Data Analysis and Visualization with
Tom Sawyer Perspectives

Unifying data and driving insight with graph technology.

Tom Sawyer Perspectives is a powerful, low-code development platform for building standalone applications or embedding advanced data analysis and visualization into existing systems. It enables organizations to federate data from diverse sources—relational databases, graph stores, JSON, RDF, REST APIs, and more—and model it into a unified knowledge graph representation.

Used in mission-critical data systems across industries including cybersecurity, intelligence, telecommunications, and systems engineering, Perspectives supports deep data exploration and link analysis supported by superior graph drawings. With automated schema extraction, a rich suite of visual data analysis tools, code-free pattern-based querying, and customizable layouts, Perspectives transforms complex, connected data into intuitive, interactive knowledge graph visualizations that enable data-driven decision making.

 
Discover how Perspectives drives insight with powerful data analysis and visualization in this short video.
Whether you're analyzing criminal networks, optimizing enterprise architectures, or visualizing system dependencies, Perspectives provides the flexibility, performance, and scalability needed to turn data complexity into actionable intelligence.

 

Perspectives 13.2 available now


Perspectives 13.2
 includes powerful enhancements designed to make development easier and graph visualization more intuitive. 

  • Reduced edge crossings 30-50% on average in hierarchical drawings.

  • Entering Cypher or Gremlin queries is easier and more flexible.

  • Use the web framework of your choice and integrate and build modern applications in React, Angular, and HTML.

Why data analysis and visualization matters

In today’s data-driven world, raw information alone doesn’t drive decisions—insight does. Data analysis and visualization help transform complex datasets into meaningful, actionable knowledge. These practices allow users to detect trends, identify outliers, and reveal relationships that would otherwise remain undiscovered.

At the core of this transformation are data structures—ways of organizing information for efficient storage and access. Graph models are one such structure, ideal for representing interconnected data. In a graph model, nodes represent entities (like people, devices, or events), and edges represent relationships between them. Unlike traditional tabular models, graphs naturally mirror how real-world systems are connected, enabling more intuitive and powerful data analysis.

Graph-based data analysis and visualization transforms complex data into meaningful, actionable knowledge.


Graph-based data analysis and visualization transforms complex data into meaningful, actionable knowledge.

Perspectives streamlines your development workflow

Perspectives low-code development platform and extensive API libraries enable you to quickly build stand-alone data analysis and visualization applications or incorporate visualizations into an existing application.

Perspectives point-and-click graphical application designer greatly reduces the amount of code that needs to be written when developing an application and includes a previewer to see your work in action for continual iteration and refinement before deploying.

The Perspectives platform also includes extensive APIs for custom application development.

Design

Perspectives low-code point-and-click Designer enables rapid application development.

Perspectives low-code point-and-click Designer enables rapid application development.

 

Preview

Perspectives application Previewer streamlines application development and refinement.

Perspectives application Previewer streamlines application development and refinement.

 

Go from raw data to interactive data analysis and visualization views in minutes

Perspectives federates and transforms raw data—whether it’s relational, hierarchical, or fully interconnected—into rich, interactive visualizations. Whether embedded in an existing system or delivered as a standalone web or desktop application, the resulting views behave like any modern web or desktop experience—intuitive, responsive, and interactive.

With this pipeline, you can turn complex, connected data into actionable visual representations—fast.

Here's how it works:

 
Watch this video to learn how to turn complex, connected data into actionable visual representations in minutes.
1
Query and Federate

Bring together data from multiple, disparate sources into a unified Perspectives graph schema model.

2
Process and Refine

Apply rules, functions, and filters to shape and prepare the data to your use case specification.

3
Visualize and Analyze

Customize graphical views, incorporate analysis algorithms, and create a dashboard layout defining the interactive experience for your end users.

4
Build and Deploy

Build and deploy a stand-alone web or desktop application or prepare the views for inclusion into your existing application.

