Orange (software)

Orange is an open-source data visualization, machine learning

and data mining toolkit. It features a visual programming front-
Orange
end for explorative qualitative data analysis and interactive data Developer(s) University of
visualization. Ljubljana
Initial release 10 October
Description 1996[1]
Stable release 3.35.0[2] / 5 May
Orange is a component-based visual programming software 2023
package for data visualization, machine learning, data mining,
and data analysis. Repository Orange
Repository (http
Orange components are called widgets. They range from simple s://github.com/biol
data visualization, subset selection, and preprocessing to ab/orange3)
empirical evaluation of learning algorithms and predictive
Written in Python, Cython,
modeling.
C++, C
Visual programming is implemented through an interface in Operating system Cross-platform
which workflows are created by linking predefined or user-
Type Machine learning,
designed widgets, while advanced users can use Orange as a
Data mining, Data
Python library for data manipulation and widget alteration.[5]
visualization, Data
analysis
Software
License GPLv3 or
later[3][4]
Orange is an open-source software package released under GPL
and hosted on GitHub. Versions up to 3.0 include core Website orangedatamining
components in C++ with wrappers in Python. From version 3.0 .com (https://oran
onwards, Orange uses common Python open-source libraries gedatamining.co
for scientific computing, such as numpy, scipy and scikit-learn, m/)
while its graphical user interface operates within the cross-
platform Qt framework.

The default installation includes a number of machine

learning, preprocessing and data visualization algorithms in 6
widget sets (data, transform, visualize, model, evaluate and
unsupervised). Additional functionalities are available as add-
ons (text-mining, image analytics, bioinformatics, etc.).

Orange is supported on macOS, Windows and Linux and can

also be installed from the Python Package Index repository
A typical workflow in Orange 3.
(pip install Orange3).

Features
Orange consists of a canvas interface onto which the user
places widgets and creates a data analysis workflow. Widgets
offer basic functionalities such as reading the data, showing a
data table, selecting features, training predictors, comparing
learning algorithms, visualizing data elements, etc. The user
can interactively explore visualizations or feed the selected
subset into other widgets.

Canvas: graphical front-end for data analysis Classification Tree widget in Orange 3.
Widgets:
Data: widgets for data input, data filtering,
sampling, imputation, feature manipulation and
feature selection
Visualize: widgets for common visualization
(box plot, histograms, scatter plot) and
multivariate visualization (mosaic display, sieve
diagram).
Classify: a set of supervised machine learning
algorithms for classification
Regression: a set of supervised machine
learning algorithms for regression
Evaluate: cross-validation, sampling-based
procedures, reliability estimation and scoring of A decorated dendrogram in Orange 3.
prediction methods
Unsupervised: unsupervised learning
algorithms for clustering (k-means, hierarchical clustering) and data projection
techniques (multidimensional scaling, principal component analysis, correspondence
analysis).

Add-ons
Orange users can extend their core set of components with components in the add-ons. Supported add-ons
include:

Associate: components for mining frequent itemsets and association rule learning.
Bioinformatics: components for gene expression analysis, enrichment, and access to
expression databases (e.g., Gene Expression Omnibus) and pathway libraries.
Data fusion: components for fusing different data sets, collective matrix factorization, and
exploration of latent factors.
Educational: components for teaching machine learning concepts, such as k-means
clustering, polynomial regression, stochastic gradient descent, ...
Explain: provides an extension with components for the model explanation, including
Shapley value analysis
Geo: components for working with geospatial data.
Image analytics: components for working with images and ImageNet embeddings
Network: components for graph and network analysis.
Text mining: components for natural language processing and text mining.
 Time series: widget components for time series analysis and modeling.
Single-cell: support for single-cell gene expression analysis, including components for
loading single-cell data, filtering and batch effect removal, marker genes discovery, scoring
of cells and genes, and cell type prediction.
Spectroscopy: components for analyzing and
visualization of (hyper)spectral datasets.[6]
Survival analysis: add-on for data analysis
dealing with survival data. It includes widgets for
standard survival analysis techniques, such as the
Kaplan-Meier plot, the Cox regression model, and
several derivative widgets.
World Happiness: support for downloading
socioeconomic data from a database, including
OECD and World Development Indicators.
Provides access to thousands of country
indicators from various economic databases.
Kaplan-Meier Plot from Survival Analysis
data plots survival curves and supports
interactive selection of cases.

