Table of Contents

TimelineJS

TimelineJS

Document history with TimelineJS

There are lots of timeline tools on the web but they are almost all either hard on the eyes or hard to use. Create timelines that are at the same time beautiful and intuitive for users

TimelineJS is great for pulling in media from different sources. Just throw in a link from Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Vimeo, Google Maps or SoundCloud and TimelineJS will format it to fit perfectly. More media types will be supported in the future.

Creating one is as easy as filling in a Google spreadsheet or as detailed as JSON.

Add it to your site

Using Inline (easiest)

Place the embed code where you want the timeline to show in the <body> of your site. See Config Options for a full list of what you can set in the config.

	<div id="timeline-embed"></div>
	<script type="text/javascript">
	    var timeline_config = {
			width:				'100%',
			height:				'600',
			source:				'path_to_json/or_link_to_googlespreadsheet',
			embed_id:			'timeline-embed',				//OPTIONAL USE A DIFFERENT DIV ID FOR EMBED
			start_at_end: 		false,							//OPTIONAL START AT LATEST DATE
			start_at_slide:		'4',							//OPTIONAL START AT SPECIFIC SLIDE
			start_zoom_adjust:	'3',							//OPTIONAL TWEAK THE DEFAULT ZOOM LEVEL
			hash_bookmark:		true,							//OPTIONAL LOCATION BAR HASHES
			font:				'Bevan-PotanoSans',				//OPTIONAL FONT
			debug:				true,							//OPTIONAL DEBUG TO CONSOLE
			lang:				'fr',							//OPTIONAL LANGUAGE
			maptype:			'watercolor',					//OPTIONAL MAP STYLE
			css:				'path_to_css/timeline.css',		//OPTIONAL PATH TO CSS
			js:					'path_to_js/timeline-min.js'	//OPTIONAL PATH TO JS
		}
	</script>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/js/storyjs-embed.js"></script>

Using a method (advanced)

You could also initialize a new timeline using the createStoryJS method after storyjs-embed.js has been loaded

	createStoryJS({
		type:		'timeline',
		width:		'800',
		height:		'600',
		source:		'path_to_json/or_link_to_googlespreadsheet',
		embed_id:	'my-timeline'			// ID of the DIV you want to load the timeline into
	});

Here's a simple example:

	<head>
		<!-- jQuery -->
		<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
		<!-- BEGIN TimelineJS -->
		<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/js/storyjs-embed.js"></script>
		<script>
			$(document).ready(function() {
				createStoryJS({
					type:		'timeline',
					width:		'800',
					height:		'600',
					source:		'path_to_json/or_link_to_googlespreadsheet',
					embed_id:	'my-timeline'
				});
			});
		</script>
		<!-- END TimelineJS -->
	</head>
	<body>	
		<div id="my-timeline"></div>
	</body>

Loading the files

If you like, you may load TimelineJS from the KnightLab's CDN. The examples above demonstrate how to do this using story-embed.js, which is the simplest way to set up a Timeline of your own.

If for some reason you need more fine-grained control over your timeline, load the javascript and CSS files separately. We recommend that you load them from our CDN.

<!-- always load the CSS -->
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/css/timeline.css">
<!-- and then one of either -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/js/timeline.js"></script>
<!-- or -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/js/timeline-min.js"></script>
<!-- but no need for both -->

If you need to serve copies of the files from your own server, use the entire contents of the "/build/" directory of our GitHub repository. If you use a local copy of story-embed.js it should automatically load the other Timeline resources from your server.

Config Options

Here are some of the options you can set in the config.

Source

source Should be either the path to the JSON resource to load, or a JavaScript object corresponding to the Timeline model.

Here is an example using a data object:

	var dataObject = {timeline: {headline: "Headline", type: ... }}
	createStoryJS({
		type:		'timeline',
		width:		'800',
		height:		'600',
		source:		dataObject,
		embed_id:	'my-timeline'
	});

If source is a string, we will try to automatically recognize resources that are Twitter searches, Google Spreadsheets or Storify stories. Failing that, we assume the source is either JSON or JSONP. If string matches on .jsonp, we will treat it as JSONP, otherwise, we will append ?callback=onJSONP_Data. See more details below.

