Ogma is a JavaScript library for large-scale graph visualization and analysis. It integrates directly with Oracle graph database, Oracle Big Data Spatial and Graph (BDSG) to help Oracle customers build applications to visualize their graph data.

In May 2015, Oracle announced the release of their newest system, Oracle Big Data Spatial and Graph: 

"Oracle BDSG offers set of analytic services and data models that support Big Data workloads on Apache Hadoop and NoSQL database technologies to work with social network data and to exploit Big Data architectures."  Oracle Data Sheet, Oracle Big Data Spatial and Graph

Oracle graph database builds upon several NoSQL backends, such as Apache HBase and Oracle NoSQL databases. Oracle BDSG is Tinkerpop 2 Blueprints compliant, which means that any application can access the exposed database and high-level analytic services via the TinkerPop 2.x stack. The Rexster graph server, part of the TinkerPop 2.x stack, processes, and answers client graph queries via HTTP.

The Ogma library is agnostic to the data source: simply give it nodes and edges as input, and it will render it. To ease the communication with a graph database, we developed a specific connector that translates the data stored in Oracle BDSG into a list of edges and nodes for Ogma to display. This plugin is compatible with any Rexster 2.x compliant database. The Oracle BDSG plugin handles the connection and queries to the Rexster 2.x graph API. 

As of today, the plugin offers two available methods: connect and query. The first one enables the user to connect to the database given an URL and graph name. The second one queries the graph database and updates Ogma with the results of the query.

With those two methods, it’s possible to visualize and explore Oracle graph database dynamically with Ogma. New methods can be developed easily as well for specific needs by extending Ogma’s Rexster 2.x plugin.

The analysis of graph data is a decisive asset in many fields such as cyber-security, intelligence analysis or financial crimes investigation. The graph approach is the best way to understand how data is connected and take advantage of it. With Ogma you can find insights in large-scale graphs and discover non-obvious relationships between entities. You can detect suspicious patterns in a glimpse thanks to the holistic representation of your data.

Once the Ogma library is connected to Oracle graph database, you can query it to visualize your graph data. In the example below, we connected Ogma to an instance of Oracle graph database. An insurance dataset is loaded in the database and displayed in an example Web application with Ogma. 

We visualize in a glimpse the connections within the data. We can immediately notice a suspicious ring pattern at the center of the visualization. This pattern may indicate a fraud case that can be investigated by analysts.

In our example, when looking at the specific suspicious nodes, we get an instant understanding of the insurance fraud situation. We have three customers, the red nodes, in this ring and three different claims, the green nodes. These claims are under the supervision of the same lawyer and the same evaluator. Curiously the two customers that instigated the claims, John Piggyback and Werner Stiedemann, are both linked to a third existing customer, Paula Smith. Piggyback has the same phone number and Stiedemann the same email address as her. This is an abnormal situation, as neither of the two shares her name or address, that is very likely an insurance fraud. At this point, investigators can launch further investigations and/or legal proceedings.

Ogma makes it possible to leverage the power of Oracle graph database with this simple integration. It’s also possible with our graph visualization library to facilitate interactions: switching to another graph layout (circular, geospatial, force-directed, hierarchical), filtering nodes and edges, grouping nodes and edges, etc. Ogma enables Oracle BDSG customers to visualize their data, helping non-technical users find hidden insights in real-time within the data.

Oracle BDSG users can now use Ogma to visualize their graph data. If you want to know more or try Ogma, contact us today.

Ogma also has connectors to other databases like Neo4j and you can develop your own connector to communicate with any other database in minutes. Feel free to contact us if you want to integrate Ogma into your next web application.

If you missed it, we recommend the reading of our partner’s article PeakIndicators about the integration of graph visualization in Oracle BI with Linkurious Enterprise.