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Overview

Network Analysis processes Excel (.xlsx) files entirely in your browser using the SheetJS library. No data is sent to a server—all processing happens client-side.

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File Requirements

Your Excel file must have headers in the first row. Each subsequent row represents a relationship or transaction.

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Required Columns

At minimum, your spreadsheet must contain:
  1. Origin column — The source node (e.g., referrer, sender, origin location)
  2. Destination column — The target node (e.g., referred person, recipient, destination)
These columns can have any name—you’ll select them from dropdowns after loading the file.

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Optional Columns

If your data includes a numeric weight/value for each relationship:
  • Select a Weight column from the dropdown
  • Values will be summed when aggregating duplicate origin→destination pairs
If no weight column is selected:
  • The app automatically counts the frequency of each origin→destination pair
  • Each row contributes a weight of 1
To enable the Geographic Map visualization, provide latitude/longitude columns:Origin coordinates:
  • Origin Lat (numeric latitude)
  • Origin Lng (numeric longitude)
Destination coordinates:
  • Dest Lat (numeric latitude)
  • Dest Lng (numeric longitude)
You can provide coordinates for origins only, destinations only, or both. The map will draw connections between nodes that have valid coordinates.

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Data Structure Example

Here’s a simple example of a valid Excel structure:
ReferrerCustomerSalesReferrer_LatReferrer_LngCustomer_LatCustomer_Lng
AliceBob15040.7128-74.006034.0522-118.2437
AliceCarol20040.7128-74.006041.8781-87.6298
BobDave10034.0522-118.243729.7604-95.3698
CarolEve30041.8781-87.629837.7749-122.4194
1

Origin = Referrer

Select “Referrer” as your Origin column
2

Destination = Customer

Select “Customer” as your Destination column
3

Weight = Sales (optional)

Select “Sales” to weight connections by sales value
4

Coordinates (optional)

Map the latitude/longitude columns to enable geographic visualization

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Multi-Sheet Files

If your Excel file contains multiple sheets:
  1. After selecting the file, a prompt will appear
  2. Choose which sheet contains your network data
  3. Only one sheet can be processed at a time
Sheet selection happens via a browser prompt listing all available sheet names.

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Data Processing

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Edge Aggregation

The application automatically aggregates duplicate origin→destination pairs: 
// Example: These three rows in your Excel...
Alice → Bob, weight: 10
Alice → Bob, weight: 15
Alice → Bob, weight: 5

// ...become one aggregated edge:
Alice → Bob, weight: 30, count: 3

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Node Identification

  • Nodes are identified by unique values in Origin and Destination columns
  • Case-sensitive: “Alice” and “alice” are treated as different nodes
  • Whitespace is trimmed: Leading/trailing spaces are removed
  • Empty values are skipped: Rows with blank origin or destination are ignored

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Best Practices

Column Name Conflicts: Origin and Destination columns must be different. If you select the same column for both, the app will display a warning and reset the selection.

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Data Quality Tips

  1. Consistent naming: Use the same spelling and capitalization for each node
  2. Clean data: Remove extra spaces, special characters that might cause confusion
  3. Numeric coordinates: Ensure lat/lng columns contain valid decimal numbers
    • Latitude: -90 to 90
    • Longitude: -180 to 180
  4. Reasonable file size: While the app runs in-browser, very large files (>10MB) may be slow

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Column Naming Suggestions

Origin: Referrer_Name
Destination: Customer_Name
Weight: Referral_Count

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Troubleshooting

  • Ensure the file has a .xlsx extension (not .xls or .csv)
  • Check that the first row contains headers
  • Verify the file isn’t corrupted
  • Try serving the app over HTTP (not file://) to avoid CORS issues with CDN libraries
  • Verify Origin and Destination columns contain non-empty values
  • Check browser console for errors (F12 → Console tab)
  • Ensure columns are different (can’t use same column for Origin and Destination)
  • Confirm you’ve selected latitude and longitude columns
  • Verify coordinate columns contain numeric values (not text)
  • Check that coordinates are in decimal degrees format
  • Ensure at least some rows have valid coordinates for both origin and destination

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Next Steps

Column Mapping

Learn how to map your columns to visualizations

Filtering Data

Discover how to filter and focus your visualizations

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