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I am aware of this question, but it is eight years old, and asking for an OS X app.

Is there any IDE/editor where I can edit my input text, split-screen, and immediately have the GraphViz diagram generated?

I would prefer a stand-alone program, but would also accept a plug-in for Eclipse or NotePad++.

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5 Answers 5

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Now that I use VS Code more often I found a beautiful extension (Graphviz Interactive Preview) that renders Graphviz and allows you to search nodes by name, select different rendering algorithms and trace edges originating/going into a node.

This is the plugin in action (taken from the VS Code Marketplace site):

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  • I did not want to award the answer for this excellent answer, because I did not want to take points away from the original answerer - then I saw that that was you :-) So, all's well that ends well. This is the new accepted answer, and it looks excellent !! Thank you so much for updating after all this time. Have a 100 point bounty :-)
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Aug 26, 2022 at 9:14
  • Bounty in 23 hours time. Sorry, the system forces it
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Aug 26, 2022 at 9:15
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    That's very kind, thanks! I just keep finding better graphviz tooling, and am happy to point others to it as well.
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Aug 26, 2022 at 12:19
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+100

I found a Notepad++ plugin that works fairly well:

NppGraphViz by Github user jrebacz.

Combined with this syntax highlighting scheme from signmotion you get a nice editing environment in Notepad++:

enter image description here

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  • As you can see by the answers I have posted to my own question, I have been looking for an answer to this for years now. Since I love using Notepad++ I am doubly greateful to have this answer. Installation was simple. Thanx a 1,000,000
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Jun 25, 2019 at 20:50
  • I once found a plug in for MS Visual Studio, but have lost the link. Might be worth googlign for some, but I will be sticking with Notepad++
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Jun 25, 2019 at 20:51
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    @Mawg Glad to be of help. I found your suggestion helpful as well, especially as you could browse different styles, which aids in learning Graphiz. Unfortunately the DotEditor has a bug that once you edit the script once, the preview does not respond to changes in the treeview anymore. This disrupted my work, so I looked and found something else (above plugin).
    – Saaru Lindestøkke
    Jun 27, 2019 at 8:52
  • I love tools that take plain text as input, as I can generate the text from log files ,then run the tool. For instance, if you need Message Sequence Charts, you can't beat gitlab.com/msc-generator/msc-generator Plus there are some good free UML tools
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Aug 27, 2022 at 19:30
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I have just discovered https://vincenthee.github.io/DotEditor/ which does exactly what I asked for. I highly recommend it

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  • Couldn't get it to work on Linux. Could you expand on how to get it working?
    – einpoklum
    Jul 30, 2019 at 8:15
  • Hmmm, "Linux 64bit DotEditor-0.3.1-linux Tested on Ubuntu 14.04, Arch Linux" ... last tested five years ago :-( I can only suggest that you contact the programmer, or try running the Windows version under Wine. Good luck
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Jul 30, 2019 at 9:25
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I can say that CudaText editor (gratis) has plugin External Tools. Plugin allows to call GraphViz tool which generates picture, and you can press a hotkey to call this tool, eg F2. If this tool is fast, than it's ok for you.

How to setup CudaText:

  • on Linux, configure the Python engine. Ie, write option pylib__linux into "user.json". See details in default.json: Options / Settings-default menu item.
  • call menu Plugins / Addon Manager / Install and type there "Graphviz" to find lexer for Graphviz. Press Enter to install lexer.
  • after restart of app, lexer Graphviz will be visible in Lexers menu.
  • call menu Plugins / Addon Manager / Install and type "External tools" to find plugin "External Tools". Press Enter to install.
  • after restart of app, you have Tools item in the top menu. Click it and configure new tool for Graphviz program. Example tools - wiki info.
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    Sounds good. I was hoping for an IDE which integrated, rather than launched, GraphViz, but if I don't find one, then this is the answer (or the same technique with NotePad++).
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Jan 5, 2018 at 7:18
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    CudaText has good lexer for GraphViz_DOT too.
    – RProgram
    Jan 5, 2018 at 10:49
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    Then I will try it out (+1). But GraphViz is launched as an external tool? Correct?
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Jan 5, 2018 at 11:12
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    Yes, GraphViz must be called as tool from plugin ExtTools.
    – RProgram
    Jan 5, 2018 at 15:27
  • Can you give specific instructions on how to get GraphViz working with CudaText - from the first time you ever run CudaText when nothing is configured?
    – einpoklum
    Jul 30, 2019 at 8:17
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After my initial answer I found two other browser based options:

Magjac's Graphiz Visual Editor

enter image description here

Edotor

enter image description here

They both match all the requirements of the question asker:

  • gratis
  • edit input text
  • split-screen
  • immediately have the GraphViz diagram generated

I can't say one option is better than the other, it depends on what you need from a Graphviz IDE.
If you want to run them on your own machine or own network, both can be set-up with some effort, the Graphviz Visual Editor even has a Dockerfile available (in a pull request).

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  • Wow! Thanks for the feedback after all this time. Especially since I already awarded you the answer two years ago :-) I prefer non-browser based, in case I ever want to use it on proprietary or commercial data, but am fine with it for private use. I do like the idea of the Docker container. Thanks again !
    – Mawg says reinstate Monica
    Apr 5, 2022 at 14:50

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