Extension:EasyTimeline


 * Other languages: de es eu fr id it ja nl pt zh

The EasyTimeline feature produces an embedded image from wikitext. The image can be a one-dimensional diagram (horizontally or vertically), or a two-dimensional one. As the saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words. This is certainly true for graphical timelines. A detailed listing of events and dates in tabular form may offer the reader a lot of specifics, but may fail to provide an overview, a grand perspective.

EasyTimeline is a feature of Wikipedia (for an overview of all charts prepared with it on all wikipedias see EasyTimeline Index) and you can activate it on other MediaWiki installations (see EasyTimeline activation). You can also install it on your machine or play with it at test.wikipedia.org.

Syntax description at Extension:EasyTimeline/syntax.

This extension is in the middle of an attempt for a major update, the intention of which is to improve its support for non-Latin writing systems. The latest trunk versions are not supposed to break existing timelines, but may nevertheless be unstable. The last stable version before this update started is 62018.

Requirements
This extension requires the following programs installed on the server:
 * Ploticus
 * perl
 * NConvert (Windows only)

Charts examples
Several examples of what is possible. For more extensive examples see
 * WW II - Pacific Theatre - horizontal
 * History of Computing - horizontal
 * Tour de France Sieger - vertical
 * Vocal and instrumental pitch ranges (a nice example of a diagram that is not a timeline at all) - horizontal
 * Complete timeline of Macintosh models - horizontal
 * English Monarchs - horizontal
 * Simpler timelines:
 * en:Template:Extinction events graphical timeline - horizontal, uses w:Template:Horizontal timeline
 * en:Talk:Invention_of_radio/Archive_1 - horizontal with arrows
 * en:Template:Early evolution of the light bulb - vertical
 * en:Invention of radio - vertical
 * en:Gaius_Marius  - vertical
 * en:User:Syed Atif Nazir/Template:Imam timeline  - vertical
 * en:Template:Timeline of the Mexican Revolution - vertical
 * Population developement - horizontal



Code example

 * See also: Extension:EasyTimeline/syntax

Just to show you that the script syntax is reasonably intuitive, here is the script for the image above: Soviet Leaders.

Double and single brackets can be used like on wikipedia, language prefix is possible, e.g. more about foo. Single brackets for external links are also supported.

Great Timelines Elsewhere
Here are two great sites that may serve as inspiration, it would be very easy to recreate most of those timelines verbatim and with roughly similar layout with EasyTimeline (not yet with images but that may change), but I'm afraid that would be 'not done'.


 * Hyperhistory e.g. click on button 'people' left, then on 'special lifelines', right.
 * I hope we will have a set like in a years time (click on full size image for any map), possibly even with images. The main effort will be to gather all info without snatching everything from here (most of these maps are based exclusively on data from Britannica).

Unicode
EasyTimeline does not yet support unicode.

Aug 2004: Minimal UTF-8 support has been added, meaning that EasyTimeline now recognizes UTF-8 encoded characters. However support for directionality and complex scripts is very lacking. The default font may not have glyphs for all characters. An alternate font can be specified via

SVG to PNG
To show texts correctly for RTL languages (like Arabic, Persian, Hebrew,...) you can use instead of. it shows timeline as png but the links will be disabled.

Tips
For first time users EasyTimeline may not seem that easy at all. As with all script languages it takes some getting used to. Also the syntax description may be a bit bewildering due to its sheer size. Fortunately many elements of the script language are optional.

The 'Easy' in EasyTimeline conveys the message that once a timeline exists it is not so hard to understand, enhance or correct. Also translating for use on another Wikipedia it is pretty straightforward.

Tips:
 * See some chart examples to find something you could pick and edit for your own stuff
 * Put each timeline on a separate Template page: this makes it easier to edit, faster to preview, possible to include it in several pages

Using the current date
To use the current date make sure the table opens with  and closes with. Then the current date can be inserted using magic words. For example  or   will both yield the date in format dd/mm/yyyy.

Installation
See /installation