Create beautiful timelines and timemaps from Google Spreadsheets.
Built by members of Open Knowledge Foundation Labs.
See it in action at https://timemapper.okfnlabs.org/
This is a Node web-app built using express.
Install Node (>=0.8 suggested) and npm then checkout the code:
git clone https://github.com/okfn/timemapper
Then install the dependencies:
cd timemapper
npm install .
# for some vendor modules
git submodule init && git submodule update
Finally, you may wish to set configuration options such as database name, port to run on, etc. To do this:
# copy the settings.json template to settings.json
cp settings.json.tmpl settings.json
# then edit as necessary
Now you can run the app:
node run.js
To view the site, open localhost:3000 in a browser.
The default configuration can be found in lib/config.js. You can override
this in a couple of ways:
-
Create a
settings.jsonwith specific values.settings.jsonhas the same form as nconf.defaults object in inlib/config.js. -
Set specific environment variables. The ones you can set are those used in
nconf.defaults. This useful for deployment on Heroku where environment variables are default way to configure.
Standard stuff:
heroku create timemapper
git push heroku
You'll also need to set config. Suggest creating a .env file:
TWITTER_KEY=...
...
Then push it:
heroku config:push
- NodeJS app but very frontend JS oriented
- Most of "presentation" including visualizations are almost entirely in frontend javascript
- Backend storage of "metadata" is onto s3 or local filesystem with storage of actual data (data for timelines/timemaps etc) into google docs spreadsheets
Layout follows frontend urls:
/{username}/data.json # user info
/{username}/{dataview}/datapackage.json # config for the dataview
/{username}/{dataview}/... other files # (none atm but possibly we store data locally in future)
Stored in datapackage.json following Data Package spec. Key points:
-
name, title, licenses etc as per Data Package
-
info on google doc data source stored in first resources item in format compatible with Recline:
resources: [{ backend: 'gdocs', url: 'gdocs url ...' }] -
additional config specific to timemapper in item call tmconfig. We will be gradually adding values here but at the moment have:
tmconfig: { dayfirst: false # are dates dayfirst startfrom: start # start | end | today layout: timemap # timemap | map | timeline timelineJSOptions: # options to pass to timelinejs }
TimeMappers uses i18n-abide with gettext.
It currently supporte loclaes en-US, zh-TW locales.
To update po files after modify views/*.html
$ npm run update-po
To re-compile translation json files.
$ npm run gen-po-json
for more details, please read Mozilla - Localization in Action.
Alice: user, who wants to create timelines, timemaps etc Bob: visitor (and potential user) Charlie: Admin of the website
[ip] As Alice I want to signup (using Twitter?) so that I have an account and can login
As Alice I want to login (using Twitter?) so that I am identified to the system and the Vizs I create are owned by me
As Alice I want to see a terms of service when I signup so that I know what the licensing arrangements are for what I create and do
As Alice I want to create a timemap Viz quickly from a google spreadsheet ...
- I want to set the title and "slug" for my timemap and have a nice url /alice/{name-of-viz}
- I want to choose a license (or full copyright) - default license applied. Licenses will be open licenses or full copyright.
- I want to create an animated timemap in which the time and map interact ...
- I want to add a description (and attribution) to my Viz (perhaps now or later ...)
As Alice I want to edit my Viz later after I've created it (e.g. change the title) so that I can correct typos or update info to reflect changes
As Alice I want to create a timeline Viz quickly from my google spreadsheet so that I can share it with others
As Alice I want to create a timemap / timeline quickly from a gist so that I can share it with others
- Structure of gist??
As Alice I want to create a map quickly from a google spreadsheet ...
As Alice or Bob I want to embed my Viz in a website elsewhere so that people can see it there
As Alice I want to watch a short (video) tutorial introducing me to how this works so that I have help getting started
As Alice or Bob I want to create a Viz without logging in so that I can try out the system without signing up
- Is this necessary if sign up is really easy?
I want to "fork" someone elses visualization so that I can modify and extend it
[x] As Alice I want to list the "Vizs (viz?)" I've created
[ip] As Bob I want to know what I can do with this service before I sign up so that I know whether it is worth doing so
- Some featured timemaps ...
[x] As Bob I want to see all the Vizs created by Alice so that I can see if there some I like
- Most recent items ?
As Bob I want to see recent activity by Alice to get a sense of the cool stuff she has been doing so that I know to look at that stuff first
As Alice I want to delete a Viz so that it is not available anymore (because I don't want it visible)
As Alice I want to undo deletiion of a Viz that I accidentally deleted so that it is available again
As Alice I want to revert to previous versions of my Viz so that I can see what it was like before
As Alice I want to "hide" a Viz so that it is not visible to others (but is visible to me)
- Is this hidden in the listing or more than that? What about people who already have the url
As Charlie I want to be able to delete someone's Viz (or account) so that it no longer is available (because they want it down or someone else does etc)
As Alice I want to allow a Viz built on a private spreadsheet in google docs so that I don't have to make that spreadsheet public to create a Viz of it
As Alice I want to restrict access to some of my Vizs so that only I can see them
As Alice I want to restrict access to some of my Vizs but allow specific other people to view it so that other people than me can see it
As Bob I want to find out about the website and project so that I get a sense of who's behind it / whether its trustworthy / whether there is other cool stuff they do
As Alice I want to know how many people have viewed my Viz so that I know whether other people are interested
As Bob (? may need to be logged in) I want to "star" a Viz I come across so that I recognize its value and store it for finding later
- config
- layout of the map / timeline (stacked versus side by side)
- date parsing
- 2 types of data source - gists as well as google docs
- data package structure in gists!
This is an open-source project licensed under the MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.
Contributors include:
- Rufus Pollock http://rufuspollock.org/ (Open Knowledge)
- Dan Wilson - https://github.com/djw
- Chen Hsin-Yi - https://github.com/hychen
We also use a whole bunch of fantastic open-source libraries, including:
First version was Microfacts / Weaving History http://weavinghistory.org which ran from 2007-2010.