Cytoscape Styling
The stylesheet parameter
Just like how the elements parameter takes as an input a list of
dictionaries specifying all the elements in the graph, the stylesheet takes
a list of dictionaries specifying the style for a group of elements, a
class of elements, or a single element. Each of these dictionaries accept
two keys:
- 'selector': A string indicating which elements you are styling.
- 'style': A dictionary specifying what exactly you want to modify. This
could be the width, height, color of a node, the shape of the arrow on an
edge, or many more.
Both the selector string and
the style dictionary are
exhaustively documented in the Cytoscape.js docs. We will show examples
that can be easily modified for any type of design, and you can create
your own styles with the online style editor(which you can use locally by running usage-advanced.py.
Basic selectors and styles
We start by looking at the same example shown in the elements
chapter, but this time we examine the stylesheet:
View simple elements
View simple elements
simple_elements = [
{
'data': {'id': 'one', 'label': 'Modified Color'},
'position': {'x': 75, 'y': 75},
'classes': 'red' # Single class
},
{
'data': {'id': 'two', 'label': 'Modified Shape'},
'position': {'x': 75, 'y': 200},
'classes': 'triangle' # Single class
},
{
'data': {'id': 'three', 'label': 'Both Modified'},
'position': {'x': 200, 'y': 75},
'classes': 'red triangle' # Multiple classes
},
{
'data': {'id': 'four', 'label': 'Regular'},
'position': {'x': 200, 'y': 200}
},
{'data': {'source': 'one', 'target': 'two'}, 'classes': 'red'},
{'data':
{'source': 'two', 'target': 'three'}
},
{'data': {'source': 'three', 'target': 'four'}, 'classes': 'red'},
{'data':
{'source': 'two', 'target': 'four'}
},
]
from dash import Dash, html
import dash_cytoscape as cyto
app = Dash(__name__)
simple_elements = [
{
'data': {'id': 'one', 'label': 'Modified Color'},
'position': {'x': 75, 'y': 75},
'classes': 'red' # Single class
},
{
'data': {'id': 'two', 'label': 'Modified Shape'},
'position': {'x': 75, 'y': 200},
'classes': 'triangle' # Single class
},
{
'data': {'id': 'three', 'label': 'Both Modified'},
'position': {'x': 200, 'y': 75},
'classes': 'red triangle' # Multiple classes
},
{
'data': {'id': 'four', 'label': 'Regular'},
'position': {'x': 200, 'y': 200}
},
{'data': {'source': 'one', 'target': 'two'}, 'classes': 'red'},
{'data': {'source': 'two', 'target': 'three'}},
{'data': {'source': 'three', 'target': 'four'}, 'classes': 'red'},
{'data': {'source': 'two', 'target': 'four'}},
]
app.layout = html.Div([
cyto.Cytoscape(
id='cytoscape-styling-1',
layout={'name': 'preset'},
style={'width': '100%', 'height': '400px'},
elements=simple_elements,
stylesheet=[
# Group selectors
{
'selector': 'node',
'style': {
'content': 'data(label)'
}
},
# Class selectors
{
'selector': '.red',
'style': {
'background-color': 'red',
'line-color': 'red'
}
},
{
'selector': '.triangle',
'style': {
'shape': 'triangle'
}
}
]
)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
In this example, we use the group and class selectors. Group selectors
consist of either the string 'node' or the string 'edge', since an
element can only be one or the other.
To select a class, you simply pass .className to the selector, where
className is the name of one of the classes you assigned to some of your
elements. Notice in the example above that if an element has two or more
classes, it will accept all the styles that select it.
Here, we are simultaneously modifying the background and line color of all
the elements of class “red”. This means that if the element is a node, then
it will be filled with red, and it is an edge, then the color of the line
will be red. Although this offers great flexibility, you need to be careful
with your declaration, since you won’t receive warning if you use the wrong
key or make a typo. Standard RGB and Hex colors are accepted, along with
basic colors recognized by CSS.
