for graphical user interface.
However, you DO NOT NEED anything to install. I provide binaries for all important platforms, which were made by PyInstaller-2.0. Additional libraries are only needed if the application has to be run from its source.
Due to some PyInstaller related compatibility issues, binaries are NO longer supported (the older Mac OS X and Windows 7 binaries are still available and they might work).
The whole source has been put into a GitHub repository in order to be downloadable for everyone. However, it still does not need to be compiled, but some other libraries are needed to be installed on your system. Next, I show you, which components have to be installed on your computer, and how they can be obtained. These instructions are for a Debian (jessie/testing) based Linux distribution. First, you need to install Python 2.7 and all its related packages:
- python2.7
- python-pygame (this is required for Kivy's rendering)
- python-opengl (this is required for Kivy's rendering)
- libgl-mesa-dri
- libgl-mesa-glx
Libs for installing Kivy 1.8.0 (based on this)
- Add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kivy-team/kivy/ubuntu trusty main - Add GPG key to your apt keyring:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys A863D2D6 - apt-get update
- apt-get install python-kivy
Instructions for installing Kivy on other Linux based systems are available here. For instructions for Windows, click here, and for instructions for Mac OS X click here.
Now, you are ready to get the source code from GitHub
- git clone https://github.com/cslev/gml2lgf
- cd gml2lgf
- Run with GUI
- python gml2lgf.py
- Run without GUI
- python gml2lgf-cli.py
Components
GML2LGF converter has two main components. First, you get a graphical user interface (GUI) for a fine-grained and customizable framework, where you can set WHICH properties should be converted HOW. Experienced users, who do not have any special needs just the basic properties get the possibility to easily convert gml files into lgf format by a simple command line interface.
How to use
First, we discuss how the main GUI component should be used. Trust me, it's not so complicated as it may look like :).
The Graphical User Interface
Open a terminal, change directory to the source, and just type: python gml2lgf.py.
For the first time, it should looks like the picture below:
As you can see, the GUI is divided into three main parts. The upper side contains an input field with an Open and an Analyze button;
a quite empty black part in the center (which will be used after you loaded and analyzed an input file); and the bottom part is a
basic console log, where standard status messages and some information about the process will be found.
First, in the input field above, you should add the path to the gml file you want to convert into lgf file. If you do not now the exact path,
you can use the Open button to browse the particular gml file as it is depicted below.
After you browsed your gml file, click Analyze button. This will read and analyze the gml file and shows information about it both
in the middle and in the console log.
As you can see below, after analyzing the gml file, two columns appear in the middle. On the left, the found node parameters can be seen,
while on the right, the found edge params are shown.
It should be noted, however, that since the GUI makes this application to be run on Android devices as well, there are disappearing
scrollbars :)
Thus, you should use your mouse's scroll to ensure that you see every parameter of the nodes or the edges. For easier verifying, check the
titles of the columns that show how many params were found, and if you do not see all of them for the first sight then scroll down.
From the console log, you can observe that may not all nodes have the same number of parameters,
as in our example, 51 nodes were found,
but only 5 nodes have 'geocode_append' property, or the
Country and the Longitude/Latitude properties are missing at one node.
This is also emphasized in the middle, as the properties, which are not present for every node is highlighted with color
yellow.
Furthermore, in the console log, you can find some examples, how those parameters and its values look like.
Intuitively, one may desire another property names, therefore these can be reset in the text fields next to the found parameters
in the middle.
Note that some property cannot be changed, since Lemon Graph Format also has some necessary parameters name. These parameters are
highlighted with color
red in the text fields, and cannot be changed.
Similarly, on the right side of the middle area, you can find the edge parameters. In this case, obviously, the
source and target
parameters are set as LEMON requires, and only other parameters' names can be changed.
There are lot of examples, when people who are using LEMON, they want to have edge costs as well. In these cases, when no such
parameters are found, then the application makes it possible to generate some. You have the opportunity to generate
random costs in range [1,100] or use just unit costs instead.