Step 1: Query and Federate

Seamlessly federate and integrate data from dozens of sources

With Perspectives, there’s no need for lengthy or expensive data migrations. With built-in data federation and integration capabilities, you connect directly to your existing systems—keeping data where it is. Perspectives purpose-built connectors effortlessly link to one or more sources, regardless of type, and bring the data into an in-memory graph model for advanced data analysis and visualization.

Perspectives supports dozens of data sources.

 

Watch these informative how-to videos to learn how easy it is to use Perspectives to integrate with Amazon Neptune, SQL, Excel, and Neo4j. See our YouTube channel for even more how-to videos about integrating with additional data sources. 

How to Integrate with Amazon Neptune

How to Integrate with SQL Graph Databases

How to Integrate with Excel Data Sources

How to Integrate with Neo4j Graph Databases

Extract and refine your data model with smart modeling tools

Perspectives flexible schema system makes it easy to define the structure of your data models to support your use case. Whether you're working with relational or graph-based data—or blending both—Perspectives enables you to model entities, relationships, and attributes by automatically extracting your schema and allowing you to customize model attributes and element types.

Choose from basic value types like strings and integers, or more advanced options like references, lists, and computed expressions. You can even define abstract types and use inheritance to organize shared attributes across element types, reducing redundancy and improving clarity.

With the visual schema editor you can view and manually adjust the Perspectives graph schema to match your application needs for ultimate control.

Visualize and refine the structure of your data model with the  Perspectives visual schema editor.

Visualize and refine the structure of your data model with the Perspectives visual schema editor.

Step 2: Process and Refine

Shape your data with rules, filters, and expressions

Shape your raw data into meaningful, business-ready insights using custom rules, filters, and expressions.
Perspectives Rules

 

Rules transform and derive new values from existing data, such as calculations, string manipulations, aggregations (e.g., sum, average), or date/time conversions. These functions help create calculated fields or metrics that add analytical value beyond the raw data.
Perspectives Filters

 

Filters limit the data included in models based on specific criteria such as restricting data to a certain time range, region, product category, or user segment. Filters ensure that only the most relevant data is included for a particular analysis or use case and improve performance by reducing data volume.
Perspectives Expressions

 

Expressions combine fields, operators, and functions to define custom logic that is often used to build computed columns, define conditional logic (e.g., case statements), or support dynamic data transformations. Expressions bring flexibility to your models by enabling complex business logic to be embedded directly into the data layer.

Step 3: Visualize and Analyze

Gain deeper understanding with superior data analysis and visualization

Once your data model is in place, Perspectives provides developers with all the tools to create intuitive dashboard layouts of custom visualizations that users can explore and interact with.

Multiple data visualization formats

Perspectives supports multiple presentation formats including chart, drawing, map, table, tree, inspector, and timeline views, that you can incorporate into a real-time data visualization dashboard of views that best suit your user's needs.

Learn more how graph and data visualizations uncover structures and patterns in data, leading to meaningful discoveries.

Charts
Drawings
Maps
Tables
Trees
Inspectors
Timelines

Automated graph drawing and layout

Why do our customers love us? Perspectives unmatched graph drawing and layout capabilities bring order to complexity, so your users can understand even the most intricate data at a glance.

  • Global, incremental, and constraint-based layouts with full support for nested diagrams and labeling.
  • Automated layout system that ensures readable edge routing with support for nested connectors, jumpovers, and precise shape clipping.
  • Complexity management techniques that support nested drawings with drill-down, collapse, and expand.
Connectors
Constraints
Incremental Layout
Routing
Level Of Detail Graphics
Jumpovers
Labeling
Nesting
Precise Shape Clipping

Perspectives advanced graph drawing and layout capabilities produce clean, readable drawings that bring order to complexity.

