Timeline Widget filter

A filter to embed an MIT SIMILE Timeline Javascript interactive widget. You and your class can use it to visualize temporal/ historical data. The data source can be a static XML file, or a dynamic Moodle Database activity (currently Moodle 1.9 only).

Requirements: tested with Moodle 1.9.7 and 2.0.2 (all Moodle 1.9.x should work, Moodle 2.0.x - static XML only).

Uses: MIT SIMILE (v2.3.0 included); Javascript; also, parse_ini_string function (see compat.php).

Book

This plugin was initially developed to support the book "Moodle 2 for Teaching 4-9 Year Olds", by Nicholas Freear, published 2011 by Packt Publishing [isbn:978-1-84951-328-9] http://bit.ly/packt-moodle4-9-book

Installation

Download and uncompress the code files. Copy the renamed timelinewidget directory to the filter directory on the server, eg. /var/www/moodle/filter/timelinewidget/
Log in to Moodle as admin, visit Site Administration | Plugins | Filters | Manage Filters. Scroll down and click on the icon for Timelinewidget to enable it.
Try one of the Usage examples below.

Usage

Try one of the two modes:

XML: Upload a timeline XML file to your course (see the example directory). Then, type the following in a resource using Moodle's rich-editor (note, line-breaks, which can be represented by <br /> are required). Substitute an appropriate integer in place of COURSE_ID and adjust the other parameters as needed. Minimal syntax:
```
 [Timeline]
 dataUrl = COURSE_ID/simile-invent.xml
 [/Timeline]
```

NOTE: it would appear that the path has changed, so if you are using Moodle 2.x, the path to the XML should look like:

dataUrl = 60/mod_resource/content/1/simile-invent.xml (ie. <resource_id>/mod_resource/content/<course_id>/simile-invent.xml)

You will probably wish to replace the defaults for title, date and so on:

    [Timeline]
    ; A comment.
    title  = Important inventions
    dataUrl= COURSE_ID/simile-invent.xml
    ; The date on which to centre the timeline initially. This can
    ; be just a year, or a full date, eg. 20 January 1870.
    date   = 1870
    ; UPPER-CASE! minute,hour,day,week,month,year,decade,century,millenium.
    intervalUnit  = CENTURY
    ; How wide should the unit defined above be? In pixels.
    intervalPixels= 75
    [/Timeline]

mod/data: Create a Moodle Database activity, with fields named 'start' (date), 'end' (date), 'title', 'description', 'image' and 'link', and add a record. Then, type the following in a Moodle resource, substituting an appropriate integer in place of DATA_ID (mod/data/view.php?d=N):
```
 [Timeline]
 ;title = Important inventions
 dataSrc= mod/data
 dataId = DATA_ID
 date   = 1870
 intervalUnit  = CENTURY
 intervalPixels= 75
 [/Timeline]
```

Notes

Todo: fix the XML link below the timeline - see Geoffrey Rowland's suggestion.
Todo: find a way to reject empty/incorrect XML files, eg. attached to forum - Ger Tielemans.
Todo: downgrade the print_error for missing dataUrl - Michael de Raadt.
Todo: deal with
as well as
when parsing INI syntax - Michael.
Ger made change to Moodle 1.9.x, /files/index.php so admins can edit the XML file - ?
Todo: ensure that the filter's mod/data mode works with Moodle 2.0.
The filter uses an iframe to avoid Javascript loading issues in MSIE.
mod/data: If the start and end dates for a timeline will be less than ~2000 (or > ?), then they need to be text, not date fields in the Database activity.
mod/data: If PHP < 5.2, then dates less than ~1970 should be written as ISO 8601 dates (2010-11-06T14:11..). If PHP >= 5.2 then date_parse handles '6 November 2010...'.
The filter currently creates a very simple timeline, with only one band!
There is a skip-link for accessibility.
The filter is internationalized and (mostly) Moodle 2 ready.

Credits

Thanks to Darcy Christ (@1000camels) for the fork and fixes.

SIMILE. Copyright (c) Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Contributors 2006-2009 ~ Some rights reserved.

License: http://opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
Project: http://simile.mit.edu

nfreear/moodle-filter_timelinewidget