Additionally, the content key takes as value what you want to display
above or next to the element on the screen, which in this case is the
label inside the data dictionary of the input element. Since we defined
a label for each element, that label will be displayed for every node.
Comparing data items using selectors
A nice property of the selector is that it can select elements by comparing
a certain item of the data dictionaries with a given value. Say we have
some nodes with id A to E declared this way:
{
'data': {
'source': 'A', 'target': 'B', 'weight': 1}
}
where the 'weight' key indicates the weight of your edge. You can find
the declaration below:
View weighted elements
View weighted elements
weighted_elements = [
{'data':
{'id': 'A'}
},
{'data':
{'id': 'B'}
},
{'data':
{'id': 'C'}
},
{'data':
{'id': 'D'}
},
{'data':
{'id': 'E'}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'A', 'target': 'B', 'weight': 1}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'A', 'target': 'C', 'weight': 2}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'B', 'target': 'D', 'weight': 3}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'B', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 4}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'C', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 5}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'D', 'target': 'A', 'weight': 6}
}
]
If you want to highlight all the of the edges above a certain weight
(e.g. 3), use the selector '[weight > 3]'. For example:
from dash import Dash, html
import dash_cytoscape as cyto
app = Dash(__name__)
weighted_elements = [
{'data': {'id': 'A'}},
{'data': {'id': 'B'}},
{'data': {'id': 'C'}},
{'data': {'id': 'D'}},
{'data': {'id': 'E'}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'B', 'weight': 1}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'C', 'weight': 2}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'D', 'weight': 3}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 4}},
{'data': {'source': 'C', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 5}},
{'data': {'source': 'D', 'target': 'A', 'weight': 6}}
]
app.layout = html.Div([
cyto.Cytoscape(
id='cytoscape-styling-2',
layout={'name': 'circle'},
style={'width': '100%', 'height': '400px'},
elements=weighted_elements,
stylesheet=[
{
'selector': 'edge',
'style': {
'label': 'data(weight)'
}
},
{
'selector': '[weight > 3]',
'style': {
'line-color': 'blue'
}
}
]
)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
Similarly, if you want to have weights smaller or equal to 3, you would
write:
from dash import Dash, html
import dash_cytoscape as cyto
app = Dash(__name__)
weighted_elements = [
{'data': {'id': 'A'}},
{'data': {'id': 'B'}},
{'data': {'id': 'C'}},
{'data': {'id': 'D'}},
{'data': {'id': 'E'}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'B', 'weight': 1}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'C', 'weight': 2}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'D', 'weight': 3}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 4}},
{'data': {'source': 'C', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 5}},
{'data': {'source': 'D', 'target': 'A', 'weight': 6}}
]
app.layout = html.Div([
cyto.Cytoscape(
id='cytoscape-styling-3',
layout={'name': 'circle'},
style={'width': '100%', 'height': '400px'},
elements=weighted_elements,
stylesheet=[
{
'selector': 'edge',
'style': {
'label': 'data(weight)'
}
},
{
'selector': '[weight <= 3]',
'style': {
'line-color': 'blue'
}
}
]
)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
Comparisons also work for string matching problems. Given the same graph
as before, but with a data key 'firstname' for each node:
{'data': {
'id': 'A', 'firstname': 'Albert'
}
}
We can select all the elements that match a specific pattern. For instance,
to style nodes where 'firstname' contains the substring 'ert', we
declare:
View named elements
View named elements
named_elements = [
{'data':
{'id': 'A', 'firstname': 'Albert'}
},
{'data':
{'id': 'B', 'firstname': 'Bert'}
},
{'data':
{'id': 'C', 'firstname': 'Charlie'}
},
{'data':
{'id': 'D', 'firstname': 'Daniela'}
},
{'data':