Language

lang Localization default is en English Languages available:

af Afrikaans
ar Arabic
hy Armenian
eu Basque
be Belarusian
bg Bulgarian
ca Catalan
zh-cn Chinese
hr Croatian / Hrvatski
cz Czech
da Danish
nl Dutch
en English
en-24hr English (24-hour time)
eo Esperanto
et Estonian
fo Faroese
fa Farsi
fi Finnish
fr French
fy Frisian
gl Galician
ka Georgian
de German / Deutsch
el Greek
he Hebrew
hi Hindi
hu Hungarian
is Icelandic
id Indonesian
ga Irish
it Italian
ja Japanese
ko Korean
lv Latvian
lt Lithuanian
lb Luxembourgish
ms Malay
ne Nepali
no Norwegian
pl Polish
pt Portuguese
pt-br Portuguese (Brazilian)
ro Romanian
rm Romansh
ru Russian
sr-cy Serbian - Cyrillic
sr Serbian - Latin
si Sinhalese
sk Slovak
sl Slovenian
es Spanish
sv Swedish
tl Tagalog
ta Tamil
zh-tw Taiwanese
te Telugu
th Thai
tr Turkish
uk Ukrainian

Help us add more. Grab a copy of a language file and replace it with your language Example language file and find your language's two letter code here

###Start at End start_at_end set to true to start the timeline on the last date. default is false

###Start at Slide start_at_slide You can tell TimelineJS to start at a specific slide number default is 0

###Start Zoom Adjust start_zoom_adjust This will tweak the default zoom level. Equivalent to pressing the zoom in or zoom out button the specified number of times. Negative numbers zoom out. default is 0

###Hash Bookmark hash_bookmark set to true to allow bookmarking slides using the hash tag default is false

###Debug debug Will log events etc to the console. default is false

###Map Style Types Due to recent changes to the Google Maps API, you need a API Key in order to use custom map types. gmap_key: required in order to use maptype

maptype:

Stamen Maps
- toner
- toner-lines
- toner-labels
- watercolor
- sterrain
Google Maps
- ROADMAP
- TERRAIN
- HYBRID
- SATELLITE
OpenStreetMap
- osm

###Font Options font:

AbrilFatface-Average Abril Fatface & Average
Arvo-PTSans Arvo & PT Sans
Bevan-PotanoSans Bevan & Potano Sans
BreeSerif-OpenSans Bree Serif & Open Sans
DroidSerif-DroidSans Droid Serif & Droid Sans
Georgia-Helvetica Georgia & Helvetica Neue
Lekton-Molengo Lekton & Molengo
Merriweather-NewsCycle Merriweather & News Cycle
NewsCycle-Merriweather News Cycle & Merriweather
NixieOne-Ledger Nixie One & Ledger
Pacifico-Arimo Pacifico & Arimo
PlayfairDisplay-Muli Playfair Display & Muli
PoiretOne-Molengo Poiret One & Molengo
PTSerif-PTSans PT Serif & PT Sans
PT PT Sans & PT Narrow & PT Serif
Rancho-Gudea Rancho & Gudea
SansitaOne-Kameron Sansita One & Kameron
Or make your own

####Font Combination Preview:

File Formats

JSON:

JSON is the native data format for TimelineJS.

Remember, JSON is picky. A misplaced comma or quotation mark can prevent the timeline from loading properly.

