Timeline Foswiki Plugin

Timeline is a DHTML-based AJAXy widget for visualizing time-based events.

I use it to show a WebChanges timeline with the query below.

Syntax Rules

the %TIMELINE% variable has the following parmeters:

• DEFAULT - the url of the datasource
• urltype - XML or JSON (defaults to JSON)
• interval - (DAY, MONTH, YEAR, DECADE)
• date - the initial date that the timeline will be centered on
• height - height in pixels that the timeline area will use
• width - width in pixels that the timeline area will use
• orientation - horizontal or vertical (horizontal by default)

Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, i.e. %TIMELINEPLUGIN_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

• One line description, is shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Show a scrolling Timeline from a Foswiki SEARCH

• Debug plugin: (See output in data/debug.txt)
  • Set DEBUG = 0

Example (shows when Plugin is installed and running successfully)

Note that the JSON based output is much more reliable cross browsers, so only use xml is you really need to.

static file

The first example shows a timeline based on a pre-existing JSON file (https://foswiki.org/pub/System/TimelinePlugin/cubism.js)

%TIMELINE{ urltype="JSON" "https://foswiki.org/pub/System/TimelinePlugin/cubism.js" interval="DECADE" height="200px" width="700px" date="1890" }%

To use data from a Foswiki topic, you need to set the SKIN=text and add ?contenttype=text/xml (to trick IE's XHTTPRequest into working) to the url

"http://10.10.10.20/trunk/bin/view/System/TimeLineSearchJSON?contenttype=text/xml"
urltype="JSON"

Foswiki SEARCH based timeline

This example uses the TimeLineSearchJSON topic to show the last 10 modified topics in the System,Main,Sandbox webs.

%TIMELINE{ urltype="JSON" "https://foswiki.org/System/TimeLineSearchJSON?contenttype=text/xml" interval="YEAR" height="450px" width="700px" date="24 Apr 2024" }% The example is made up of the the %TIMELINE% variable that is converted into the client side javascript, and a Foswiki %SEARCH% statement that formats the results into the XML data format that the javascript requires.

%TIMELINE{
urltype="JSON"
"%SCRIPTURL{view}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/TimeLineSearchJSON?contenttype=text/xml"
interval="YEAR"
height="450px"
width="700px"
date="%DISPLAYTIME{"$day $month $year"}%"
}%

customising the SEARCH based timeline

Using the URLPARAMs defined in TimeLineSearchJSON you can customise the output

the currently defined params are:

• query - default to '1'
• querytype - defaults to 'query'
• webs - defaults to 'System,Main,Sandbox'
• tracknum - defaults to '' to use autolayout

%TIMELINE{ urltype="JSON" "https://foswiki.org/System/TimeLineSearchJSON?contenttype=text/xml;query=1;querytype=query;webs=System" interval="YEAR" height="250px" width="700px" date="24 Apr 2024" }%

%TIMELINE{
urltype="JSON"
"%SCRIPTURL{view}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/TimeLineSearchJSON?contenttype=text/xml;query=1;querytype=query;webs=System"
interval="YEAR"
height="450px"
width="700px"
date="%DISPLAYTIME{"$day $month $year"}%"
}%

Plugin Installation Instructions

You do not need to install anything in the browser to use this extension. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the extension on the server.

Open configure, and open the "Extensions" section. Use "Find More Extensions" to get a list of available extensions. Select "Install".

If you have any problems, or if the extension isn't available in configure, then you can still install manually from the command-line. See http://foswiki.org/Support/ManuallyInstallingExtensions for more help.

Plugin Info

Plugin Author:	Foswiki:Main.SvenDowideit - http://WikiRing.com
Copyright:	Foswiki Plugin © 2006-2009, SvenDowideit@fosiki.com
	The SIMILE Timeline software is sponsored by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and is maintained by the SIMILE project, in particular: David François Huynh, dfhuynh at csail.mit.edu
Plugin License:	GPL 3 (GNU General Public License)
SIMILE Timeline License:	BSD license
Plugin Version:	4631 - 2009-08-10T02:40:58Z
Change History:
9 Aug 2009	update to Timeline 2.3.0
20 Feb 2009	port to Foswiki and update to Timeline 2.2.0
19 March 2008	updated to Revision 9234: http://simile.mit.edu/repository/timeline/trunk/src/webapp/api and http://simile.mit.edu/repository/ajax/trunk/src/webapp/api/ , updated Plugin to add features.
22 July 2006:	Initial version
CPAN Dependencies:	none
Other Dependencies:	none
Perl Version:	5.005
Bug reports:	http://foswiki.org/Tasks
Plugin Home:	http://foswiki.org/Extensions/TimelinePlugin

Related Topics: Plugins, DeveloperDocumentationCategory, AdminDocumentationCategory, DefaultPreferences, SitePreferences