mbsoft/graph-core

A lightweight, performant, and dependency-free graph data structure library for PHP. This library provides a clean, modern API for working with directed and undirected graphs, with support for node and edge attributes, subgraph views, and multiple export formats.

✨ Features

🚀 High Performance: Uses integer indexing internally for O(1) adjacency lookups
🎯 Clean API: Well-designed interfaces following SOLID principles
📊 Directed & Undirected: Full support for both graph types
🏷️ Rich Attributes: Store arbitrary data on nodes and edges
👁️ Subgraph Views: Create efficient filtered views without copying data
📤 Multiple Export Formats: Cytoscape.js JSON, GraphML, GEXF
🔒 Type-Safe: Leverages PHP 8.2+ features for type safety
📦 Zero Dependencies: No external dependencies (except ext-dom for XML exports)
✅ Well-Tested: Comprehensive test coverage with Pest

📋 Requirements

PHP 8.2 or higher
ext-dom (for XML export formats)

📦 Installation

Install via Composer:

composer require mbsoft/graph-core

🚀 Quick Start

Basic Usage

use Mbsoft\Graph\Domain\Graph;

// Create a directed graph
$graph = new Graph(directed: true);

// Add nodes with attributes
$graph->addNode('A', ['label' => 'Node A', 'color' => 'red']);
$graph->addNode('B', ['label' => 'Node B', 'color' => 'blue']);
$graph->addNode('C', ['label' => 'Node C', 'color' => 'green']);

// Add edges with weights
$graph->addEdge('A', 'B', ['weight' => 1.5]);
$graph->addEdge('B', 'C', ['weight' => 2.0]);
$graph->addEdge('C', 'A', ['weight' => 0.5]);

// Query the graph
echo count($graph->nodes()); // 3
echo count($graph->edges()); // 3

// Check connections
if ($graph->hasEdge('A', 'B')) {
    $weight = $graph->edgeAttrs('A', 'B')['weight'];
    echo "Edge A->B has weight: $weight\n";
}

// Get neighbors
$successors = $graph->successors('A');   // ['B']
$predecessors = $graph->predecessors('C'); // ['B']

Undirected Graphs

use Mbsoft\Graph\Domain\Graph;

// Create an undirected graph
$graph = new Graph(directed: false);

$graph->addEdge('A', 'B', ['type' => 'friendship']);
$graph->addEdge('B', 'C', ['type' => 'friendship']);

// In undirected graphs, edges work both ways
$graph->hasEdge('A', 'B'); // true
$graph->hasEdge('B', 'A'); // true (same edge)

// Successors and predecessors are the same (neighbors)
$graph->successors('B');   // ['A', 'C']
$graph->predecessors('B'); // ['A', 'C']

Creating Graphs from Edge Lists

use Mbsoft\Graph\Domain\Graph;

$edges = [
    ['A', 'B', ['weight' => 1.0]],
    ['B', 'C', ['weight' => 2.0]],
    ['C', 'D', ['weight' => 1.5]],
    ['D', 'A', ['weight' => 3.0]],
];

$graph = Graph::fromEdgeList($edges, directed: true);

🔍 Advanced Features

Subgraph Views

Create efficient, read-only views of a subset of nodes:

use Mbsoft\Graph\Domain\Graph;
use Mbsoft\Graph\Domain\SubgraphView;

// Create a graph
$graph = new Graph();
$graph->addEdge('A', 'B');
$graph->addEdge('B', 'C');
$graph->addEdge('C', 'D');
$graph->addEdge('D', 'E');

// Create a view containing only nodes A, B, and C
$subgraph = new SubgraphView($graph, ['A', 'B', 'C']);

// The view only shows edges within the selected nodes
$subgraph->nodes();  // ['A', 'B', 'C']
$subgraph->edges();  // Only A->B and B->C edges
$subgraph->hasEdge('C', 'D'); // false (D not in view)

Modifying Attributes

// Update node attributes (merge with existing)
$graph->addNode('A', ['new_attr' => 'value']);

// Replace all node attributes
$graph->setNodeAttrs('A', ['only' => 'this']);

// Update edge attributes
$graph->setEdgeAttrs('A', 'B', ['weight' => 5.0, 'label' => 'Strong']);

📤 Export Formats

Cytoscape.js JSON

Export graphs for visualization with Cytoscape.js:

use Mbsoft\Graph\IO\CytoscapeJsonExporter;

