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To keep moving this forward, I asked a LinkedIn question on the topic seeking
help from a JS developer. This gentleman was kind enough to put a few cycles
into it. Here are the results. I’m posting the question/answer thread in reverse
chronological order, his most recent reply on top.
My current line of thinking is this: It looks like MLCad’s band is so tall
because of the length of the text associated with each dot. What if it didn’t
print the text next to the dot but displayed when the dot was clicked on and the
overlay balloon comes up? I asked him if this is possible, and I’ll see what he
says.
Comments welcome.
-Tim
--
Question text:
Tim,
Please have a look at the following example (based on your own sample):
http://www.jmf-ds.fr/timcourtney/timeline.html
If you have a look at the source code of the page, I commented each step, should
be easy to follow.
Getting more in depth into the API, I realized it’s been very neatly designed,
and there is no need at all (well, for this purpose) to change anything in the
code itself.
Sure the method I suggest requires to handle several XML files, but they are all
derived from the full, original XML, so it is just copy/paste tasks.
Note: when creating the ‘eventSourceldview.xml’ file, I noticed the ‘duration’
span did not appear on top: this is due to the way the API optimises the events
spacing. To have it on top, you just have to make it start before any other
event. As the first LDView event had the exact same start date, I just added 1
second to it (please refer to the ‘eventSourceldview.xml’ on my site), and all
is done.
Any question, please let me know (my email address: jean-marc@jmf-ds.fr)
Hope this will help.
Jean-Marc
On 5/12/08 6:02 AM, Tim Courtney wrote:
--------------------
Jean-Marc,
Thank you for your quick and detailed reply. I hadn’t thought about using the
“band” object, I had stated “band” thinking of the blue time span. But, if using
actual band objects is easiest, this may work. I have not looked into adding a
third band object to the timeline to see how this would work, if it’s possible
at present.
I think this is worth exploring. But what are your thoughts on having timeline
objects appear along the same horizontal space within a single band? Provided
the dates don’t overlap each other, this should be possible. I can only
understand the XML and the setup page where you instantiate bands, though, not
the main JavaScript code.
Thanks again,
-Tim
On 5/11/08 8:26 PM, Jean-Marc Fraïssé wrote:
--------------------
Hi Tim,
Just had a quick look at the documentation and code, and, if you can ideed
instantiate several Band objects into the same Timeline, all of them will
contain the same events (displayed accordingly to their respective scale and
parameters).
If I did get what you aim at (grouping similar events into ‘dedicated’ Band
objects), the trick would be to introduce a new parameter that you could specify
in your XML file for items you would want to sort. For instance, let’s call it
‘appearIn’: if stated, the event would only appear in the selected Bands
(accordingly to their index number), default would be all bands.
To improve this approach, and turn it into somehting more intuitive, a Name
attribute could be assigned to each Band when instantiated, to avoid the index
handling (always a source of mistakes, especially if you don’t have the
instantiating functions in sight when you write the XML code). Then, you would
just have to mention, for instance, “appearIn=’MLCad, General’ ” for each MLCad
event (‘MLCad’, obviously, would be the MLCad Band’s name, and ‘General’, the
10-year increment Band at the bottom of your sample Timeline).
To improve this again, a new attrbibute could be added too to the Bands, such
‘displayAll’, to avoid mentioning ‘General’ for each event. And, the recognition
of the minus (-) symbol, as an indication that you want an event not to be
displayed in the specified Band (and also to contradict the defauld ‘displayAll’
attribute if active), for instance: ” appearIn=’MLCad, -General’ “.
These are just clues. I don’t have much time currently, but I will have a proper
look when I have a moment; it should take long to achieve this, just a little
remodelling of the existing methods.
Let me know if you have other ideas/requirements I could think over.
Jean-Marc
On 5/11/08 8:26 PM, Jean-Marc Fraïssé added the following clarification:
Wanted to write ‘it should NOT take long to achieve this’. Sorry about that.
Question Details:
--------------------
JavaScript Programmers - want to help add a couple features to this open source
project?
Hi,
I’m using the MIT Simile project’s Timeline to chart out the version history of
some open source developments in a community. The timeline is great, but it
lacks a couple key features. Most notably, you can’t group events to string them
along in one horizontal band.
Are there any good JavaScript programmers out there who wouldn’t mind taking a
look at this code and publishing a version that does this?
Here is the main Timeline project: http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/
The project on Google Code: http://code.google.com/p/simile-widgets/
My sample timeline (I want, for example, all MLCad versions to appear in the
same horizontal band): http://www.timcourtney.net/ldraw-timeline/timeline.html
Please contact me if you are willing/interested in helping. This could be
resubmitted to Google Code, so everyone using Timeline can benefit.
Thanks!
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Help writing LDraw's history
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| (...) Jean-Marc came back to me today with an interesting solution I think might work. See (URL) Click on MLCad's ball, then "Details" within the window. The specific versions will appear in the large band below. What does everyone think about this? (...) (17 years ago, 13-May-08, to lugnet.cad.dev.org.ldraw)
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