State-of-the-art graph layouts

We've moved far beyond the competition. While other tools rely primarily on simple, force-directed (spring embedder) techniques, we offer five automatic graph layout algorithms. Each layout style provides extensive options for tailoring the layouts to your specific use case, such as layout constraints, spacing between objects, layout direction, and more. Perspectives also supports specialized layouts including swimlane, one-line, and timeline diagrams.

Our high-precision layouts organize complex data into clear, structured visualizations to reveal hidden relationships and underlying patterns.

Bundle Layout

Bundle

Where possible, this layout intelligently combines (or bundles) related edges between nodes into one. So instead of seeing five edges leading from five nodes to a common destination, some of those edges bundle together, making the overall graph easier to read.

Circular Layout

Circular

Graphs often contain subgraphs of nodes that are more strongly related to each other. Circular layout finds these subgraphs, or clusters, and emphasizes them in the drawing while highlighting the superstructure and detail of the overall graph.

Hierarchical Layout

Hierarchical

Hierarchical layout emphasizes dependency relationships and flows. Especially useful for graphs with directed edges, these drawings show that some graph elements depend on others, while other elements do not.

Orthogonal Layout

Orthogonal

Edges in Orthogonal layout style are routed with mostly horizontal and vertical segments. This layout produces high-precision visualizations of complex graphs that have many edges, nested components, or specific connection points on nodes.

Symmetric Layout

Symmetric

Symmetric layout emphasizes connected nodes by placing them close to each other and drawing edges with straight lines. This layout is particularly useful for graphs that represent structures that happen in real life such as social or computer networks.

Our symmetric layout goes beyond the basic spring-embedder technique, producing overlap-free diagrams that are easier to read.

Learn more about our automated graph layout technology and how it automatically transforms connected data into clear, insightful visual structures.

Flexible and performant graph visualization

Perspectives extensive graph visualization customization features and its advanced rendering framework provide flexibility in how nodes and edges are represented while ensuring high performance when rendered in your graph application.

Perspectives provides advanced node and edge styling, dynamic layouts, zoom-dependent detail, and tools like the magnifier and overview window, for intuitive graph exploration. Custom visuals, animations, and data-driven styling highlight key patterns, delivering powerful graph visualization capabilities that help users understand and navigate complex data.

Data-driven node and edge styling help users understand and navigate complex data.

Data-driven node and edge styling help users understand and navigate complex data.

Code-free data exploration tools

Perspectives is not only a developer-friendly platform, it includes intuitive, code-free exploration tools that make it easy for end users to navigate and understand data.

Easily incorporate attribute-based search, visual pattern matching queries, synchronized highlighting, and seamless link navigation into your application helping users traverse even the most complex graphs—without knowing query languages.

AttributeDrivenSearch

Find specific elements in a dataset by filtering based on defined properties or metadata, making it easier to locate relevant information within complex data structures.

PatternMatchingQueries

Quickly uncover insights and effortlessly explore data using an intuitive graph visualization—all without the need to know Gremlin or Cypher query languages.

SynchronizedViews

Stay oriented within the data with synchronized data visualization views. Click any element in any view, and the equivalent element is highlighted in other views.

LinkNavigation

Large data sets and dense graphs are no match for the link navigation tool which easily navigates a link from source to target node in graph drawing views.

PanningAndZooming

Navigate and explore large or detailed visualizations by shifting the view and adjusting the level of magnification, for better focus and context within complex datasets.

Graph data analysis for smarter decision-making

Perspectives includes powerful enterprise data analysis algorithms that add intelligence to your applications and help uncover critical insights from connected data.

Algorithms include shortest path, centrality, connectivity, and clustering that can reveal key influencers, hidden patterns, and optimal paths—enabling more informed, data-driven decisions. Learn more.

Perspectives analysis algorithms reveal insights that enable informed decisions.

Perspectives analysis algorithms reveal insights that enable informed decisions.

Step 4: Build and Deploy

Build anywhere. Deploy anywhere.

