Requirements for a Viewer?

[aadrian]

Hi,

Are there any requirements for a Viewer?
I mean besides the basic: display a list, search, and filter?

Thank you.

[mholt]

Hmm, good question. I think the UI will need to be very clean and snappy (fast) -- easy enough for my parents to use. That means text for all interactive elements (not icon-only), and making it obvious what can be clicked on or interacted with.

It should work on mobile and desktop.

It should obviously have a timeline view, probably a few other ways of projecting the data too.

A first-pass timeline UI, though, would have the items sorted by time (of course), a search, and a few filter options, yes. Also the ability to view the metadata/info about each item.

[tripleo1]

Do you have any intention of writing a Viewer?

[aadrian]

Do you have any intention of writing a Viewer?

@tripleo1 yes .
However it needs to be simple enough to useful for mostly non-technical users.

[tripleo1]

On Tue, Sep 1, 2020 at 10:17 AM Adrian A. ***@***.***> wrote: Do you have any intention of writing a Viewer? @tripleo1 <https://github.com/tripleo1> yes . However it needs to be simple enough to useful for mostly non-technical users.

I could see a calendar on the right side and a list on the left side showing (probably) previews of all the elements in chronological order, with clicks going into more detail. One question is you plan to use HTML right?

[aadrian]

@tripleo1

One question is you plan to use HTML right?

Yes. Since it needs to work on mobile and desktop too, and handle allot of data, the simplest approach would be to have a simple web application (if this is what you ask) .

[wisehackermonkey]

Id love to see something that looks like

way back machine has a great interface for something like this

or for photos

[tfreedman]

I'm curious if any more thought has been put into what a viewer for Timeliner would require, beyond just what was written above.

[mholt]

I've started serious work on a viewer.

[wisehackermonkey]

need any help?

[coolmule0]

A timeline app with a viewer that exists already: Github - timeline. Perhaps it can be looked at to see what requirements it has/not have that are wanted for this software, and perhaps reach out to merge the two, as they seem quite similar in scope?

[wisehackermonkey]

thanks @coolmule0 im going to try that out now!

[mholt]

The viewer I've been building for the last ~3 years is called Timelinize. It's still in active development, but I'm inviting others to try it if they'll provide their feedback as development progresses. See also issue #84 which has a screenshot, and this project's updated README.

I like some of the ideas shared by @wisehackermonkey that I'm sure will be incorporated eventually, but maybe not initially as there's a lot of work to do with what I've got laid out already.

The most helpful thing at this point would be to have people try it out with multiple data sources, give their feedback, and keep giving their feedback over time. The Timelinize website has my email to request an invite to our Discord.

Feedback so far includes:

"Wow!"

"I tried the location history import from Google and this is already so fun."

"I think this is super encouraging."

"I think people are going to really like this."

---

I would love to share more screenshots, but the only data I have to develop with is my own personal data. I'm working on a way to obfuscate the data to make it safe to share. (Also experimenting with generating random data, but that's not as... representative.)

[wisehackermonkey]

Awesome! I'll have a look at the project you mentioned.

Thanks for all the work on this project

[mholt]

Timelinize is coming along well, and I hope to have something to show later this year.

Even though I'm using my own data for development and testing, I should be able to show it off because of some obfuscation features: images and videos are blurred, locations are scrambled, and names and text and other personal info are randomized.

It'll definitely feel very MVP-ish at first, but I have lots of plans to polish it and make it really great.