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TimeMapper

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/

Install

Local Install

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.

Configuration

The default configuration can be found in lib/config.js. You can override this in a couple of ways:

  1. Create a settings.json with specific values. settings.json has the same form as nconf.defaults object in in lib/config.js.

  2. 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.

Deploy (to Heroku)

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

Overview for Developers

  • 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

Backend Storage

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)

Data View info

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
  }

Translation info

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.

User Stories

Alice: user, who wants to create timelines, timemaps etc Bob: visitor (and potential user) Charlie: Admin of the website

Register / Login

[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

Create and Edit Views

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?

Forking

I want to "fork" someone elses visualization so that I can modify and extend it

Listing and Admin

[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)

Access Control

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

Misc

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

Asides

  • 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!

License, Contributors and History

This is an open-source project licensed under the MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributors include:

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.