Ensure deterministic graph calculation with consistent layer, node, and edge ordering in Kedro-Viz (#2185)

Resolves #2057.

Based on @astrojuanlu's comment, I realized that Kedro-Viz might be causing the randomness. To investigate, I checked if the inputs to graph calculations—nodes, edges, and layout—were consistent. While the order of nodes and layout remained stable, the order of edges varied with each backend data request. To address this, we now sort the layers, the edges and nodes to ensure consistency.

Update -
As @ravi-kumar-pilla noted, there was an issue with layer ordering: changing a node name could alter the layer order, especially for layers with identical dependencies, like model_input and feature in the example he shared. This issue stemmed from the layer_dependencies dictionary in services/layers.py, where layers with the same dependencies weren’t consistently ordered. To fix this, I added alphabetical sorting for layers with identical dependencies to ensure stability in toposort.

For nodes and edges, I now sort them immediately upon loading from the backend API, ensuring they are consistently ordered in the Redux state.

For testing, I initially considered using Cypress/backend e2e testing with screenshot comparison of the flowchart, but it proved too complex. Instead, I created a new mock dataset, reordered_spaceflights, with reordered nodes and edges. I added tests in normalise-data-test and actions/graph-test. The first test verifies that nodes and edges are consistently sorted by their ids, regardless of backend order. The second test compares the x and y coordinates in the flowchart, confirming that the graph layout is the same between the two mocks.

Author: rashidakanchwala

package/kedro_viz/services/layers.py

@@ -106,6 +106,11 @@ def find_child_layers(node_id: str) -> Set[str]:
         if layer not in layer_dependencies:
             layer_dependencies[layer] = set()
 
+    # Sort `layer_dependencies` keys for consistent ordering of layers with the same dependencies
+    layer_dependencies = defaultdict(
+        set, {k: layer_dependencies[k] for k in sorted(layer_dependencies)}
+    )
+
     # Use graphlib.TopologicalSorter to sort the layer dependencies.
     try:
         sorter = TopologicalSorter(layer_dependencies)

package/tests/test_services/test_layers.py

@@ -154,6 +154,32 @@
             {"node_1": {}, "node_2": {}},
             ["a", "b"],
         ),
+        (
+            # Case where if two layers e.g. `int` and `primary` layers share the same dependencies, they get sorted alphabetically.
+            """
+            node_1(layer=raw) -> node_3(layer=int)
+            node_2(layer=raw) -> node_4(layer=primary)
+            node_3(layer=int) -> node_5(layer=feature)
+            node_4(layer=primary) -> node_6(layer=feature)
+            """,
+            {
+                "node_1": {"id": "node_1", "layer": "raw"},
+                "node_2": {"id": "node_2", "layer": "raw"},
+                "node_3": {"id": "node_3", "layer": "int"},
+                "node_4": {"id": "node_4", "layer": "primary"},
+                "node_5": {"id": "node_5", "layer": "feature"},
+                "node_6": {"id": "node_6", "layer": "feature"},
+            },
+            {
+                "node_1": {"node_3"},
+                "node_2": {"node_4"},
+                "node_3": {"node_5"},
+                "node_4": {"node_6"},
+                "node_5": set(),
+                "node_6": set(),
+            },
+            ["raw", "int", "primary", "feature"],
+        ),
     ],
 )
 def test_sort_layers(graph_schema, nodes, node_dependencies, expected):
@@ -170,7 +196,7 @@ def test_sort_layers(graph_schema, nodes, node_dependencies, expected):
         for node_id, node_dict in nodes.items()
     }
     sorted_layers = sort_layers(nodes, node_dependencies)
-    assert sorted(sorted_layers) == sorted(expected), graph_schema
+    assert sorted_layers == expected, graph_schema
 
 
 def test_sort_layers_should_return_empty_list_on_cyclic_layers(mocker):

src/actions/graph.test.js

@@ -1,25 +1,37 @@
 import { createStore } from 'redux';
 import reducer from '../reducers';
-import { mockState } from '../utils/state.mock';
 import { calculateGraph, updateGraph } from './graph';
 import { getGraphInput } from '../selectors/layout';
+import { prepareState } from '../utils/state.mock';
+import spaceflights from '../utils/data/spaceflights.mock.json';
+import spaceflightsReordered from '../utils/data/spaceflights_reordered.mock.json';
+import { toggleModularPipelinesExpanded } from '../actions/modular-pipelines';
 
 describe('graph actions', () => {
+  const getMockState = (data) =>
+    prepareState({
+      data,
+      beforeLayoutActions: [
+        () =>
+          toggleModularPipelinesExpanded(['data_science', 'data_processing']),
+      ],
+    });
+
   describe('calculateGraph', () => {
     it('returns updateGraph action if input is falsey', () => {
       expect(calculateGraph(null)).toEqual(updateGraph(null));
     });
 
     it('sets loading to true immediately', () => {
-      const store = createStore(reducer, mockState.spaceflights);
+      const store = createStore(reducer, getMockState(spaceflights));
       expect(store.getState().loading.graph).not.toBe(true);
-      calculateGraph(getGraphInput(mockState.spaceflights))(store.dispatch);
+      calculateGraph(getGraphInput(getMockState(spaceflights)))(store.dispatch);
       expect(store.getState().loading.graph).toBe(true);
     });
 
