US Patent 9852114 HTML5 graph overlays for application topology

A user may create a blueprint that specifies an application's architecture, including virtual machines (VM) nodes, software services and application components within the VM nodes. To do so, the user manipulates a graphical user interface (GUI) rendered by a graph layout manager and a Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) layout engine. The SVG layout engine parses declarative layout configurations and translates the declarative layout into SVG elements that visually represent the blueprint. Additional information may be rendered in independent layers overlaid on the GUI which a user may selectively activate or de-activate to show or hide, respectively, the additional information. The layers may be generated using extension points exposed via the declarative layout.