Ilograph Spring Update

Ilograph is marching steadily towards closed beta (sign up at the bottom the homepage to get early access). Major rendering features are complete and I’ve turned my attention to the online editing experience. I’m excited to get Ilograph into your hands! Here are more details on what’s done and what’s next:

What’s done

Much of the recent work has been devoted to the layout engine. I want Ilograph diagrams to render in a predictable, accurate and pleasing way most of the time, even when perspectives have “unusual” relation structures such as cycles. Covering all scenarios isn’t a realistic goal, but I want it to “just work” as often as possible. I feel like it’s close enough for the beta, or nearly so.

(If you haven’t already, check out the Git Webhooks on AWS example; the “Execution” perspective nicely shows cyclical relations in action)

I’ve also made many improvements to the mobile experience. While editing probably won’t ever be supported on mobile, it’s very important that Ilograph diagrams be viewable on mobile. Marketing is also a factor here; many people see Ilograph for the first time on mobile devices, and I don’t want them to leave with a bad impression.

What’s next

The last major piece that must be in place before beta is the editor. Ilograph diagrams are stored as simple YAML diagrams (at least initially). When creating a diagram, one first defines their organization’s resources (name, subtitle, description, etc), and then define how those resources are related across different perspectives. I’ll post more details about this language in a future post; for now, this is how editing looks today:

Full disclosure: creating Ilograph diagrams won’t be easy. There won’t be a drag-and-drop GUI, tutorials or other niceties one expects from a finished product designed for mainstream users. Ilograph is aimed squarely at the power user. With Ilograph you can create more accurate, more robust and more interesting diagrams for your organization, and the barrier to entry to do so will be correspondingly high. If you’d like to be among the first to storm the gates with me when the beta begins, please let me know at billy@ilograph.com or @ilographs on Twitter.