MindMap Viewer: Share and Embed Mind Manager Maps Today
Background
Earlier in the year, I posted about the need for a common mind map file format. With the proliferation of the next-generation mind mapping applications (e.g. MindMeister, Mindomo, etc.), the need to import/export in a standard way and to share mindmaps easily is becoming critical.
As I discussed in my earlier post, I’m a huge fan of commercial mind mapping applications (in particular MindManager). And, I love to share my mind maps with friends and colleagues, however there is a bit of a barrier if those people don’t have my specific mind mapping application of choice.
One of the greatest things that the newer web-based mind mapping sites have done is to allow people to easily share their maps, and embed them directly onto their personal sites, wikis, and blogs. Yesterday while researching some sites on knowledge management, I discovered some wikis that support embedding of FreeMind maps using either a Java applet or flash player.
I thought to myself, wow……. I feel really left out. I would *love* to be able to do this myself using my existing MindManager maps. So, I decided to put on my “hacking cap” and wrote an application that allows you to easily convert, embed/share, and view your mind maps. The ultimate goal is have this service become some sort of Universal MindMap Viewer: multiple mind map input types, and multiple outputs (java applet, flash, and other forthcoming visualization frameworks/toolkits). Until the day that we do have a common mindmap format, this type of application will do the trick.
MindMap Viewer
Website: http://eric-blue.com/projects/mindmapviewer/
Screenshot:
* Downloads the mindmap at the provided URL (previously converted maps will be cached for a short time)
* Extract/convert the .mmap file to XML
* Translate to the FreeMind .mm format using XSL
* Embed or launch using the FreeMind Java Applet or Flash Viewer
Samples
Source: http://eric-blue.com/blog/download/Goals%20Mind%20Map%20Template.mmap
Website: http://eric-blue.com/blog/2007/03/use_mind_maps_to_achieve_your_goals.html
Type: Flash
Roadmap
This is obviously a work in progress, but definitely a great start. The Flash viewer is certainly promising since it’s quite a bit faster than the applet, however there are currently some rendering problems with certain nodes. All in all though, this gets the job done. In the next few weeks I plan on adding some enhancements and would greatly appreciate some feedback!
Thanks!
7 Responses
One important thing I neglected to mention was that I’ve tested this successfully on Firefox(mac+win), Safari(mac+win), and IE 7(win).
Great applet. I will use it in my weblog. Thanks!
Hi there –
A comment by Vic Gee in my LiveJournal got me reviewing some historical resources and I came across something that I think substantiates your call for a common format.
Just now, exploring MindMapPedia I found this in their FAQ:
“What file formats are acceptable?
For optimum results, maps should be prepared as electronic data files using any of several well-known software programs such as MindManager, Visual Mind, ConceptDraw MindMap, Nova Mind, etc”
I notice the absence of cMpap, and Compendium, and Rationale, and on and on … it really is a bewildering swirl!
regards
Mind & Concept Mapping Software Interoperability
Vic Gee at mind-mapping.org has spent the last few months collecting information on a various mindmap formats, and how to import/export between them. Vic’s site is: … collection of information about how mind mapping software can communicate. Some pac…
[…] some mildly confusing debugging, I finally discovered why my MindMap Viewer was not working with some configurations of Firefox 3, Flash, and Linux or Mac. I first noticed […]
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MindV ,an online mind mapping tools, based on cloud computting. It save your mind mapping in cloud storage, then you can share you mind map to every one or embed a mind map in a any web page.