Perspectives supports both web- and desktop-based applications giving you the flexibility to build and deploy powerful data analysis and visualization applications in the environments that suit your infrastructure and workflow best.

Build with the tools you know

Create applications for both web and desktop platforms using modern technologies:

  • Web: Build responsive web applications using React, Angular, or any standard HTML5 and JavaScript framework.

  • Desktop: Develop robust, interactive desktop applications with Java Swing or .NET.

See the full list of supported features for Java and .NET.

Build desktop or web applications with Perspectives using the tools you know.

Build desktop or web applications with Perspectives using the tools you know.

React
Angular
HTML
Java Swing
Microsoft .NET

Use your existing DevOps pipeline

Whether developing a standalone application or embedding into your current application, Perspectives seamlessly integrates with standard source control, build, and CI/CD integration programs.

Select the deployment option that meets the needs of your end users to enable continuous integration and delivery.

Perspectives flexible platform seamlessly integrates into your CI/CD pipeline.


Perspectives flexible platform seamlessly integrates into your CI/CD pipeline.

Deploy and host on your terms

When you're ready to host your finished Perspectives application, choose from a range of secure and scalable hosting options to match your deployment needs.
AWS Marketplace

Cloud AWS

Deploy your completed graph visualization application using our deployment container on AWS Marketplace. If security is a concern, deploy your completed graph visualization application to the secure AWS GovCloud (US) environment.
Internal Server

Internal Server

Want to keep your application behind closed doors? Perspectives can be deployed to your own internal server. 
Siloed Server

Siloed Server

If your cybersecurity is tighter than tight, you can deploy your graph visualization application to a bunkered, air-gapped server.

Some of the reasons why our customers love us

Tom Sawyer Perspectives ‌‌‌‌‌‌ is a‌‌  very‌‌ well architected product and provides incredible value as a low code solution for visualization of graph data...we could complete the visual in 1/4 of the time.

Fidelity icon

Vinay Prasad

Vice President, Fidelity

It would have been impossible to develop the sophisticated visualizations without a trusted partner who are laser focused on developing top notch technology and committed for the long haul.

HubScope icon

Steve Dickinson

Co-Founder and CEO, HubScope

I was literally drawing graphs like these on whiteboards while not really knowing what they were. When I found Tom Sawyer Software, I thought: Here's the solution to my problem!

 

OGraph

Walt Brown

Founder, OGraph

I was very happy with the consulting services we received. Tom Sawyer Software has been a very good partner. The work was wonderful and we look forward to future releases where we can reengage with more services from them.

 

TIBCO

Chris Martha

Director of Product Management and Strategy, TIBCO

Case Study: Leveraging Data Visualization for Improved Program and Systems Engineering in Large Projects

Explore the application of data visualization in addressing program and systems engineering problems in a large project.

2021.03.25.0.GDBB.WhitepaperBook-1

See example applications in action

Test drive these example applications built with Perspectives that are designed to showcase the capabilities you can include in your data application. Sign up to analyze data, explore layouts, and see what's possible.

Supply Chain

Supply Chain

Quickly spot and drill into problematic chains in this real-world supply chain example. Visualize the chain of raw materials that make up several different styles of pens, and the graph of locations from which materials are sourced.

Microwave Network

Microwave Network

Manage the devices and antennas of a microwave transmission network. Observe edge colors and thickness to determine connection loads and capacity as you run Shortest Path analysis to find the fastest communication routes.

CrimeNetwork-1

Crime Network

Identify fraud. Find relationships. Bust bad guys. Use social network analysis algorithms to predict patterns and make strategic decisions.

Ready to get started?

We offer free trials and flexible paths to fit your needs. Start with a free trial of Perspectives deployed locally, or launch an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) directly through your AWS Marketplace of choice.

Contact us for a live demo of Perspectives and to start your free trial.

Start your free trial of Perspectives on AWS Marketplace.

Find Perspectives on AWS GovCloud (US) and Intelligence Community Marketplace (ICMP).