API for adding multiple events?

[anurag6792]

Is there an API for adding multiple events?

[sehmon]

Hi!

Can you please elaborate what kind of API you were imagining for this feature?

Thanks!

[anurag6792]

What I need is that , if it was possible to add multiple events . As of now I found that the 'add' method adds only one event.In our case there are more than one event that needs to be added.What we are doing is that we are looping in each event that needs to be added.So there is a performance issue in that.The browser hangs till the loop finishes.So can you suggest something for it?
Apart from this I have more question that dragging along the timeline doesn't work.But when we swipe through mouse pad of laptop it works.Is this an issue?

Thanks!

[shaula]

I had the same issue and I hacked into the library a bit...but it fails to work properly.

I added just this code to my custom JS:

    TL.Timeline.prototype.addBatch = function (events) {
      for (var i in events) {
        this._addDeferred(events[i]);
      }

      // FIXME: Sorting destroys grouping
      TL.DateUtil.sortByDate(this.config.events);
      TL.DateUtil.sortByDate(this.config.eras);

      this._storyslider._updateDrawSlides();
      this._timenav._updateDrawTimeline(false);

      for (i in events) {
        this.fire("added", {unique_id: events[i].unique_id});
      }
    };

    TL.Timeline.prototype._addDeferred = function (data) {
      var unique_id = this.config.addEvent(data, true); // defer sorting

      var n = this._getEventIndex(unique_id);
      var d = this.config.events[n];

      this._storyslider.createSlide(d, this.config.title ? n+1 : n);
      this._timenav.createMarker(d, n);
    };

From the outside just call timeline.addBatch(eventArray);.
The issue with this code is (see https://jsfiddle.net/0qta1cu8/3/):

• "Group A" is shown twice - this is a bug described also in Duplicate group on zoom at specific browser sizes #378.
• The date ordering is wrong when adding in batch mode, but good when doing one by one. Additionally the group assignment is wrong (not only the label).
  • If I omit (comment out) the 2 lines for sortByDate, then it looks better, but the navigation is broken.

Maybe you can give me a hint where I made a mistake.

[randragon42]

@shaula were you able to come up with a solution that worked? I am currently facing the same issue.

[JoeGermuska]

We will readily admit that TimelineJS was not really developed with a full MVC model. That is, when event "model objects" are added or changed, the corresponding views don't automatically update.

Support for that was not a primary use case, and to correct the data/lifecycle issues in the current codebase would be no small project, especially given that our design target for TimelineJS is storytelling, which is usually not so dynamic.

You are almost certainly better off just manipulating a JSON representation of the timeline and instantiating a new timeline when you need it. If you wanted the viewer to stay on the same slide they were at, you'd need to take some more steps, but that would still probably be easier than reimplementing the existing codebase as proper MVC.