Network Graphs in Python

How to make Network Graphs in Python with Plotly. One examples of a network graph with NetworkX

New to Plotly?

Plotly is a free and open-source graphing library for Python. We recommend you read our Getting Started guide for the latest installation or upgrade instructions, then move on to our Plotly Fundamentals tutorials or dive straight in to some Basic Charts tutorials.

In this example we show how to visualize a network graph created using networkx.

Install the Python library networkx with pip install networkx.

Create random graph¶

In [1]:

import plotly.graph_objects as go

import networkx as nx

G = nx.random_geometric_graph(200, 0.125)

Create Edges¶

Add edges as disconnected lines in a single trace and nodes as a scatter trace

In [2]:

edge_x = []
edge_y = []
for edge in G.edges():
    x0, y0 = G.nodes[edge[0]]['pos']
    x1, y1 = G.nodes[edge[1]]['pos']
    edge_x.append(x0)
    edge_x.append(x1)
    edge_x.append(None)
    edge_y.append(y0)
    edge_y.append(y1)
    edge_y.append(None)

edge_trace = go.Scatter(
    x=edge_x, y=edge_y,
    line=dict(width=0.5, color='#888'),
    hoverinfo='none',
    mode='lines')

node_x = []
node_y = []
for node in G.nodes():
    x, y = G.nodes[node]['pos']
    node_x.append(x)
    node_y.append(y)

node_trace = go.Scatter(
    x=node_x, y=node_y,
    mode='markers',
    hoverinfo='text',
    marker=dict(
        showscale=True,
        # colorscale options
        #'Greys' | 'YlGnBu' | 'Greens' | 'YlOrRd' | 'Bluered' | 'RdBu' |
        #'Reds' | 'Blues' | 'Picnic' | 'Rainbow' | 'Portland' | 'Jet' |
        #'Hot' | 'Blackbody' | 'Earth' | 'Electric' | 'Viridis' |
        colorscale='YlGnBu',
        reversescale=True,
        color=[],
        size=10,
        colorbar=dict(
            thickness=15,
            title='Node Connections',
            xanchor='left',
            titleside='right'
        ),
        line_width=2))

Color Node Points¶

Color node points by the number of connections.

Another option would be to size points by the number of connections i.e. node_trace.marker.size = node_adjacencies

In [3]:

node_adjacencies = []
node_text = []
for node, adjacencies in enumerate(G.adjacency()):
    node_adjacencies.append(len(adjacencies[1]))
    node_text.append('# of connections: '+str(len(adjacencies[1])))

node_trace.marker.color = node_adjacencies
node_trace.text = node_text

Create Network Graph¶

In [4]:

fig = go.Figure(data=[edge_trace, node_trace],
             layout=go.Layout(
                title='<br>Network graph made with Python',
                titlefont_size=16,
                showlegend=False,
                hovermode='closest',
                margin=dict(b=20,l=5,r=5,t=40),
                annotations=[ dict(
                    text="Python code: <a href='https://plotly.com/ipython-notebooks/network-graphs/'> https://plotly.com/ipython-notebooks/network-graphs/</a>",
                    showarrow=False,
                    xref="paper", yref="paper",
                    x=0.005, y=-0.002 ) ],
                xaxis=dict(showgrid=False, zeroline=False, showticklabels=False),
                yaxis=dict(showgrid=False, zeroline=False, showticklabels=False))
                )
fig.show()

Network graphs in Dash¶

Dash is the best way to build analytical apps in Python using Plotly figures. To run the app below, run pip install dash dash-cytoscape, click "Download" to get the code and run python app.py.

Get started with the official Dash docs and learn how to effortlessly style & deploy apps like this with Dash Enterprise.

Out[5]:

Sign up for Dash Club → Free cheat sheets plus updates from Chris Parmer and Adam Schroeder delivered to your inbox every two months. Includes tips and tricks, community apps, and deep dives into the Dash architecture. Join now.

Reference¶

See https://plotly.com/python/reference/scatter/ for more information and chart attribute options!

What About Dash?¶

Dash is an open-source framework for building analytical applications, with no Javascript required, and it is tightly integrated with the Plotly graphing library.

Learn about how to install Dash at https://dash.plot.ly/installation.

Everywhere in this page that you see fig.show(), you can display the same figure in a Dash application by passing it to the figure argument of the Graph component from the built-in dash_core_components package like this:

import plotly.graph_objects as go # or plotly.express as px
fig = go.Figure() # or any Plotly Express function e.g. px.bar(...)
# fig.add_trace( ... )
# fig.update_layout( ... )

from dash import Dash, dcc, html

app = Dash()
app.layout = html.Div([
    dcc.Graph(figure=fig)
])

app.run_server(debug=True, use_reloader=False)  # Turn off reloader if inside Jupyter