Here is the full model:

{
	"timeline":
	{
		"headline":"The Main Timeline Headline Goes here",
		"type":"default",
		"text":"<p>Intro body text goes here, some HTML is ok</p>",
		"asset": {
			"media":"http://yourdomain_or_socialmedialink_goes_here.jpg",
			"credit":"Credit Name Goes Here",
			"caption":"Caption text goes here"
		},
		"date": [
			{
				"startDate":"2011,12,10,07,02,10",
				"endDate":"2011,12,11,08,11",
				"headline":"Headline Goes Here",
				"text":"<p>Body text goes here, some HTML is OK</p>",
				"tag":"This is Optional",
				"classname":"optionaluniqueclassnamecanbeaddedhere",
				"asset": {
					"media":"http://twitter.com/ArjunaSoriano/status/164181156147900416",
					"thumbnail":"optional-32x32px.jpg",
					"credit":"Credit Name Goes Here",
					"caption":"Caption text goes here"
				}
			}
		],
		"era": [
			{
				"startDate":"2011,12,10",
				"endDate":"2011,12,11",
				"headline":"Headline Goes Here",
				"text":"<p>Body text goes here, some HTML is OK</p>",
				"tag":"This is Optional"
			}
			
		]
	}
}

JSONP :

Timeline can use a variation of JSONP to allow you to easily load data across different domains.

To allow this to happen, the file must end with the extension .jsonp

Here is the full model:

storyjs_jsonp_data = {
	"timeline":
	{
		"headline":"The Main Timeline Headline Goes here",
		"type":"default",
		"text":"<p>Intro body text goes here, some HTML is ok</p>",
		"asset": {
			"media":"http://yourdomain_or_socialmedialink_goes_here.jpg",
			"credit":"Credit Name Goes Here",
			"caption":"Caption text goes here"
		},
		"date": [
			{
				"startDate":"2011,12,10",
				"endDate":"2011,12,11",
				"headline":"Headline Goes Here",
				"text":"<p>Body text goes here, some HTML is OK</p>",
				"tag":"This is Optional",
				"classname":"optionaluniqueclassnamecanbeaddedhere",
				"asset": {
					"media":"http://twitter.com/ArjunaSoriano/status/164181156147900416",
					"thumbnail":"optional-32x32px.jpg",
					"credit":"Credit Name Goes Here",
					"caption":"Caption text goes here"
				}
			}
		],
		"era": [
			{
				"startDate":"2011,12,10",
				"endDate":"2011,12,11",
				"headline":"Headline Goes Here",
				"tag":"This is Optional"
			}
			
		]
		
	}
}

Google Docs:

If you don’t want to mess with JSON, fire up Google Docs and build your timeline in a spreadsheet. It’s as simple as dropping a date, text, and links into the appropriate columns in TimelineJS’s template.

You can find the template here: TimelineJS Google Spreadsheet Template

There are only a couple things you need to know in order to create a timeline using Google Docs:

Make the spreadsheet public:
Google Docs are automatically set to private but the spreadsheet must be public.

Click the blue “Share” button on the top right-hand corner. In the “Share
settings” window, you’ll see the private setting of the spreadsheet: click
“Change...”. In the Visibility options window, choose “Public on the Web” and
save.

Publish to the Web
Under the File menu, select “Publish to the Web.”

In the next window, check the box next to “Automatically republish when
changes are made.” Uncheck all other boxes. Click “start publishing.” This
will give you the URL to embed in your HTML file.

Copy/paste the Web URL into your TimelineJS HTML file
After you publish the spreadsheet, Google Docs will generate a link to the file. Copy the link for the Web Page option (as opposed to PDF, HTML, XLS, etc.), then paste it into the timeline’s HTML file (see Add it to your site )

Storify:

Support for Storify is still in its early stages. It works though. Just paste a link to the storify story as the source.

Media

Included in the zip file is a kitchen sink example. This timeline shows how to incorporate the different media types from different services like Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, TwitPic, Wikipedia, Dailymotion, SoundCloud and Vimeo.

Just copy and paste the address of the media from the browser bar into the media parameter. TimelineJS will auto-magically pull in the media via their api and format it.

Best practices

Tips and tricks to best utilize TimelineJS

Keep it light - don’t get bogged down by text or other elements
Pick stories that have a strong chronological narrative. It does not work well for stories that need to jump around in the timeline.
Include events that build up to major occurrences, not just the major events.
Don't overwhelm the user. A timeline with hundreds of events is probably not the best use of the format.

License

This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License, v. 2.0. If a copy of the MPL was not distributed with this file, You can obtain one at http://mozilla.org/MPL/2.0/.

ptmono/TimelineJS