Objectives
The program provides a platform for experiment selection, recommendation systems, and predictive
modelling and is used in biomedicine, bioinformatics, genomic research, and teaching. In science, it is used
as a platform for testing new machine learning algorithms and for implementing new techniques in genetics
and bioinformatics. In education, it was used for teaching machine learning and data mining methods to
students of biology, biomedicine, and informatics.

Extensions
Various projects build on Orange either by extending the core components with add-ons or using only the
Orange Canvas to exploit the implemented visual programming features and GUI.

OASYS — ORange SYnchrotron Suite [7]

scOrange — single cell biostatistics
Quasar — data analysis in natural sciences

History
In 1996, the University of Ljubljana and Jožef Stefan Institute started development of ML*, a
machine learning framework in C++.
In 1997, Python bindings were developed for ML*, which, together with emerging Python
modules, formed a joint framework called Orange.
During the following years, most major algorithms for data mining and machine learning
have been developed in C++ (Orange's core) or Python modules.
In 2002, first prototypes to create a flexible graphical user interface were designed using
Pmw Python megawidgets.
In 2003, the graphical user interface was redesigned and re-developed for Qt framework
using PyQt Python bindings. The visual programming framework was defined, and the
development of widgets (graphical components of the data analysis pipeline) began.
 In 2005, extensions for data analysis in bioinformatics was created.
In 2008, Mac OS X DMG and Fink-based installation packages were developed.
In 2009, over 100 widgets were created and maintained.
Since 2009, Orange is in 2.0 beta, and web site offers installation packages based on the
daily compiling cycle.
In 2012, a new object hierarchy was imposed, replacing the old module-based structure.
In 2013, a significant redesign of the graphical user interface included a new toolbox and
depiction of workflows.
In 2015, Orange 3.0 was released. Orange stores the data in the NumPy arrays; machine
learning algorithms mostly use scikit-learn.
In 2015, a text analysis add-on for Orange3 was released.
In 2016, Orange is in version 3.3. The development uses a monthly stable release cycle.
In 2016, Start of development and release of Image Analytics add-on, with server-site deep
neural networks for image embedding [8]
In 2017, Spectroscopy add-on for the analysis of spectral data was introduced.[9]
In 2017, Geo, an add-on for dealing with geo-location data and visualisation of geo maps
was introduced [10]
In 2018, the development and release of add-on for single-cell data analysis was started.[11]
In 2019, Orange's graphical interface is developed as a separate project, orange-canvas-
core[12]
In 2020, Explain add-on with widgets for explaining classification or regression model is
introduced. It explains which features contribute the most and how they contribute towards
predicting a specific class.
In 2022 World Happiness, an add-on for the Orange3 data mining suite, is introduced. It
provides widgets for accessing socioeconomic data from various databases such as World
Happiness Report, World Development Indicators, OECD.
In 2022, Explain add-on is extended with an Individual Conditional Expectation plot and the
Permutation Feature Importance technique.

