New in VUE 3.0 (Feb 4, 2010)
- At the heart of VUE 3 is a new set of data discovery and exploration tools. Information visualization begins with importing data, and with VUE 3.0 users can now import XML documents, RSS feeds and CSV files into the newly designed content panel. Each data set is listed as a separate resource under the dataset tab of the content panel. Columns of a CSV file and unique elements of XML documents appear as high-level nodes within the data tree.
- To facilitate the exploration of maps, we have also created a new panel called Exploration Tools. The Extended Selection tool enables you to extend the selection from one node to other linked nodes by depth of connection and the Opacity tool affects the opacity of the non-selected node and links in a map to reduce visual noise. In addition to the existing interactive zoom tool in VUE, VUE 3.0 includes an automatic zoom feature for selected items. All of these new features in the Exploration Tool panel give the user more automation in highlighting specific content, especially for large and complex maps.
- With VUE 3, a map can be quickly built out by selecting a node and triggering a query of selected resources. Results are placed on the map using one of VUE’s new automated layouts, designed to assist users in interacting and organizing with their data.
- Continuing to build on VUE's history of integration with other tools valuable to scholarly research, we’ve included two additional features in this release. These features demonstrate our understanding of the importance of digital information and published resources in scholarly activity, as well as the many associated tasks of structuring and managing digital content. These features reflect the preferences and activities of today’s scholars. 1) We have developed a framework in VUE to call SEASR (http://seasr.org) flows and augment the outcome of these flows with the working map. 2) We have created a plug-in for Firefox to allow users to map their Zotero collections in VUE using new dataset features.
- VUE 3 also provides notable improvements in performance with a completely redesigned image rendering architecture. VUE can now handle large number of digital images while using only a fraction of the memory required in VUE 2.
- Finally, VUE 3 introduces localization of the VUE user interface. VUE is currently available localized for French, Greek, Italian and Portuguese, with partial translations available in Bulgarian, Chinese, German, Hungarian, Russian and Spanish. If you are interested in translating VUE to another language, or in helping us complete the partial translations, please let us know in our user forums.