{'id': 'E', 'firstname': 'Emma'}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'A', 'target': 'B'}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'A', 'target': 'C'}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'B', 'target': 'D'}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'B', 'target': 'E'}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'C', 'target': 'E'}
},
{'data':
{'source': 'D', 'target': 'A'}
}
]
from dash import Dash, html
import dash_cytoscape as cyto
app = Dash(__name__)
named_elements = [
{'data': {'id': 'A', 'firstname': 'Albert'}},
{'data': {'id': 'B', 'firstname': 'Bert'}},
{'data': {'id': 'C', 'firstname': 'Charlie'}},
{'data': {'id': 'D', 'firstname': 'Daniela'}},
{'data': {'id': 'E', 'firstname': 'Emma'}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'B', 'weight': 1}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'C', 'weight': 2}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'D', 'weight': 3}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 4}},
{'data': {'source': 'C', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 5}},
{'data': {'source': 'D', 'target': 'A', 'weight': 6}}
]
app.layout = html.Div([
cyto.Cytoscape(
id='cytoscape-styling-4',
layout={'name': 'circle'},
style={'width': '100%', 'height': '400px'},
elements=named_elements,
stylesheet=[
{
'selector': 'node',
'style': {
'label': 'data(firstname)'
}
},
{
'selector': '[firstname *= "ert"]',
'style': {
'background-color': '#FF4136',
'shape': 'rectangle'
}
}
]
)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
Now, if we want to select all the elements where 'firstname' does not
contain 'ert', then we can run:
from dash import Dash, html
import dash_cytoscape as cyto
app = Dash(__name__)
named_elements = [
{'data': {'id': 'A', 'firstname': 'Albert'}},
{'data': {'id': 'B', 'firstname': 'Bert'}},
{'data': {'id': 'C', 'firstname': 'Charlie'}},
{'data': {'id': 'D', 'firstname': 'Daniela'}},
{'data': {'id': 'E', 'firstname': 'Emma'}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'B', 'weight': 1}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'C', 'weight': 2}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'D', 'weight': 3}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 4}},
{'data': {'source': 'C', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 5}},
{'data': {'source': 'D', 'target': 'A', 'weight': 6}}
]
app.layout = html.Div([
cyto.Cytoscape(
id='cytoscape-styling-5',
layout={'name': 'circle'},
style={'width': '100%', 'height': '400px'},
elements=named_elements,
stylesheet=[
{
'selector': 'node',
'style': {
'label': 'data(firstname)'
}
},
{
'selector': '[firstname !*= "ert"]',
'style': {
'background-color': '#FF4136',
'shape': 'rectangle'
}
}
]
)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
Other options also exist for matching specific parts of the string. For
example, if we want to only select the prefix, we can use ^= as such:
from dash import Dash, html
import dash_cytoscape as cyto
app = Dash(__name__)
named_elements = [
{'data': {'id': 'A', 'firstname': 'Albert'}},
{'data': {'id': 'B', 'firstname': 'Bert'}},
{'data': {'id': 'C', 'firstname': 'Charlie'}},
{'data': {'id': 'D', 'firstname': 'Daniela'}},
{'data': {'id': 'E', 'firstname': 'Emma'}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'B', 'weight': 1}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'C', 'weight': 2}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'D', 'weight': 3}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 4}},
{'data': {'source': 'C', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 5}},
{'data': {'source': 'D', 'target': 'A', 'weight': 6}}
]
app.layout = html.Div([
cyto.Cytoscape(
id='cytoscape-styling-6',
layout={'name': 'circle'},
style={'width': '100%', 'height': '400px'},
elements=named_elements,
stylesheet=[
{
'selector': 'node',
'style': {
'label': 'data(firstname)'
}
},
{
'selector': '[firstname ^= "Alb"]',
'style': {
'background-color': '#FF4136',
'shape': 'rectangle'
}
}
]
)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
This can also be prepended by modifiers. For example, @ added in front
of an operator will render the string matched case insensitive.
