Thinkmap is a software platform for developing customized visualization interfaces to complex data. The software provides a system for crafting visualizations with structured data in order to make the information more intuitive, accessible, manageable and meaningful. Thinkmap visualizations can make relationships in the data more apparent than can traditional line or column displays and can improve understanding and discovery.

Thinkmaps are highly customizable and are deployed by companies in variety of rich applications: knowledge management, operations and workflow, network management, e-commerce, research & development, and intelligence. Via the Thinkmap Software Developer Kit, developers can quickly create their own visualizations tailored to their data and integrated with their applications. Thinkmap runs on a variety of platforms and can be deployed in a variety of ways.

Thinkmap enables organizations to incorporate dynamic, data-driven information visualization technology into their enterprise Web applications. Thinkmap applications allow knowledge workers to make sense of complex information in ways that traditional interfaces can't. Data that may seem too overwhelming, too multi-faceted, or too dry for engaging users comes to life inside Thinkmap visualizations, keeping knowledge workers more engaged and effective. Thinkmaps make information more intuitive and understandable, often leading to discoveries of relationships and nuance not otherwise possible.

Compared to other visualization platforms, Thinkmap offers compelling benefits:

• Thinkmap is extremely malleable. Its underlying core can be molded and customized into any look or behavior. Preconfigured Thinkmap templates include Spider, Hierachy, Clustering, and Chronology displays.
• Multiple Thinkmaps can run simultaneously and together to depict different aspects of underlying data.
• Thinkmap's user interface is designed for real-time views of data, and real-time interaction.
• Thinkmap supports nearly infinite "dimensions" of data displayable. Each element of a Thinkmap display — from the length and thickness of a line to the color, size, shape, and movement of a node — is infinitely configurable, and can be mapped to properties in the data so that interfaces can be designed to perform specific tasks.
• Thinkmap supports multiple data sources: Flat-file, SQL, XML, Web Services, and custom data sources
• Thinkmap is efficient with large numbers of nodes and huge databases. Its "thin" client brings over only the data that it needs. No special hardware is required.
• Thinkmap can be deployed as a "thin" Web-based client, standalone .exe or a variety of other modes.
• Thinkmap's SDK comes with a fully working example and template to help developers get their own visualizations running very quickly.

Thinkmap is unique in its flexibility, scalability, and compatibility. Thinkmap's flexible architecture allows developers to create highly dynamic, visual interfaces for a broad variety of data sources. Each element of a Thinkmap display - from the length and thickness of a line to the color, size, shape, and movement of a node - is infinitely configurable, so that interfaces can be designed to perform specific tasks and depict incredible information density in an intuitive and clear manner. Because these elements can be mapped to properties in the data set, Thinkmap can show both qualitative and quantitative data.

In addition to its flexibility, Thinkmap offers a scalable and compatible solution. It is designed in such a way that it is easily configurable, efficient, and able to coexist in a large variety of legacy systems. Thinkmap's modularity enables rapid development of new application systems, and because its datasource API is standards-based, Thinkmap works well within most standard application server environments.

Thinkmap 2.8 adds a number of essential improvements over earlier versions. These include a new and improved Hierarchy visualization, improved performance, and more complete documentation.

Yes. One of the distinctive features of Thinkmap is the amount of control that developers have to fine-tune the look, feel and behavior of the resulting application. Via the XML-based configuration files and/or API, you can control how nodes and edges represent underlying data. Nodes and edges can be represented by words or images or any other form. The Thinkmap SDK also provides a rich set of visual wrappers and components (the GEL library) for creating a complete application.

The Thinkmap SDK is designed to allow developers to rapidly implement solutions. It reduces complexity through a well-considered separation of concerns. Developers of Thinkmap applications can focus on the visualization of their information, and not worry about the exact mechanisms that make it work in a seamless fashion.

Assuming the data is properly structured, a developer can typically produce a fully functional, data-rich Thinkmap in under a week. In the context of a very large project, the development cycle can be a few months.

If you want to use Thinkmap in your project, or for more information about the professional services we offer, please contact our sales department at salesthinkmap.com, call 212-285-8600, or see our licensing page.

