Expand link chart content

If you want to know more about an entity such as a retail store, you can add its related entities, including employees, warehouses, suppliers, and transportation vehicles, to the link chart from its associated knowledge graph. You can use either the Expand or Filtered Expand button to add related entities to a link chart.

These two methods work from the entities currently selected in the link chart. They expand the content of link charts by executing queries on the knowledge graph to get the relationships that are immediately connected to the selected entities. The retrieved relationships and their related entities, which are adjacent to the selected entities, are added to the link chart when they are not already present. That is, the selected entities are expanded by one degree.

When you use the Expand method, all relationships are queried and added to the link chart with their related entities. When you use the Filtered Expand method, you can choose the type of relationships you want to use to add entities. These options are described in more detail in the following sections.

If Group Mode is turned on for the link chart, a post-process is executed to search for and group any new relationship sets that may exist in the link chart with the added content. Whichever method you choose, the layout currently in use for visualizing the link chart's content is automatically reapplied to the entire link chart.

Expand an entity using all relationships

When you use the Expand method to add content to a link chart, the operation executes from all selected entities. All relationships of all types for all selected entities are evaluated. The relationships and the related entities are added to the link chart whether the selected entities occupy the origin or the destination of the relationship. For example, if a store is selected in the link chart, all relationships existing between this store and employees, warehouses, suppliers, and transportation vehicles are added.

  1. Do one or more of the following to select the entities or relationships that you want to expand in the link chart:
    • On the Link Chart tab, in the Selection group, use one of the selection tools such as Select By Rectangle Select to select entities or relationships.
    • On the Link Chart tab, in the Selection group, click Select By Attributes Select By Attributes. In the Select By Attributes window that appears, select entities or relationships in a link chart layer or a link chart aggregation layer using values in their attribute tables.
    • In the Contents pane, right-click a link chart layer or a link chart aggregation layer and click Open Table Open Table. In the table that appears, select rows interactively such as by pressing Ctrl while clicking individual rows describing entities or relationships of interest.

    When graph items are selected in the active link chart, the Expand button Expand and the Filtered Expand button Filtered Expand become available in the Scope group on the Link Chart tab on the ribbon.

  2. On the Link Chart tab on the ribbon, in the Scope group, click the Expand menu and click Expand Expand.

The originally selected graph items are deselected. The relationships and related entities identified by the expand operation are added to the link chart and selected. This allows you to click Expand again if you want to expand one more degree from the newly added entities.

If relationships exist between the added entities, they are not added automatically. You can add any missing relationships to the link chart with the Connect operation.

Tip:

To change which entities and relationships are selected when you expand a link chart, change which entity types and relationship types are selectable in the link chart. Click the List By Selection tab List By Selection in the Contents pane. All entity and relationship types are selected by default. Uncheck the entity and relationship types that you don't want to be selected when the expand operation is run on a link chart.

Expand an entity using specific relationships

The Filtered Expand method works in the same manner as the Expand method, except it allows you to selectively expand relationship types. When you choose this method, the Filtered Expand window appears, listing all relationship types that can be added for the selected entities. You can choose the specific relationships you want to add to the link chart. For example, if a store is selected in the link chart, you can choose to examine only the HasSupplier relationships and add supplier entities to the link chart.

  1. Do one or more of the following to select the entities or relationships that you want to expand in the link chart:
    • On the Link Chart tab, in the Selection group, use one of the selection tools such as Select By Rectangle Select to select entities or relationships.
    • On the Link Chart tab, in the Selection group, click Select By Attributes Select By Attributes. In the Select By Attributes window that appears, select entities or relationships in a link chart layer or a link chart aggregation layer using values in their attribute tables.
    • In the Contents pane, right-click a link chart layer or a link chart aggregation layer and click Open Table Open Table. In the table that appears, select rows interactively such as by pressing Ctrl while clicking individual rows describing entities or relationships of interest.

    When graph items are selected in the active link chart, the Expand button Expand and the Filtered Expand button Filtered Expand become available in the Scope group on the Link Chart tab on the ribbon.

  2. On the Link Chart tab on the ribbon, in the Scope group, click the Expand menu and click Filtered Expand Filtered Expand.

    The Filtered Expand window appears.

    All relationship types that can be added to the link chart for the selected entities are presented in a table. For each relationship type, the window shows how many instances of that relationship exist for the selected entities that can be added to the link chart. It also shows how many related entities will be added to the link chart if those relationships are added.

  3. Select the relationships to use when expanding the selected entities by using one of the following methods:
    • Click a relationship type in the table to select it.
    • Click a relationship type, then press Ctrl or Shift and click additional relationship types to select them.
    • Click the Select All button Select All and the Clear Selection button Clear Selection at the bottom of the window to change which relationship types are selected.
  4. Click the Filtered Expand button Filtered Expand at the bottom of the window.

The originally selected graph items are deselected. The relationships and related entities identified by the filtered expand operation are added to the link chart and selected.

If relationships exist between the added entities, they are not added automatically. You can add any missing relationships to the link chart with the Connect operation.

The Filtered Expand window remains open. The relationship types displayed in the window are updated to reflect the currently selected items. You can also select other entities in the link chart without having to reopen the window; its content is automatically updated to reflect the selection change.

Tip:

If you want to add all related entities for all listed relationships to the link chart, click the Expand button Expand at the bottom of the Filtered Expand window.

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