from dash import Dash, html
import dash_cytoscape as cyto
app = Dash(__name__)
named_elements = [
{'data': {'id': 'A', 'firstname': 'Albert'}},
{'data': {'id': 'B', 'firstname': 'Bert'}},
{'data': {'id': 'C', 'firstname': 'Charlie'}},
{'data': {'id': 'D', 'firstname': 'Daniela'}},
{'data': {'id': 'E', 'firstname': 'Emma'}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'B', 'weight': 1}},
{'data': {'source': 'A', 'target': 'C', 'weight': 2}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'D', 'weight': 3}},
{'data': {'source': 'B', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 4}},
{'data': {'source': 'C', 'target': 'E', 'weight': 5}},
{'data': {'source': 'D', 'target': 'A', 'weight': 6}}
]
app.layout = html.Div([
cyto.Cytoscape(
id='cytoscape-styling-7',
layout={'name': 'circle'},
style={'width': '100%', 'height': '400px'},
elements=named_elements,
stylesheet=[
{
'selector': 'node',
'style': {
'label': 'data(firstname)'
}
},
{
'selector': '[firstname @^= "alb"]',
'style': {
'background-color': '#FF4136',
'shape': 'rectangle'
}
}
]
)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
View the complete list of matching operations
for data selectors.
Styling edges
Two-sided edges and curvature
Many methods exist to style edges in Dash Cytoscape. In some cases, you
might want different ways to display double-edged
View double-edged elements
View double-edged elements
double_edges = [
{'data':
{'id': src+tgt, 'source': src, 'target': tgt}
}
for src, tgt in ['AB', 'BA', 'BC', 'CB', 'CD', 'DC', 'DA', 'AD']
]
double_edged_el = [{'data':
{'id': id_}
} for id_ in 'ABCD'] + double_edges
from dash import Dash, html
import dash_cytoscape as cyto
app = Dash(__name__)
double_edges = [
{'data': {'id': src+tgt, 'source': src, 'target': tgt}}
for src, tgt in ['AB', 'BA', 'BC', 'CB', 'CD', 'DC', 'DA', 'AD']
]
double_edged_el = [{'data': {'id': id_}} for id_ in 'ABCD'] + double_edges
app.layout = html.Div([
cyto.Cytoscape(
id='cytoscape-styling-8',
layout={'name': 'circle'},
style={'width': '100%', 'height': '400px'},
elements=double_edged_el,
stylesheet=[
{
'selector': 'node',
'style': {
'label': 'data(id)'
}
},
{
'selector': '#AB, #BA',
'style': {
'curve-style': 'bezier',
'label': 'bezier',
'line-color': 'red'
}
},
{
'selector': '#AD, #DA',
'style': {
'curve-style': 'haystack',
'label': 'haystack',
'line-color': 'blue'
}
},
{
'selector': '#DC, #CD',
'style': {
'curve-style': 'segments',
'label': 'segments',
'line-color': 'green'
}
}
]
)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
Many curve styles are accepted, and support further customization such as
the distance between edges and curvature radius. You can find them in
the JavaScript docs.
