R diagrammeR graph

Question

I am using diagrammer for a diagram that should look like the one below but without any success.

I have tried the following code

library(DiagrammeR)
grViz("
digraph boxes_and_circles {

  graph [layout = circo,
      overlap =T,
      outputorder = edgesfirst,
      bgcolor='white',
      splines=line]#controls l type setup
      edge[labelfontname='Arial',fontSize=13,color='red',fontcolor='navy']
      node [shape = box,style='filled',
      fillcolor='indianred4',width=2.5,
      fontSize=20,fontcolor='snow',
      fontname='Arial']
  a;b;c;d;e

  node [shape = square,
        fixedsize = true,
        width = 0.9] // sets as circles
  # several 'edge' statements
  a->b;a->c;a->d;a->e;c->b;d->b;e->b}")

Which gives me the following diagram

Any thought on how to tweak the code to get the desired output? Any help would be highly appreciated. Thank you.

Answer 1

Hmm

• the circo layout engine doesn't seem to apply here, changed to dot
• added aPrime & bPrime nodes for desired result
• used rank= to start ranking
• used invisible edges to set ranking for lower nodes
• added port specification to some edges
• used group attribute for vertical alignment

For more info on these attributes see: https://www.graphviz.org/pdf/dotguide.pdf and: https://www.graphviz.org/doc/info/attrs.html

digraph boxes_and_circles {

  graph [layout = dot  // not circo
      overlap =false,  // not "T"
      outputorder = edgesfirst,
      bgcolor="white",
      splines=line  //polyline
      nodesep="2.0"
      ]#controls l type setup
      edge[labelfontname="Arial",fontSize=13,color="red",fontcolor="navy"
      ]
      
      node [shape = box,style="filled",
      fillcolor="indianred4",width=2.5,
      fontSize=20,fontcolor="snow",
      fontname="Arial"
      ]
  {rank=min  a [group=g1] ;b [group=g2]}
  {rank=same
    aPrime [label="A on C D E" group=g1]
    bPrime [label="C D E on B" group=g2]
    }
    {
      edge[style=invis]
      c-> d-> e
   }

  // what is the new node definition for ??
  node [shape = square,
        fixedsize = true,
        width = 0.9] // sets as circles
  # several "edge" statements
  a->b;
  a -> aPrime
  aPrime->c:w;  
  aPrime->d:w;
  aPrime->e:w;
  c:e->bPrime;
  d:e->bPrime;
  e:e->bPrime
  bPrime->b
  }

Giving: