Integrated Visualization Framework for Relational Databases and Web Resources

In this paper we propose an integrated visualization framework for relational databases and Web resources. Using our VERD framework, users can dynamically integrate local databases and Web resources and interactively construct various visualizations. Users can define data integration and visualization by constructing a flow diagram consisting of various operators through direct manipulation. The principal idea of this framework is to manipulate Web resources, visualizations, and database relations through visual components based on relational schemata and integrate them based on the relational database model. In VERD framework, two types of special view relations are used for representing visualizations and for treating Web resources as database relations. Hence, in VERD framework, a Web resource can be combined with database relations as if it is also a local relation. Similarly, VERD framework specifies visual mapping between source data relations and visualization representations by means of relational operations. VERD framework supports various interactive visualization operations including ‘details-on-demand', ‘drill-down', and ‘brushing-and-linking' These operations are performed by modifying view relations associated with visualizations.