Automatic swimlane layout in mxgraph

Question

There is swimlane example in mxgraph but it is not automatic. So I took the graphlayout example as a basis instead and made few changes:

• Always use mxSwimlaneLayou

Answer 1

I was also facing the same issue,I was able to solve it. In my code, to auto rearrange the graph I used mxSwimlanelayout:

var layout = new mxSwimlaneLayout(this.editor.graph,mxConstants.DIRECTION_WEST);
layout.execute(this.editor.graph.getDefaultParent(),this.editor.graph.getDefaultParent().children /*swimlanes*/);

Though the nodes (children of swimlanes) were arranging automatically, swimlanes were not being respected.(same as author) So I investigated through the library (mxClient.js). I made following changes:

mxSwimlaneLayout.prototype.resizeParent = true;
mxSwimlaneLayout.prototype.moveParent = true;

inside mxSwimlaneLayout.prototype.execute function: replaced this.graph.updateGroupBounds by this.updateGroupBounds

and inside mxSwimlaneLayout.prototype.updateGroupBounds function, replaced following block:

for (var i = 0; i < edge.edges.length; i++)
{
    cells.push(edge.edges[i]);
}

by:

for (key2 in edge)
{
    cells.push(edge[key2].edges[0]);
}

(incompatibility with data format)

Hope this helps. I don't fully understand how/why these changes work. Library authors might be able to help with that.

Answer 2

Far from perfect, but somehow improvement:

Demo

I've added:

layout.execute(lane1, [v1,v2,v3,v4]);
layout.execute(lane2, [v5,v6,v7,v8]);

and changed resizeParent to false, looks like lanes are respected but still don't look pleasant.