This should be chosen from by the radio buttons below the last edge parameter.
At last but not least, gml files are usually describing an edge by setting a source and a destination for it regardless of any direction,
i.e., it usually describes undirected graphs and actually it does not matter, which node is considered as the source or the destination.
However, especially in the field of networking, researchers and network operators use directed graphs instead, and LEMON also provides
a class, for instance, ListDiGraph for representing such directed, weighted graphs.
Fortunately, this GML2LGF application also makes it possible for you to prepare for this case. Just tick
Use symmetric cost checkbox to ensure this.
If everything is set to your needs, just click on Convert button. This will convert your gml file into two separate files, which will
be stored next to your input gml file in the same directory (see picture below).
your_network.lgf file is the Lemon Graph Format file itself, while
your_network.nfo consists of some info about your network, which was stored in the .gml file before the first node's description. It can be considered as
a header in the gml file.
The Command line Interface
For experienced users, a command line interface is also provided with reduced number of settings.
You can only have 3 parameters, which are the following:
- input file
- cost type (use the found costs, or generate random or unit costs)
- symmetric links
The command line interface should be used as follows:
python gml2lgf-cli.py -f <inputfile> -c <found,unit,random> -s <yes,no>
For seeing some help, type gml2lgf-cli -h.
Usage:
gml2lgf-cli -f <inputfile> -c <found,unit,random> -s <yes,no>
-f:
input gml file
-c:
found -> nothing special is set for edges
random -> generates random costs for the edges between (1,100) and stores it as "cost" in lgf
unit -> similar to random, but it creates unit costs for the edges
-s:
yes -> uses symmetric edges
no -> edges are just like they were found in the gml file
!!!All arguments are necessary!!!
Similarly to GUI, the output files (.nfo, .lgf) will be stored in the same directory where the input file is.
Download
 |
Linux (source) | Download | ~550 KB |
 |
Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit: | Download | 14.3 MB |
In the dmg package you will only find GML2LGF binary, which is the binary of the graphical user interface. In order to install it, you only need to drag it into the Application folder. If you want to use the command line interface, you have to go into the Application contents, by clicking with the right button on the GML2LGF in the Application folder, then choose 'Show Package Contents'. Additionally, you can create a symlink as well to this file, since it is stored in '/Application/GML2LGF.app' directory. |
Mac OS X Mountain Lion and above: | Download | 11.7 MB |
Troubleshooting
During choosing a particular .gml file, you can meet a similar error:
Traceback (most recent call last):File "<string>", line 451, in <module>
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.app", line 546, in run
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.base", line 445, in runTouchApp
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.core.window.window_pygame", line 324, in mainloop
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.core.window.window_pygame", line 230, in _mainloop
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.base", line 293, in idle
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.clock", line 313, in tick
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.clock", line 424, in _process_events
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.clock", line 232, in tick
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.uix.filechooser", line 445, in _update_files
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.uix.filechooser", line 459, in _create_files_entries
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.uix.filechooser", line 556, in _generate_file_entries
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.uix.filechooser", line 581, in _add_files
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/kivy.uix.filechooser", line 409, in _apply_filters
File "gml2lgf/build/pyi.linux2/gml2lgf/out00-PYZ.pyz/genericpath", line 41, in isdir
UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xd6' in position 11: ordinal not in range(128)
This happens because of some non-ascii characters were being read during listing files in a particular directory. You can eliminate this failure by moving your gml files into another directory, or renaming/deleting the non-ascii files/directories, or simply typing the full path to the gml file into the Textfield on the top, without browsing for that.
The following IOError occurs when you do not have permission to write the output files (lgf,nfo) into the directory, where the gml file is stored:
...output_file = open(lgf_name, 'w')
IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: ...
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Rita Fabry for her useful comments and experiences with the old binaries, and her remarks on failures that could occur when empty lines are present in the gml file.
Support
If you have any further question, feel free to contact me.
Levente Csikor