Orbit

See How All of Your Channels Relate.

INSTALLATION

1. Copy the entire orbit folder to your system/user/addons folder.
2. On your EE backend, navigate to Developer > Addons (yoursite.com/admin.php?/cp/addons).
3. Scroll to Third Party Add-Ons.
4. Find Orbit and click Install.
5. Navigate to Add-Ons > Orbit to view the channel relationship graph.

If you are upgrading from a previous version where the CP backend was not enabled, you will need to uninstall and reinstall the add-on for the control panel page to register.

OVERVIEW

Orbit provides an interactive force-directed graph that visualizes how your ExpressionEngine channels are connected through relationship fields. Channels appear as colored nodes and relationship fields appear as labeled, directed edges between them.

At a glance you can see:

• Which channels reference other channels
• Which relationship fields create those connections
• How many incoming and outgoing relationships each channel has
• Whether multiple fields connect the same pair of channels

GRAPH INTERACTION

Viewing

When you open Orbit from the Add-Ons menu, the graph automatically renders all channels that participate in at least one relationship. Channels with no relationship fields are excluded to keep the visualization clean.

Dragging

Click and drag any channel node to reposition it. The force simulation re-engages while dragging, so connected nodes will shift naturally in response. Release the node and it will stay where the simulation settles it.

Tooltips

Hover over any channel node to see a tooltip with:

• Channel name
• Outgoing connections: How many relationship fields originate from this channel
• Incoming connections: How many relationship fields point to this channel
• Field details: Each outgoing field name and its target channel

Multi-Edge Display

When multiple relationship fields connect the same two channels, the edges curve apart as Bezier paths so each field label remains readable.

Responsive Layout

The graph container responds to browser resizing. The simulation recalculates automatically when the viewport changes.

EMPTY STATE

If no relationship fields exist in your ExpressionEngine installation, the graph area displays a message prompting you to create relationship fields between your channels.

HOW IT WORKS

Orbit queries your channel and field configuration at render time. It does not store any data of its own and creates no database tables.

Channel Discovery

All channels are fetched via the EE Model service. Each channel that participates in at least one relationship becomes a node in the graph.

Relationship Field Detection

Orbit queries all fields with field_type of relationship. For each field, it determines:

• Source channels: Which channels contain this field, resolved through both direct field assignments and field group assignments.
• Target channels: Which channels the field is configured to relate to, read from the field's settings. If no specific channels are selected, all channels are considered valid targets.

Graph Data

The resulting nodes and edges are passed to the view as JSON. The graph is rendered entirely client-side using inline vanilla JavaScript with no external dependencies.

CONTROL PANEL

Orbit adds a single control panel page accessible from Add-Ons > Orbit. There are no additional settings or configuration pages.

SUPPORT

We want to make sure you have what you need on this. Email support@triplenerdscore.net for help.