Extension:InteractiveTimeline

MediaWiki extensions manual

InteractiveTimeline Release status: unmaintained
Implementation	Tag
Description	Allow the insertion of interactive timelines using the vis.js library
Author(s)	Chris Page (Ishtralimnartalk)
Latest version	1.9 (Canada Water) (2019-05-11)
MediaWiki	1.32+
PHP	7+
Database changes	No
License	GNU General Public License 2.0
Download	GitHub: project page git repository URL [help ] commit history Note: No localisation updates are provided by translatewiki.net . CHANGES
Parameters $wgITvisjsCDNjs $wgITvisjsCDNcss
Tags <itimeline>
Hooks used BeforePageDisplay ParserFirstCallInit

The InteractiveTimeline extension allows users to insert timelines into wiki pages. The timelines are shown using the vis.js JavaScript library developed by Almende, so they may be panned and zoomed by the user, and events in the timeline may contain images, links to other wiki pages or sites, and other formatting.

Installation

This extension is not currently available via the standard MediaWiki extension distributor. To install the extension, you should clone the Git repository into your extensions directory as shown here:

cd extensions/
git clone https://github.com/TheWatcher/InteractiveTimeline.git
cd InteractiveTimeline
git checkout REL1_32

Once you have cloned the repository, add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php:

wfLoadExtension("InteractiveTimeline");

Configuration

This extension allows you to manage the location from which the vis.js JavaScript and stylesheet files are loaded. By default, the official cdnjs versions will be used, but you can configure them by setting the following in your LocalSettings.php:

$wgITvisjsCDNjs = "https://host.com/path/to/vis.min.js"

Set this to the location the extension should load the vis.min.js file from. This defaults to https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/vis/4.21.0/vis.min.js

$wgITvisjsCDNcss = "https://host.com/path/to/vis.min.css"

Set this to the location the extension should load the vis.min.css file from. This defaults to https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/vis/4.21.0/vis.min.css

Usage

Once installed, you can place <itimeline>...</itimeline> tags in pages where you want to show a timeline. A large number of parameters may be set in the <itimeline> tag, but all of them are optional. The contents of the tag should be a series of events, with one event defined per line. For example:

<itimeline height="512px" min="2014-06-01" max="2014-08-30">
<!-- These two lines define events that happen at a particular time -->
2014-07-25T13:00:00Z|Design|[[Target 1|Target 1]]
2014-07-26T10:00:00Z|Design|[[Target 2|Target 2]]
<!-- These three are ranges, defined using IS8601 intervals with start and end dates and times -->
2014-07-25T08:00:00Z/2014-07-26T15:00:00Z|Implement|[[Phase 1]]
2014-07-26T12:00:00Z/2014-07-27T15:00:00Z|Implement|[[Phase 2]]
2014-07-25T08:00:00Z/2014-08-00:00:00+02:00|Implement|Project 1
<!-- Available in v1.3: support for grouping. These three lines define events grouped in the 'last phase' group -->
2014-07-25T13:00:00Z|[[File:Nuvola apps important.svg|16px]] Coalface|[[Target 1/Deploy]]
2014-07-25T13:10:00Z|[[File:Nuvola apps important.svg|16px]] Coalface|[[Target 1/Panic]]
2014-07-25T13:15:00Z|[[File:Nuvola apps important.svg|16px]] Coalface|[[Target 1/Rollback]]
</itimeline>

Dates and times

All dates and times specified in an <itimeline> tag, whether as a value provided for a parameter, or as part of an event definition, should be formatted using a profile of ISO 8601. The dates and times accepted by InteractiveTimeline should take the form of a calendar date, optionally followed by a time:

• Dates should be specified as a four digit year (the year including the century), followed by a two digit month (01 to 12), followed by a two digit day (01 to 31), with the sections optionally separated by hyphens. The form of the date should be YYYY-MM-DD or YYYYMMDD, for example: 2014-07-12 or 20140712.
• Dates before 0000-01-01 are not supported at present - I'm working on reliable support for them.
• If a time is not specified, the default of "00:00:00Z" (midnight UTC) is used for the time.
• If a time is specified, it must be separated from the date by exactly one space ' ', or the character 'T'.
• When provided, times should be specified as a two digit hour (00 to 23), followed by a two digit minute (00 to 59), followed by a two digit second (00 to 59), with the fields optionally separated by colons. The time should be of the form HH:MM:SS or HHMMSS. The minutes and seconds are optional, and if not specified they default to "00". Decimal fractions are not supported for the time fields. Times must be followed by a time zone designator.
• The time zone designator should either be "Z" to indicate that the time is in UTC, or it can be an offset from UTC specified as a positive or negative hours (and optionally minutes) of the form ±[HH]:[MM], ±[HH][MM], or ±[HH].

For example, the following dates and times are valid:

• 2014-07-12 17:10Z (5:10pm UTC on the 12th of July 2014)
• 2014-08-14 (00:00 UTC on the 14th of August 2014)
• 2014-07-12T13:12:10-05:00 (13:12:10 in Central Daylight Time on the 12th of July 2014)
• 2014-08-14 08:24+02 (8:24am in Central European Summer Time on the 14th of August 2014)

The following parts of ISO 8601 are not supported by InteractiveTimeline:

• 'Reduced precision' dates (YYYY year only, or YYYY-MM year and month); only complete calendar dates are supported.
• Week dates
• Ordinal dates
• Decimal fractions for hours, minutes, or seconds.
• Optional time zone designator (the time zone designator must be specified if a time is given)
• Durations
• Intervals are only partially supported (see the <start>/<end> event syntax given below) - intervals including durations are not supported.
• Repeating intervals
• Truncated representations
• Timescales to represent non-Gregorian calendars

Parameters

The following parameters may be specified in the <itimeline> tag. All parameters are optional and case sensitive, and if not specified the default is used.

