Getting started with Prefuse
Prefuse (http://prefuse.org/) is one of my favorite java library for displaying graphs. (For a list of java graph libraries have a look at http://www.manageability.org/blog/stuff/open-source-graph-network-visualization-in-java/view.)
JUNG is also very nice but has its strengths in graph algorithm whereas Prefuse does a fantatastic job on rendering all different type of outputs. Just have a look at the example gallerys at the prefuse page.
There is only one issue that makes Prefuse really hard to get started with meaning its big number of spezialized classes. It can be a nightmare to find out in wich class the functionality hides that you are looking for. That's the reason why I tried to write a short overview.
First to start there is a simple Hello World example.
There are three main classes to have a look at:
Visualization:The Central datastructure that manages the interaction between internal data and displayed data.
Display: A JComponent that manages drawing. It can be added to any Swing Container in standard Applications as well as in Applets.
Graph:
Further important are: