Extension talk:EasyTimeline/archive

Great works! Yann 10:29, 28 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Looks good. I'm going to tell about this to other Japanese Wikipedians now. :-) Tomos 00:11, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I think it's a great idea! But, would it be possible to create a user-friendly interface, so that those who are less adept with code can use it? 154.5.51.173 01:12, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * Well, no programming skills are required, it is not really procedural code (no conditions, no loops), rather a strict set of rules on how to express oneself. A point and click, drag and drop interface would be nice, but I'll leave that to someone else, or maybe in a years time when I can't think of something else to do. Erik Zachte

The key feature missing from this are of course imagemaps to make the links clickable. I realize this is nontrivial, but if the script could generate the necessary maps, I could try to hack MediaWiki to support them (possibly even directly interface with a script, so that the user doesn't need to run it).

One other thing I noticed is that the smaller fonts are quite ugly. Anti-aliasing would help a lot here. SVG would, too.&mdash;Eloquence 01:22, 27 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * Ploticus can create imagemaps, so EasyTimeline could get syntax for that, would be nice indeed.


 * Also creating SVG is just a change of parameter (they look better but are not viewable on every platform so should be offered as second option, like with international stats, they are also much larger in download size and take time to render on the client side, a fast PC may be needed).


 * PNG images can be included as well, I will add syntax for that in the foreseeable future.


 * Ploticus can support other fonts via freetype lib but this requires a rebuild with GCC, at least for Windows, (I haven't tried Linux version, but features should be cross-platform) see . I'm not familiar with GCC so haven't tried that. Erik Zachte


 * SVG support added. See example Erik Zachte

A wikier way of doing this would be to have the timelines updateable within the article (i.e. make the charts creatable online). So lets say there is a timeline, and someone wishes to add an element, they would update the PlotData area, and the software code would autogenerate the timeline. Just a thought DavidLevinson


 * Of course. Would be nice. Eloquence might be willing to pull that off. See above. Erik Zachte

Great job! Just a question. How to do with text only browser? Do you think a pure HTML version is feasible? (I mean only using and ) Which tag can we use for time line? ? A &#9774; ineko 03:35, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)


 * Thanks. It will be difficult to translate all but the simplest diagrams into a text-only version that is still comprehensible. As for the geological example: I used the existing table at for the data, translating this back to three tables would make matters worse. I'll think about it though.


 * For tag look at new discussion on Extension Syntax that should lead to decision about this. Erik Zachte 10:41, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC) Actually it is indeed. Erik Zachte 00:30, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * The example you gave me, it's exactly what I thought about. If you can generate this kind of tables, it may be very great. I just wonder how a text browser may render this kind of table. If the rendering is buged, it is not necessary that you spend your time doing this feature. Or perhaps for saving image downloading time for slow connection.
 * About Extension Syntax, I done more than just looking ;o) I just wondered which tag name we can use for time line in case a "tag" syntax is choose. A &#9774; ineko 11:03, 29 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I sure like what you're trying to accomplish here. Is it possible to use smaller time scales -- for example, could one use this to document the September 11 timeline? --Fjarlq 02:07, 26 May 2004 (UTC)


 * Not yet in a proper way. I will add other date/time presentation formats, once the project is well on its way. As a workaround you could input times as minutes since 12.00AM, using the years format, which is actually just 'whole numbers', and add texts like '4 PM' on a separate invisible bar at position 240, etc. But that would be difficult to input and maintain. Better keep this for later. Erik Zachte 04:20, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

I miss one thing here: Units om the time axis. E.g. "Year" in the case of soviet leaders, and "Million years" in the geological examples.