References
1. "orange3/CHANGELOG.md at master . biolab/orange3 . GitHub" (https://github.com/biolab/o
range3/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#01---1996-10-10). GitHub.
2. "Release 3.35.0" (https://github.com/biolab/orange3/releases/tag/3.35.0). 5 May 2023.
Retrieved 29 May 2023.
3. "Orange - License" (https://orange.biolab.si/license/).
4. "orange3/LICENSE at master . biolab/orange3 . GitHub" (https://github.com/biolab/orange3/
blob/master/LICENSE). GitHub.
5. Janez Demšar; Tomaž Curk; Aleš Erjavec; Črt Gorup; Tomaž Hočevar; Mitar Milutinovič;
Martin Možina; Matija Polajnar; Marko Toplak; Anže Starič; Miha Stajdohar; Lan Umek; Lan
Žagar; Jure Žbontar; Marinka Žitnik; Blaž Zupan (2013). "Orange: data mining toolbox in
Python" (http://eprints.fri.uni-lj.si/2267/1/2013-Demsar-Orange-JMLR.pdf) (PDF). Journal of
Machine Learning Research. 14 (1): 2349–2353.
 6. Toplak, M.; Birarda, G.; Read, S.; Sandt, C.; Rosendahl, S. M.; Vaccari, L.; Demšar, J.;
Borondics, F. (2017). "Infrared Orange: Connecting Hyperspectral Data with Machine
Learning". Synchrotron Radiation News. 30 (4): 40–45. Bibcode:2017SRNew..30...40T (http
s://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017SRNew..30...40T). doi:10.1080/08940886.2017.1338424
(https://doi.org/10.1080%2F08940886.2017.1338424). S2CID 125273654 (https://api.seman
ticscholar.org/CorpusID:125273654).
7. Sanchez Del Rio, Manuel; Rebuffi, Luca (2017). "OASYS (Or Ange SYnchrotron Suite): An
open-source graphical environment for x-ray virtual experiments". In Chubar, Oleg;
Sawhney, Kawal (eds.). Advances in Computational Methods for X-Ray Optics IV. p. 28.
doi:10.1117/12.2274263 (https://doi.org/10.1117%2F12.2274263). ISBN 9781510612334.
S2CID 117118973 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:117118973).
8. Primož Godec; Matjaž Pančur; Nejc Ilenič; Andrej Čopar; Martin Stražar; Aleš Erjavec; Ajda
Pretnar; Janez Demšar; Marko Toplak; Anže Starič; Lan Žagar; Jan Hartman; Hamilton
Wang; Riccardo Bellazzi; Uroš Petrovič; Silvia Garagna; Maurizio Zuccotti; Dongsu Park;
Gad Shaulsky; Blaž Zupan (2019). "Democratized image analytics by visual programming
through integration of deep models and small-scale machine learning" (https://www.ncbi.nl
m.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6779910). Nature Communications. 10 (1): 4551.
Bibcode:2019NatCo..10.4551G (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019NatCo..10.4551G).
doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12397-x (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41467-019-12397-x).
PMC 6779910 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6779910). PMID 31591416
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31591416). S2CID 203782491 (https://api.semanticscholar.
org/CorpusID:203782491).
9. Marko Toplak; Stuart T. Read; Christophe Sandt; Ferenc Borondics (2021). "Quasar: Easy
Machine Learning for Biospectroscopy" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC846
6383). Cells. 10 (9): 2300. doi:10.3390/cells10092300 (https://doi.org/10.3390%2Fcells1009
2300). PMC 8466383 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8466383).
PMID 34571947 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34571947).
10. "Orange3-Geo Documentation — Orange3-Geo documentation" (https://orange3-geo.readth
edocs.io/en/latest/).
11. Martin Stražar; Lan Žagar; Jaka Kokošar; Vesna Tanko; Aleš Erjavec; Pavlin G. Poličar;
Anže Starič; Janez Demšar; Gad Shaulsky; Vilas Menon; Andrew Lemire; Anup Parikh; Blaž
Zupan (2021). "scOrange—a tool for hands-on training of concepts from single-cell data
analytics" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6612816). Bioinformatics. 35 (14):
i4–i12. doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btz348 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fbioinformatics%2Fbtz
348). PMC 6612816 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6612816).
PMID 31510695 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31510695).
12. "Orange Canvas Core" (https://github.com/biolab/orange-canvas-core). GitHub.

Further reading
Demšar, Janez and Blaž Zupan, Data Mining Fruitful and Fun - A Historical Perspective (http
s://www.informatica.si/index.php/informatica/article/view/434/438:), Informatica 37, pgs. 55–
60, (2013).

External links
Official website (https://orangedatamining.com/)
OASYS (https://www.aps.anl.gov/Science/Scientific-Software/OASYS)
scOrange (https://singlecell.biolab.si/)
Quasar (https://quasar.codes/)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Orange_(software)&oldid=1159209592"