$exporter = new CytoscapeJsonExporter();
$json = $exporter->export($graph);

// Result structure:
// [
//     'elements' => [
//         'nodes' => [
//             ['data' => ['id' => 'A', 'label' => 'Node A', ...]],
//             ...
//         ],
//         'edges' => [
//             ['data' => ['source' => 'A', 'target' => 'B', 'weight' => 1.5]],
//             ...
//         ]
//     ]
// ]

file_put_contents('graph.json', json_encode($json));

GraphML (XML)

Export to GraphML format for use with tools like Gephi, yEd, or NetworkX:

use Mbsoft\Graph\IO\GraphMLExporter;

$exporter = new GraphMLExporter();
$xml = $exporter->export($graph);

file_put_contents('graph.graphml', $xml);

GEXF (XML)

Export to GEXF format for Gephi and other network analysis tools:

use Mbsoft\Graph\IO\GexfExporter;

$exporter = new GexfExporter();
$xml = $exporter->export($graph);

file_put_contents('graph.gexf', $xml);

🏗️ Architecture

Interfaces

GraphInterface: Read-only graph operations
MutableGraphInterface: Extends GraphInterface with modification methods
ExporterInterface: Common interface for all export formats

Core Classes

Graph: The main mutable graph implementation
SubgraphView: Efficient filtered view of a graph
Node: Immutable value object for nodes
Edge: Immutable value object for edges
IndexMap: Internal bidirectional mapping for performance

🧪 Testing

Run the test suite:

composer test

Run tests with coverage:

composer test:coverage

Run static analysis:

composer analyse

🎯 Use Cases

This library is perfect for:

Network Analysis: Social networks, communication networks, infrastructure
Dependency Graphs: Package dependencies, task scheduling, build systems
Pathfinding: Route planning, game AI, logistics optimization
Data Visualization: Creating interactive graph visualizations
Knowledge Graphs: Semantic networks, ontologies, concept maps
Workflow Management: Process flows, state machines, decision trees

⚡ Performance Considerations

The library is optimized for performance:

Integer Indexing: Internally uses integer indices for O(1) lookups
Lazy Evaluation: Subgraph views don't copy data
Memory Efficient: Adjacency lists only store actual connections
Cache Friendly: Data structures optimized for CPU cache locality

Benchmarks

Performance with a 1,000 node graph:

Node lookup: < 0.001ms
Edge check: < 0.001ms
Get successors: < 0.01ms
Add edge: < 0.01ms

📚 Example Applications

Social Network Analysis

$socialNetwork = new Graph(directed: false);

// Add users
$socialNetwork->addNode('alice', ['name' => 'Alice', 'age' => 28]);
$socialNetwork->addNode('bob', ['name' => 'Bob', 'age' => 32]);
$socialNetwork->addNode('charlie', ['name' => 'Charlie', 'age' => 25]);

// Add friendships
$socialNetwork->addEdge('alice', 'bob', ['since' => '2020']);
$socialNetwork->addEdge('bob', 'charlie', ['since' => '2019']);

// Find friends of friends
$bobsFriends = $socialNetwork->successors('bob'); // ['alice', 'charlie']

Task Dependency Graph

$tasks = new Graph(directed: true);

// Add tasks
$tasks->addNode('compile', ['duration' => 30]);
$tasks->addNode('test', ['duration' => 45]);
$tasks->addNode('package', ['duration' => 15]);
$tasks->addNode('deploy', ['duration' => 20]);

// Add dependencies
$tasks->addEdge('compile', 'test');
$tasks->addEdge('test', 'package');
$tasks->addEdge('package', 'deploy');

// Find what needs to be done before deployment
$deployPrereqs = $tasks->predecessors('deploy'); // ['package']

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Fork the repository
Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
Open a Pull Request

📝 License

This library is open-sourced software licensed under the MIT license.

🙏 Acknowledgments

Inspired by NetworkX (Python) and JGraphT (Java)
Built with modern PHP best practices
Tested with Pest PHP testing framework

📮 Support

For bugs and feature requests, please use the GitHub issues page.

🔗 See Also

mbsoft/graph-builder - Fluent builders and factories (Phase 2)
mbsoft/graph-algorithms - Graph algorithms (Phase 3)
mbsoft/graph-viz - Visualization components (Phase 4)

Graph Core Laravel Package