Contents

XML files

The XML format used for Timeline goes somewhat like this:

  • Everything is contained by a <data /> element
    • The <data /> element can have the following attributes:
      • wiki-url -- Base url used to gin up url's for each event; by appending the wiki-section and the event's title; often a MediaWiki wiki URL
      • wiki-section -- MediaWiki wiki section
    • Inside <data>events</data> go a number of <event>content</event> elements, the order of these is unimportant.
    • Each <event /> element can have the following attributes:
      • start -- in full date format (e.g. "May 20 1961 00:00:00 GMT-0600"")
      • latestStart -- for imprecise beginnings...
      • earliestEnd -- for imprecise ends...
      • end -- same date format as start
      • isDuration -- either "true" or "false", if false the item will be drawn as a dot with a pale bar drawn behind it
      • title -- text title that goes next to the bar in the timeline
      • description -- more text for the bubble
      • image -- url to an image that will be displayed in the bubble
      • link -- the bubble's title text will become a hyper-link to this address.
      • icon -- this image will appear next to the title text in the bubble.
      • color -- color of the bar to display in the timeline
      • textColor -- color of the text to display next to the bars
  • The "content" part is what will be displayed inside the bubble that pops up when the event is clicked
    • Should be escaped/formated HTML.
  • The xml document must be served with a content-type that the browser thinks is xml: "text/xml, application/xml or ends in +xml" (per the XMLHttpRequest spec). If it's not, you could get this cryptic error, which I include here as search bait:

TypeError: xml has no properties "XmlHttp: Error handling onReadyStateChange" [Exception... "'XmlHttp: Error handling onReadyStateChange' when calling method: [nsIOnReadyStateChangeHandler::handleEvent]" nsresult: "0x8057001e (NS_ERROR_XPC_JS_THREW_STRING)" location: "<unknown>" data: no] fDone(XMLHttpRequest readyState=4 status=200)timeplot-bundle.j... (line 177) _onReadyStateChange(XMLHttpRequest readyState=4 status=200, function(), function())simile-ajax-bundl... (line 2429) onreadystatechange()

Examples 

<data 
  wiki-url="http://simile.mit.edu/shelf/" 
  wiki-section="Simile JFK Timeline">
    <event 
       start="Sat May 20 1961 00:00:00 GMT-0600" 
       title="'Bay of Pigs' Invasion">
    </event>
    <event 
       start="Wed May 01 1963 00:00:00 GMT-0600" 
       end="Sat Jun 01 1963 00:00:00 GMT-0600" 
       isDuration="true" 
       title="Oswald moves to New Orleans">
         Oswald moves to New Orleans, and finds employment at the William <!-- This is "content" -->
         B. Riley Coffee Company. <i>ref. Treachery in Dallas, p 320</i>  <!-- This is "content" -->
    </event>
    <event>
      ...
    </event>
</data>

JSON files

The JSON format used for Timeline goes somewhat like this:

  • Everything is contained in {}
    • The base element can have the following attributes:
      • wiki-url -- Base url used to gin up url's for each event; by appending the wiki-section and the event's title; often a MediaWiki wiki URL
      • wiki-section -- MediaWiki wiki section
    • Inside 'events' goes an array of elements, the order of these is unimportant.
    • Each event element can have the following attributes:
      • start -- in full date format (e.g. "May 20 1961 00:00:00 GMT-0600"")
      • latestStart -- for imprecise beginnings...
      • earliestEnd -- for imprecise ends...
      • end -- same date format as start
      • isDuration -- either "true" or "false", if false the item will be drawn as a dot with a pale bar drawn behind it
      • title -- text title that goes next to the bar in the timeline
      • description -- more text for the bubble
      • image -- url to an image that will be displayed in the bubble
      • link -- the bubble's title text will become a hyper-link to this address.
      • icon -- this image will appear next to the title text in the bubble.
      • color -- color of the bar to display in the timeline
      • textColor -- color of the text to display next to the bars
      • description -- what will be displayed inside the bubble that pops up when the event is clicked
    • Should be escaped/formated HTML.
  • The xml document must be served with a content-type that the browser thinks is xml: "text/xml, application/xml or ends in +xml" (per the XMLHttpRequest spec). If it's not, you could get this cryptic error, which I include here as search bait:

TypeError: xml has no properties "XmlHttp: Error handling onReadyStateChange" [Exception... "'XmlHttp: Error handling onReadyStateChange' when calling method: [nsIOnReadyStateChangeHandler::handleEvent]" nsresult: "0x8057001e (NS_ERROR_XPC_JS_THREW_STRING)" location: "<unknown>" data: no] fDone(XMLHttpRequest readyState=4 status=200)timeplot-bundle.j... (line 177) _onReadyStateChange(XMLHttpRequest readyState=4 status=200, function(), function())simile-ajax-bundl... (line 2429) onreadystatechange()

Examples 

{ 
  'wiki-url':"http://simile.mit.edu/shelf/", 
  'wiki-section':"Simile JFK Timeline", 
  'dateTimeFormat': 'iso8601',
  'events': [
    {
       'start':"Sat May 20 1961 00:00:00 GMT-0600",
       'title':"'Bay of Pigs' Invasion",
     }, {
       'start':"Wed May 01 1963 00:00:00 GMT-0600" ,
       'end':"Sat Jun 01 1963 00:00:00 GMT-0600" ,
       'isDuration':"true" ,
       'title':"Oswald moves to New Orleans",
       'description':"Oswald moves to New Orleans, and finds employment at the William B. Riley Coffee Company. <i>ref. Treachery in Dallas, p 320</i>",
     }, {
      ...
     } ]
}
Retrieved from "http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/How_to_Create_Event_Source_Files"