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
end	datetime	none	The date at the end of the timeline view when the timeline is initially shown. If not set, the date and time of the last event in the timeline is used.
height	string	auto	The height of the timeline. This can be a height in any valid css size unit (px, em, %, etc) or 'auto' to indicate that the height should be calculated automatically. When height is set to "auto", a minimum height can be specified with the option minheight.
locale	string	en	Select the locale to use inside the CHAP Timeline library. Supported locales are: ca: Catalan (aliases: ca_ES) en: English (aliases: en_US, en_UK) nl: Dutch (aliases: nl_NL, nl_BE) fi: Finnish (aliases: fi_FI) fr: French (aliases: fr_FR, fr_BE, fr_CA) de: German (aliases: de_DE, de_CH) da: Danish (aliases: da_DK) ru: Russian (aliases: ru_RU) es: Spanish (aliases: es_ES) tr: Turkish (aliases: tr_TR)
max	datetime	none	The maximum date that can be shown in the timeline. If set, it is not possible to move the timeline beyond this point (not to be confused with the 'end' parameter which controls the initial view end date). The maximum itself is excluded. If not set, no maximum is enforced.
min	datetime	none	The minimum date that can be shown in the timeline. If set, it is not possible to move the timeline before this point (not be confused with the 'start', which controls the initial view start date). The minimum is included. If not set, no minimum is enforced.
minheight	int	0	The minimum height of the timeline in pixels when 'height' has been set to "auto".
moveable	boolean	true	If true, the timeline is moveable.
stack	boolean	true	If true, the events are stacked above each other to prevent overlapping events.
start	datetime	none	The date at the beginning of the timeline view when the timeline is initially shown. If not set, the date and time of the first event in the timeline is used.
showcurrenttime	boolean	true	If true, the timeline shows a red, vertical line displaying the current time.
showmajorlabels	boolean	true	By default, the timeline shows both minor and major date labels on the horizontal axis. For example the minor labels show minutes and the major labels show hours. When showmajorlabels is false, no major labels are shown.
showminorlabels	boolean	true	By default, the timeline shows both minor and major date labels on the horizontal axis. For example the minor labels show minutes and the major labels show hours. When showminorlabels is false, no minor labels are shown. When both showmajorlabels and showminorlabels are false, no horizontal axis will be visible.
width	string	100%	The width of the timeline. This can be any valid css size unit (px, em, %, etc).
zoomable	boolean	true	If true, the timeline is zoomable.
zoommax	int	315360000000000	Set a maximum zoom interval for the visible range in milliseconds. It will not be possible to zoom out further than this maximum. Default value equals about 10000 years.
zoommin	int	10	Set a minimum zoom interval for the visible range in milliseconds. It will not be possible to zoom in further than this minimum.

Additional documentation for the supported configuration options can be found in the vis.js Timeline documentation. Note that some of the configuration options listed on that page are not supported by this extension, either because they make no sense to include, for security, or simply because I haven't added them yet.

Event Syntax

Inside the <itimeline> tag you define the list of events to show in the timeline. You should include one event per line, and events may not span multiple lines. Events are defined using:

<datetime>|<event text>

Example: 2014-07-25T13:00:00Z|Phase 1

This format defines an event by giving the time of the event and some text describing the event.

<datetime>/<datetime>|<event text>

Example: 2014-07-25T08:00:00Z/2014-08-00:00:00+02:00|Project 1

This format defines a range using an IS8601 interval. The first datetime is the date and time at which the range starts, the second is the end date and time (inclusive).

<datetime>|<group name>|<event text>

Example: 2014-07-25T13:00:00Z|last phase|Deploy

This format defines an event in a group by giving the time of the event, the name of the group to place the event in, and some text describing the event.

<datetime>/<datetime>|<group name>|<event text>

Example: 2014-07-25T08:00:00Z/2014-08-00:00:00+02:00|first phase|Be agile

This format defines an event range in a group. The first datetime is the date and time at which the range starts, the second is the end date and time (inclusive), the group name determines which group the range should be in, and the text describes the event.

'datetime' values should be provided in the format discussed above in the Dates and times section. The 'group name' and 'event text' may contain wiki text, so you may include images, links, or other formatting. Please note that complex wiki text should be avoided, or you will probably make the Timeline display go wonky: don't expect lists, tables, or anything complicated to work as expected.

The order in which events are defined is not important, and if the extension can not validate the definition of an event, it will be ignored.

The body of the <itimeline> tag supports transclusion and template expansion, so you may define a list of events elsewhere and transclude them into the body of the <itimeline> tag.

Demo

A publicly accessible MediaWiki demo of this extension is not currently available. The Timeline documentation contains a number of examples of the capabilities of the Timeline library.

See also

• CHAP Timeline - the JavaScript library developed by Almende, part of the CHAP Links Library.