EdiFlow: Data-intensive interactive workflows for visual analytics

Visual analytics aims at combining interactive data visualization with data analysis tasks. Given the explosion in volume and complexity of scientific data, e.g., associated to biological or physical processes or social networks, visual analytics is called to play an important role in scientific data management. Most visual analytics platforms, however, are memory-based, and are therefore limited in the volume of data handled. Moreover, the integration of each new algorithm (e.g. for clustering) requires integrating it by hand into the platform. Finally, they lack the capability to define and deploy well-structured processes where users with different roles interact in a coordinated way sharing the same data and possibly the same visualizations. We have designed and implemented EdiFlow, a workflow platform for visual analytics applications. EdiFlow uses a simple structured process model, and is backed by a persistent database, storing both process information and process instance data. EdiFlow processes provide the usual process features (roles, structured control) and may integrate visual analytics tasks as activities. We present its architecture, deployment on a sample application, and main technical challenges involved.