Timelines in AndStatus (was: Timeline Mess)

[Rbagman]

I really don't understand the mess you've made of the timeline(s).

[yvolk]

(Edited In 2021 to describe current state)

Timelines in AndStatus

#AndStatus has many feeds that are called Timelines here. Plus a User can add their own custom "Search timelines".
This is why a list of Timelines is a separate list with their names, and not a couple of tabs or buttons :-)

By default the list of timelines can be opened by clicking a Timeline title.

Any timeline can be set as the Default timeline, hidden or deleted

List of Timelines opened for selection:

Managing / configuring timelines

In AndStatus v.27 a new way to see / create / manage timelines is implemented. Please read below and play with "Manage timelines" view/table ("Manage timelines" is in the menu in the upper right corner of the screen):

1. Individual timelines can now be managed separately in the "Manage Timelines" table (in a menu of a list of messages and also in Settings->Timeline). For each timeline you can define: if it's shown in a list of available timelines and if it's synced automatically.

For each timeline sync statistics is shown:

• Number of syncs and accumulated numbers of all downloaded and of new messages.
• Time of last successful and of last failed syncs.
• The last error encountered during syncing.
  The "Manage Timelines" table scrolls vertically and horizontally and its content can be sorted by different columns: just click a column header. Automatic syncing of individual timelines #384

2. Now you can create custom syncable timelines, e.g. for scheduled searches. Thus you can effectively "subscribe" to groups/tags, creating automatically synced Search timelines e.g. for "#andstatus" or for "!gnusocial". Add Group support #248

3. List of timelines for selection is now fully customizable. You can define, which timelines are shown always, which are shown "in a context" only (i.e. only when an account of this timeline selected), and which timelines are never shown in this list.
   In any case, any timeline may be opened from the "Manage timelines" list.

4. Default timeline, which is shown on Application start, is selected in the "Manage Timelines" list.

"Manage Timelines" view serves several purposes:

• Check if timelines are synced, are they downloading messages and what errors were encountered. Separately for each timeline.
• Set which Timelines to sync automatically.
• Set which Timelines to show for selection
• Set Default Timeline.

[bulletbites]

@yvolk I think from my own experience with the "manage timelines" you might resolve this by using a default TL setting where users can

[easy mode]
Choose which timeline to set as a default with 3 options only namely:

• Timeline ("Home")
• Public Timeline
• The Whole Known Network

without any of the syncing options, viewing options stuff available to novice users.

I would make the "manage timelines" feature in its current state a [advanced mode] thingy: for those that want more control in how AndStatus shows their TL with all the bells and whistles (incl the combined stuff). Maybe in the settings menu you can make a option for users to activate/tick [advanced timeline options] if they want to play around with it.

[yvolk]

@bulletbites "Manage Timelines" view serves several purposes:

1. Check if timelines are synced, are they downloading messages and what errors were encountered. Separately for each timeline.
2. Set which Timelines to sync automatically.
3. Set which Timelines to show for selection
4. Set Default Timeline.
   This is why I think users even without "advanced" expectations will have to use it.

[rodneyrod]

@yvolk I don't know if this is the same issue but my Home Combined timeline isn't displaying posts in the right order.

I expect the application to always display the newest tweets at the top and then go backwards as you scroll down, now the top tweet seems to be arbitrarily set and I'm getting posts from all sorts of times in an out of order list, with no way of sorting the timelines out by date.

Is there any way to fix this?

[yvolk]

@rodneyrod Could you check if the wrong order is specific to Combined timeline or , maybe, to some Social network (please turn Combined off and switch between accounts)?

[rodneyrod]

Yeah the issue persists with individual non-combined timelines, even when combined timelines is disabled. When I did test, it was more in order, but there were still random entries a couple of days to weeks older.

[yvolk]

@rodneyrod AndStatus shows a date of creation, not a date of update or reblog/retweet. But it sorts tweets by dates of updates/retweets.
This is why old tweet, which was retweeted or updated recently, appears above tweets, which were created earlier than creation, but later than retweet of this tweet.
Please check, maybe this is your case?

[rodneyrod]

Thanks @yvolk, that was exactly the case. Sorry about the confusion.

Just out of curiosity, would it be possible to add a setting to toggle whether or not to show the original post or retweet date? Or even somehow display both.

[yvolk]

@rodneyrod We need to discuss, what to do and how exactly a User should see this in a separate thread. Please continue this discussion in: #417