I tried to read a GraphML file using Douglas' code and the following: std::auto_ptr<boost::dynamic_property_map> string2string_gen(const std::string& name, const boost::any&, const boost::any&) { typedef std::map<std::string,std::string> map_t; typedef boost::associative_property_map< std::map<std::string, std::string> > property_t; map_t* mymap = new map_t(); // hint: leaky memory here! property_t property_map(*mymap); std::auto_ptr<boost::dynamic_property_map> pm( new boost::detail::dynamic_property_map_adaptor<property_t>(property_map)); return pm; } int main(int argc, char* argv[]){ // create a typedef for the Graph type using namespace boost; typedef boost::adjacency_list<vecS, vecS, directedS> Graph; Graph g; std::ifstream input(argv[1]); boost::dynamic_properties properties(&string2string_gen); typedef graph_traits<Graph>::vertex_descriptor Node; typedef property_map<Graph, vertex_index_t>::type NodeID_Map; NodeID_Map node_id = get(vertex_index, g); boost::read_graphml(input, g, properties); } but when running it I get: Unrecognized attribute `xmlns' of element `graphml'. Ignoring... Unrecognized attribute `xmlns:y' of element `graphml'. Ignoring... Unrecognized attribute `xmlns:xsi' of element `graphml'. Ignoring... Unrecognized attribute `xsi:schemaLocation' of element `graphml'. Ignoring... Unrecognized attribute `yfiles.type' of element `key'. Ignoring... Unrecognized attribute `yfiles.type' of element `key'. Ignoring... Unrecognized element `y:ShapeNode' Unrecognized element `y:Geometry' Unrecognized element `y:Fill' Unrecognized element `y:BorderStyle' Unrecognized element `y:NodeLabel' Unrecognized element `y:Shape' terminate called after throwing an instance of 'boost::bad_any_cast' what(): boost::bad_any_cast: failed conversion using boost::any_cast /bin/sh: line 1: 31380 Abgebrochen ./src/graphml2 Core0bis10_1000.graphml The file contains nodes like this (what a bloat ...): <node id="n1"> <data key="d0" > <y:ShapeNode > <y:Geometry x="2.457598996954175" y="498.06375265283157" width="10.0" height="10.0"/> <y:Fill color="#FF0000" transparent="false"/> <y:BorderStyle type="line" width="1.0" color="#000000" /> <y:NodeLabel x="3.0" y="3.0" width="4.0" height="4.0" visible="true" alignment="center" fontFamily="Dialog" fontSize="12" fontStyle="plain" textC olor="#000000" hasBackgroundColor="false" hasLineColor="false" modelName="internal" modelPosition="c" autoSizePolicy="content"></y:NodeLabel> <y:Shape type="rectangle"/> </y:ShapeNode> </data> </node> I am not even really interested in the d0 properties ... What can I do?