Edge Arrows
To better highlight the directed edges, we can add arrows of different
shapes, colors, and positions onto the edges. This is an example of using
different types of arrows, with the same graph above, but with certain
edges removed:
View directed elements
View directed elements
directed_edges = [
{'data':
{'id': src+tgt, 'source': src, 'target': tgt}
}
for src, tgt in ['BA', 'BC', 'CD', 'DA']
]
directed_elements = [{'data':
{'id': id_}
} for id_ in 'ABCD'] + directed_edges
from dash import Dash, html
import dash_cytoscape as cyto
app = Dash(__name__)
directed_edges = [
{'data': {'id': src+tgt, 'source': src, 'target': tgt}}
for src, tgt in ['BA', 'BC', 'CD', 'DA']
]
directed_elements = [{'data': {'id': id_}} for id_ in 'ABCD'] + directed_edges
app.layout = html.Div([
cyto.Cytoscape(
id='cytoscape-styling-9',
layout={'name': 'circle'},
style={'width': '100%', 'height': '400px'},
elements=directed_elements,
stylesheet=[
{
'selector': 'node',
'style': {
'label': 'data(id)'
}
},
{
'selector': 'edge',
'style': {
# The default curve style does not work with certain arrows
'curve-style': 'bezier'
}
},
{
'selector': '#BA',
'style': {
'source-arrow-color': 'red',
'source-arrow-shape': 'triangle',
'line-color': 'red'
}
},
{
'selector': '#DA',
'style': {
'target-arrow-color': 'blue',
'target-arrow-shape': 'vee',
'line-color': 'blue'
}
},
{
'selector': '#BC',
'style': {
'mid-source-arrow-color': 'green',
'mid-source-arrow-shape': 'diamond',
'mid-source-arrow-fill': 'hollow',
'line-color': 'green',
}
},
{
'selector': '#CD',
'style': {
'mid-target-arrow-color': 'black',
'mid-target-arrow-shape': 'circle',
'arrow-scale': 2,
'line-color': 'black',
}
}
]
)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)
Notice here that we prepend a position indicator for the color and shape
keys. In the previous example, all four possible positions are displayed.
In fact, you can even the edges with multiple arrows, all with different
colors and shapes. View the complete list of edge arrow configurations.
Displaying Images
It is possible to display images inside nodes,
as documented in Cytoscape.js. We show below a complete example of display
an interactive tree of animal phylogeny using images from Wikimedia.
'''
Phylogeny tree inspired from: <a href="http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/106/106F06_10.html">http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/106/106F06_10.html</a>
'''
from dash import Dash, html
import dash_cytoscape as cyto
app = Dash(__name__)
# Creating elements
nonterminal_nodes = [
{'data': {'id': name, 'label': name.capitalize()}, 'classes': 'nonterminal'}
for name in [
'animalia',
'eumetazoa',
'bilateria',
'deuterostomia'
]
]
terminal_nodes = [
{
'classes': 'terminal',
'data': {
'id': name,
'label': name.capitalize(),
'url': 'https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/' +
url + '/150px-' + url.split('/')[-1]
}
}
for name, url in [
['porifera', '4/45/Spongilla_lacustris.jpg'],
['ctenophora', 'c/c8/Archaeocydippida_hunsrueckiana.JPG'],
['cnidaria', 'c/c1/Polyps_of_Cnidaria_colony.jpg'],
['acoela', 'a/aa/Waminoa_on_Plerogyra.jpg'],
['echinodermata', '7/7a/Ochre_sea_star_on_beach%2C_Olympic_National_Park_USA.jpg'],
['chordata', 'd/d6/White_cockatoo_%28Cacatua_alba%29.jpg']
]
]
edges = [
{'data': {'source': source, 'target': target}}
for source, target in [
['animalia', 'porifera'],
['animalia', 'eumetazoa'],
['eumetazoa', 'ctenophora'],
['eumetazoa', 'bilateria'],
['eumetazoa', 'cnidaria'],
['bilateria', 'acoela'],
['bilateria', 'deuterostomia'],
['deuterostomia', 'echinodermata'],
['deuterostomia', 'chordata']
]
]
# Creating styles
stylesheet = [
{
'selector': 'node',
'style': {
'content': 'data(label)'
}
},
{
'selector': '.terminal',
'style': {
'width': 90,
'height': 80,
'background-fit': 'cover',
'background-image': 'data(url)'
}
},
{
'selector': '.nonterminal',
'style': {
'shape': 'rectangle'
}
}
]
# Declare app layout
app.layout = html.Div([
cyto.Cytoscape(
id='cytoscape-images',
layout={'name': 'breadthfirst', 'roots': ['animalia']},
style={'width': '100%', 'height': '550px'},
stylesheet=stylesheet,
elements=terminal_nodes + nonterminal_nodes + edges
)
])
if __name__ == '__main__':
app.run(debug=True)