 * Well, 'years' for chart Soviet Leaders is little too obvious, don't you think? Or even still ambiguous unless I add calendar system :) Once the fixed png's have been replaced by the script based version I will add miilions years to geo timeline. Erik Zachte 01:53, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I suggest moving this page simply to EasyTimeline.--Eloquence 04:48, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)
 * Done, Erik Zachte 20:24, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)

EasyTimeline template with variables possible?
Great tool, but is it possible to implement the timeline dynamic? I mean, that i have an plot period that is smaller than the plot data and the period is given by two parameter. I would like to create a template with two parameters (from, til) and every time an article includes this template with this parameter, just the given period is displayed. I think this makes it easier to implement large timelines, because just the needed data are shown and just one timeline is to create. Thx Martin (Sorry english is not my language)


 * I'm not sure that is possible with the current template system. Have you tried? It is a good idea though. Erik Zachte 00:13, Sep 3, 2004 (UTC)


 * Yes, it is possible to create a template with parameter. But when is the timeline generated, on article-load or on article-save? If the timeline is generated on load there is no problem. If not so it would not be applicable. On my Page you will see the result. :-( -- Xarax (3. September 2004 13:47)


 * The image is created on article save. It would be extremely inefficient to do this on article load. Still theoretically it would be possible to generate a correct image when the article that refers to the template is saved. Further tests with Xarax's example reveals that is passed to EasyTimeline unmodified, that is without replacing it with the actual template code. This might possibly be changed in the MediaWiki software (ask at wikitech), but I doubt it will be given any priority. Erik Zachte 14:14, Sep 3, 2004 (UTC)

Issues

 * PHP parser converts < > into &amp;lt; &amp;gt; before ET is invoked
 * fixed


 * The current version does not yet support unicode. More on this at
 * Why not use -misc-fixed-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1 ? It has loads of unicode characters: Greek, Cyrillic, Thai, Runes ;-) See http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs-fonts.html -- en:User:Stw, 4pm 2004/05/31
 * I will add a 'Fonts = png:somefontname svg:someotherfontname' command. Any freetype compatible font (truetype etc) that is available on the server can then be used for png. For svg (not yet displayable in Wikipedia) rendering takes place on the client machine so anything goes there. Erik Zachte 23:27, 1 Jun 2004 (UTC)


 * Should dates be rendered newer above older, as they are now? On the one hand, latest events are arguably the most pertinent.  On the other, reading the chart chronologically is more natural if older dates are above newer dates.  Pgan002 05:48, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)
 * Personally I liked the current style best, or maybe I just got used to it :). I will add an option to reverse the order in a future release. Erik Zachte 02:11, Jun 20, 2004 (UTC)
 * TimeAxis option 'order:reverse' added. Works only with DateFormat=yyyy not with dd/mm/yyyy or mm/dd/yyyy Erik Zachte 23:14, Jun 26, 2004 (UTC)


 * I demand that EasyTimeline be renamed to DifficultTimeline!!! Great work though... -- Stw 15:56, 10 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Well on de: they managed some 40 timelines in a few weeks. It is more difficult if you start from scratch. Most people start with an existing timeline and change it in steps till it suits their needs. What problems do you have specifically? I'm willing to help out. 21:17, Jul 10, 2004 (UTC)
 * It's not that bad, I was just a bit frustrated after fiddling around with the shift: option. The new version is indeed simpler. Sorry for being a bit rude. -- Stw 15:09, 11 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Bugs
For an example see (I did already "fix" the first bug, see the source.) -- en:User:Stw, 4pm, 31. May 2004
 * A label text that contains [dot] [space] [capital letter] will be converted to [dot] [space] [small letter]. Why?
 * [colon] [space] ... is converted to [colon] ...
 * Fixed, Erik Zachte 23:14, Jun 26, 2004 (UTC)


 * Link within brackets (...) is not rendered properly. Erik Zachte 01:03, 2 Jun 2004 (UTC)
 * Fixed, Erik Zachte 23:14, Jun 26, 2004 (UTC)

Install
Easytimeline looks great, but i cant succesfully install it on my wiki ... I need some basic install instructions, what are the parameters to add to Localsetting.php and so on ... A simple example should be sufficient --Coffman

Hi Coffman, citation from : "To use, include this file from your LocalSettings.php. To configure, set members of $wgTimelineSettings after the inclusion" I hope this helps, if not please ask at wikitech mailing list or ask e.g. user:Tim Starling who knows a lot of MediaWiki internals Erik Zachte 10:16, Sep 27, 2004 (UTC)