About JLink

JLink is a free, open source library for creating flow charts and concept maps. JLink produces visually appealing charts on A4 or custom-sized pages, and may be saved or exported to a number of file formats (XML, PDF, PNG).

JLink comes bundled with free standalone flow-charting software, perfect for end users in a number of industries (e.g. education, science). Developers may choose to plug the library into other applications of their own. In third-party software, dynamic flow-chart creation is made possible with Ruby, Javascript or Python (using external libraries such as Jython, Rhino and JRuby).

JLink and associated documentation may be accessed from the Download section.
For help and FAQs, please see the Help section.

Features and specifications

  • Compatible operating systems: Windows 95/98/2000/XP/Vista, Linux, Mac
  • JLink is written in Java and is therefore platform-independent.
  • External libraries used: Jython, Rhino, JRuby, Groovy, Lucene, iText.
  • JLink creates flowcharts based on ISO 5807 and IBM standards.

About the Developers

Jason Barraclough (Developer)     Email | SourceForge Profile
Jason has a keen interest in developing open-source software for end users and fellow developers. Jason has extensive experience with Java, Fortran and XML, and is currently teaching himself C. Jason has also written a number of software libraries (including Avian Freeware Suite) and is working on software for medical students and scientists.
Formal qualifications: Bachelor of Biomedical Science (Drug Technology), currently studying graduate medicine.

Kathryn (Web designer)     Email | SourceForge Profile
Kathryn counts web design among her favourite hobbies. Kathryn is most experienced with XHTML and CSS, but is currently discovering the benefits and of PHP.
Formal qualifications: Honours degree (Neuroscience), currently undertaking a PhD in neurophysiology.

Acknowledgements and References

  • Thank you to SourceForge for hosting JLink!
  • Thank you to other open-source developers. The Javascript and Python engines for JLink are implemented with Rhino and Jython respectively. JLink also uses the Ruby and Groovy interpreters: JRuby and Groovy. Lucene provides text searching capabilities and PDF support is supplied by the iText PDF creation library.
  • The JLink flow-chart symbol set is based on a IBM's standard reference.
  • The Wikipedia entry about flowcharts was helpful.
  • JLink's website was built with Geany - a free, (largely) platform-independent development environment. Highly recommended!

Screenshots

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