Common elements in the graphing tool graphs

Graphs have many common elements: icons, indicators, and line thickness. These common elements provide additional meaning that can help you get a more complete story of each graph and more easily identify areas of interest.

Entity icons

Each entity node is displayed as an icon surrounded by a solid circle.

Entities can be defined as people, places, or things (such as organizations, ships, or planes). Typically, entities are people. The most common entity node is a represented as a person icon: male, female, or unknown. The gender displayed by the icon is based on one of two possible gender assignments:

The gender assigned during the name analysis of entity resolution
the value from the GENDER attribute that is part of the data on the incoming identity record

If the gender is undetermined, then a generic person entity icon displays.

The following table displays the default person entity icons used in the graphing tool graphs.

Table 1. A sample of the default entity icons used in the graphing tool graphs
This icon...	Represents this type of entity...
Graphing tool female person entity indicator	Female (person) entity
Graphing tool male person entity indicator	Male (person) entity
Graphing tool unknown gender person entity indicator	Unknown gender entity

The main entity on an Entity or Social Network graph always has a thicker circle. Regardless of where the main entity displays on the graph, you can always identify it by the thicker circle.

On an Alert graph, all the entities along the alert path have a thicker circle. Regardless how many entities display on the graph, such as if you choose to show remaining related entities, you can always identify the entities involved in the alert.

Attribute icons

Attribute nodes are depicted on the graphing tool graphs as icons. Each icon represents a specific attribute type. The following table provides a sample of the default attribute icons displayed on the graphing tool graphs.

Table 2. A sample of the default icons displayed on the graphing tool
This icon...	Represents this type of attribute...
Graphing tool address attribute icon	Address
Graphing tool name attribute icon	Name
Graphing tool Social security number attribute icon	Social Security number
Graphing tool date of birth attribute icon	Date of birth
Graphing tool other attribute type icon	Other attribute (not assigned to an existing attribute icon)

You can customize the icons that represent attributes on the graphs, either by replacing the default attribute icon or by adding icons to represent attributes that are specific to your organization. See Adding custom icons to the graphing tool graphs for more information.

Alert indicators

Each entity displays an indicator to show the number of alerts for the entity. The alert indicator is displayed in the upper left corner of the solid circle that surrounds the entity icon.

The alert indicator has a gold background, and the number of alerts displays in black text. For example, this alert indicator alert indicator of 25

Graphing tool alert indicator

on an entity icon shows that this entity has 25 alerts.

Related entities indicators

Entity nodes also have an indicator that shows the number of relationships that belong to this entity, based on shared attributes. These relationships are not yet shown as belonging to this entity.

The related entities indicator has a light blue background, and the number of relationships displays in bold black text. For example, this related entities indicator related entity indicator of 6

Graphing tool related entities indicator

shows that there are six additional entities that are not yet shown as having a relationship with the entity.

The related entities indicator behaves differently depending upon the type of graph:

On the Alert graph: Both entities involved in the alert display a related entities indicator, if the entity is related to more entities that are not currently displayed on the graph. You can expand the graph to show all the related entities to each entity displayed on the graph. In this case, you no longer see a related entities indicator on any entity.
On the Entity graph:
- The main entity does not have a related entities indicator. The graph automatically displays all the entities related to that main entity.
- The other entities on the Entity graph display a related entities indicator, if they are related to other entities that are not already displayed on the graph. You can use the right-click menu to show the remaining entities for such an entity, so that the related entities indicator no longer displays.
- Like on the Alert graph, you can expand the graph to show all the related entities to each entity displayed on the graph. In this case, no entity shows a related entities indicator.
On the Social Network graph:
- The hub entity (at the middle of the cluster) does not have a related entities indicator, because the graph automatically displays all related entities within the cluster formation.
- Entities that are not the hub entity of a relationship cluster might contain a related entities indicator, if they are related to other entities that are not already linked to the given node.
- If you expand the graph to include multiple relationship clusters, it is possible for an entity to display on the graph more than once. When the entity is the hub of a cluster, no related entities indicator displays. But when that same entity is part of relationship cluster and not the hub entity, if there are additional related entities for that entity that are not yet present on the graph, the related entities indicator displays. For this reason, you always see some related entity indicators on the graph.

Line indicators

The lines that surround entity nodes and connect entities and attributes can provide additional information:

Dashed lines connecting attributes indicate a close attribute match.
A thick line surrounding an entity node indicates the main entity – the entity that was selected or requested when creating this particular graph.