     it('sets loading to false and graph visibility to true after finishing calculation', () => {
-      const store = createStore(reducer, mockState.spaceflights);
-      return calculateGraph(getGraphInput(mockState.spaceflights))(
+      const store = createStore(reducer, getMockState(spaceflights));
+      return calculateGraph(getGraphInput(getMockState(spaceflights)))(
         store.dispatch
       ).then(() => {
         const state = store.getState();
@@ -29,19 +41,51 @@ describe('graph actions', () => {
     });
 
     it('calculates a graph', () => {
-      const state = Object.assign({}, mockState.spaceflights);
-      delete state.graph;
-      const store = createStore(reducer, state);
+      const initialState = { ...getMockState(spaceflights), graph: {} };
+      const store = createStore(reducer, initialState);
       expect(store.getState().graph).toEqual({});
-      return calculateGraph(getGraphInput(state))(store.dispatch).then(() => {
-        expect(store.getState().graph).toEqual(
-          expect.objectContaining({
-            nodes: expect.any(Array),
-            edges: expect.any(Array),
-            size: expect.any(Object),
-          })
-        );
-      });
+      return calculateGraph(getGraphInput(initialState))(store.dispatch).then(
+        () => {
+          expect(store.getState().graph).toEqual(
+            expect.objectContaining({
+              nodes: expect.any(Array),
+              edges: expect.any(Array),
+              size: expect.any(Object),
+            })
+          );
+        }
+      );
+    });
+
+    it('compares deterministic flowchart of two differently ordered same projects', () => {
+      const store1 = createStore(reducer, getMockState(spaceflights));
+      const store2 = createStore(reducer, getMockState(spaceflightsReordered));
+
+      return calculateGraph(getGraphInput(getMockState(spaceflights)))(
+        store1.dispatch
+      )
+        .then(() =>
+          calculateGraph(getGraphInput(getMockState(spaceflightsReordered)))(
+            store2.dispatch
+          )
+        )
+        .then(() => {
+          // Get node coordinates for both graphs
+          const graph1Coords = store1.getState().graph.nodes.map((node) => ({
+            id: node.id,
+            x: node.x,
+            y: node.y,
+          }));
+
+          const graph2Coords = store2.getState().graph.nodes.map((node) => ({
+            id: node.id,
+            x: node.x,
+            y: node.y,
+          }));
+
+          // Verify coordinates consistency between both graphs
+          expect(graph1Coords).toEqual(expect.arrayContaining(graph2Coords));
+        });
     });
   });
 });

src/selectors/sliced-pipeline.test.js

@@ -12,13 +12,13 @@ describe('Selectors', () => {
     const expected = [
       '23c94afb',
       '47b81aa6',
+      '90ebe5f3',
       'daf35ba0',
       'c09084f2',
       '0abef172',
       'e5a9ec27',
       'b7bb7198',
       'f192326a',
-      '90ebe5f3',
       'data_processing',
     ];
     const newState = reducer(mockState.spaceflights, {

src/store/normalize-data.js

@@ -250,6 +250,15 @@ const getNodeTypesFromUrl = (state, typeQueryParams) => {
   return state;
 };
 
+/**
+ * Sort the edges, nodes in the state object to ensure deterministic graph layout
+ * @param {Object} state The state object to sort
+ */
+const sortNodesEdges = (state) => {
+  state.edge?.ids?.sort((a, b) => a.localeCompare(b));
+  state.node?.ids?.sort((a, b) => a.localeCompare(b));
+};
+
 /**
  * Updates the state with filters from the URL.
  * @param {Object} state - State object
@@ -331,6 +340,7 @@ const normalizeData = (data, expandAllPipelines) => {
     data.layers.forEach(addLayer(state));
   }
 
+  sortNodesEdges(state);
   const updatedState = updateStateWithFilters(state, data.tags);
   return updatedState;
 };

src/store/normalize-data.test.js

@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import normalizeData, { createInitialPipelineState } from './normalize-data';
 import spaceflights from '../utils/data/spaceflights.mock.json';
+import spaceflightsReordered from '../utils/data/spaceflights_reordered.mock.json';
 
 const initialState = createInitialPipelineState();
 
@@ -90,4 +91,20 @@ describe('normalizeData', () => {
       expect(node).toHaveProperty('name');
     });
   });
+
+  it('should have identical nodes and edges, in the same order, regardless of the different ordering from the api', () => {
+    // Normalize both datasets
+    const initialState = normalizeData(spaceflights, true);
+    const reorderedState = normalizeData(spaceflightsReordered, true);
+
+    // Compare nodes and edges by converting to JSON for deep equality
+    // Directly compare specific properties of nodes and edges, ensuring order and content
+    expect(initialState.node.ids).toEqual(reorderedState.node.ids);
+    expect(initialState.node.name).toEqual(reorderedState.node.name);
+    expect(initialState.node.type).toEqual(reorderedState.node.type);
+
+    expect(initialState.edge.ids).toEqual(reorderedState.edge.ids);
+    expect(initialState.edge.sources).toEqual(reorderedState.edge.sources);
+    expect(initialState.edge.targets).toEqual(reorderedState.edge.targets);
+  });
 });