Can't get Timeline to show any events or center on date

[richwebster]

Another individual in our organization setup Omeka S (v2.1.0) and Timeline (v3.4.10) on Reclaim Hosting for a long-term Local History project. Omeka S works as expected, however Timeline shows no events and won't center on the date she entered. (See screenshots below.) She's asked me to take a look at the plugin in the hopes I can get it to work. I've checked as much documentation as I can find online, but have yet to find a reason why the timeline is always blank and centers on today. I'd greatly appreciate any ideas about what might be wrong.

[Daniel-KM]

Hi,
Apparently, there is no issue in the config.
Currently, there is no events in the list: /timeline/18/events.json . Did you try with a smaller list?I released version 3.4.11 last month and maybe it fixes it.

[richwebster]

Thank you for confirming. I saw the "important" message in the documentation about "The number of items should be limited... can't manage more than some dozens or hundreds of items." The way she had configured Timeline originally included 470 some odd records. Blank JSON. I had changed to escapes only, which is all they want, but it has 207 records. Still a blank JSON. But, a small item set - only 7 items - populated the JSON file and the timeline... We'll look into upgrading.

[Daniel-KM]

There may be a bad content or non-unicode in a property. I have a timeline for a bibliography on a site with 800 items, that are delivered in one second (but memory is expensive).

[mufticsanjin]

Hello, I am contributing to this because I have a similar issue with our local Omeka-S install (2.1.0 with Timeline 3.4.11). Just as @richwebster I can see the list of items in the timeline pool, but I can't get anything on the actual timeline no matter how small I limit my items. I am not sure if any of the json files are being created as our IT department (logged an issue [https://github.com//issues/17]) can't seem to find them and I don't have access to the directory. Does the module need permission to write to the local server (perhaps stupid question). Would appreciate any assistance.

our listing of the timeline directory is like this
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 9851 Feb 11 09:44 README.md
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 700 Feb 11 09:44 Module.php
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 21777 Feb 11 09:44 LICENSE.txt
drwxr-xr-x 6 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 11 09:44 asset
drwxr-xr-x 2 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 11 09:44 config
-rw-r--r-- 1 www-data www-data 193 Feb 11 09:44 composer.json
drwxr-xr-x 3 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 11 09:44 view
drwxr-xr-x 2 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 11 09:44 test
drwxr-xr-x 7 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 11 09:44 src
drwxr-xr-x 2 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 11 09:44 language
drwxr-xr-x 4 www-data www-data 4096 Feb 11 09:44 data

if the timeline Jsons are meant to be created here, then it seems like it is not happening... or are they meant to go to each "site folder"?

[Daniel-KM]

Is it fixed in version 3.4.12?

[richwebster]

I have not upgraded it to 3.4.12. At the time I asked my questions two of our librarians were preparing to present about their project, and I didn't want to break anything that couldn't get fixed in time. They reduced the size of the dataset, and then items did display in the timeline. But I need to check on the update procedure and upgrade the module.

[Daniel-KM]

The json is created live. If simile doesn't work, you can try knightlabs one, it doesn't require an account anymore.

[Daniel-KM]

Else check the url of the events: https://example.org/timeline/1/events.json (where 1 is the id of the block of the timeline).

[MrSpitfire06]

I got the same issue here.
Timeline shows a limited number of item with no request. They are visible in the "/timeline/39/events.json".

Then, when I put a request like "ressource_class_id = 90", the error "Timeline configuration has no events" displays. Still, the block found 38 items with a date in the page administration. But the list is empty in "/timeline/39/events.json".

Any news about this issue ?

[Daniel-KM]

Probably an issue with the date format or the property. Is the property filled? Can you give an example of the dates?

[gtnbssn]

Indeed date format seems to be an issue.

So far i am under the impression that the date format has to be YYYY-MM-DD (or YYYY for indicating just the year).

It seems date formatted with the helpers coming with the "numeric data type" module (https://github.com/omeka-s-modules/NumericDataTypes) have a different format, which breaks the timeline. (Specifically i think adding an hour or using intervals is the issue, as it saves values in the database like this : "2017-02-08T19:00" or "2013-09-27/2013-10-19".)

[Daniel-KM]

Yes, it doesn't manage hour and interval currently.