There are three versions of the Thinkmap SDK available: Standard, which provides developers with the full capability to customize the Thinkmap visualization component, Professional, which includes the ability to access the datasource API and Enterprise, which comes with complete source code. The Standard Edition is perfect for those who are interested in experimenting with Thinkmap or using it for fairly straightforward Web applications. The Professional Edition is necessary for most integration with existing legacy systems or if it is necessary to provide different levels of access to the data. The Enterprise Edition is used by those who want the most flexibility in configuring, extending, and integrating the Thinkmap platform.

If you are interested in purchasing Thinkmap for use in your project, or for more information about the professional services we offer, please contact our sales department at
salesthinkmap.com, call 212-285-8600, or see our licensing information.

In selected cases we make the Standard Edition SDK available with a limited term license for research and development purposes only. If you have an interest in evaluating the Thinkmap software, please fill out the form on this page.

Through our partners, we offer complementary professional services to help our clients implement Thinkmap. Such services include training, data analysis, information architecture consulting, interface design, development, integration, and deployment services.

Thinkmap is a suite of loosely coupled components that together give users the ability to visually navigate, organize, and manipulate large data sets. For more general technical information about Thinkmap, please see the architecture page.

The Thinkmap API is designed to allow developers to rapidly implement customized solutions. The Standard Edition comes plug-and-play connectors to JDBC databases, XML, and flat files. Customers who license the professional edition get access to an API to easily integrate Thinkmap with non-standardized data sources and proprietary software.

While Thinkmap itself is developed to visualize relationships in structured data, customers have integrated Thinkmap with other software products that create structure from unstructured data. Please contact our sales department for further information regarding our partnerships with leading software vendors for automatic classification and categorization.

Thinkmap does not find relationships in data per se. Low-level data relationships are defined as part of developing a Thinkmap application, and Thinkmap then depicts the relationships. It is in these depictions, however, that users oftentimes discover relationships, patterns, and meanings in the data that would otherwise not have been apparent. Thinkmap visualizations can reveal these subtle connections in the data.

With Thinkmap, the developer (and the user) sets the rules for how the information is displayed. These rules can be complex, and are based on properties of the data. As the data is laid out, patterns emerge, and a user can then make decisions as to which parts of the data should be explored further.

Thinkmap is 100% Java and runs on all platforms that support Java, including Mac OSX, Unix, and Windows. Thinkmap uses Java's Servlet API to communicate with any standard Web server — such as Apache or IIS. Thinkmap's server-side component will run under any valid JVM. If your server is accessing a relational database, the JDBC drivers must be pure Java or native for the chosen platform.

Thinkmap is built to work with extremely large databases in situations with multiple simultaneous users. The Thinkmap Platform uses a variety of caching techniques to improve performance, and a large percentage of processing is done on the client side.

Thinkmap is standards-based, and works well within most standard application server environments. The technology has been deployed as a front-end to a variety of enterprise systems, including document management systems, customer relationship management systems, digital asset management systems, and automatic classification engines.

Yes. Thinkmap's Spider, Clustering, and Hierarchy visualization mechanisms can be deployed as either a two-dimensional display or a three-dimensional view. The three-dimensional view enables the user to rotate the visualized data to expose connections.

While Thinkmap does not include a search engine, it works very well as an enhancement to existing search engines — search results can be used as input into a Thinkmap. Thinkmap has been integrated with Verity, Google and other search APIs.

Thinkmap can run as a Java applet inside any Web browser. One or more Thinkmap applets may be incorporated into a Web page, and they may communicate amongst themselves or other components of the Web page. Thinkmap applets themselves access data in enterprise applications and back-end databases via the server component of Thinkmap, which may access SQL, XML or Web Services data.

Thinkmap can also be deployed as a standalone application.

Yes. The Thinkmap SDK includes comprehensive configuration files, API, a full template/example, complete documentation, datasource adapters for relational databases, XML, and flat files, and a library of traditional user interface elements that can be used as components in a Thinkmap application. The Enterprise edition includes full source code.

Thinkmap platform is 100% Java-based, but developers with no Java experience may configure complete Thinkmaps via the rich configuration files. Someone on the development team should have experience working within a Java development environment. Java experience is needed to build custom code to interface with the Thinkmap API.