Similarity to another repo: Timeline

[coolmule0]

There is a repo which seems to cover many of the same goals that this repo has. It is called timeline. It also has a focus on merging different data streams into it, and showing it in a time-centric way.

From my use of it I want to provide a comparison of it compared to this repo:

Pros

• Frontend
• RESTful backend

Cons

• Lacking in documentation
• Difficulty in setting up
• Less active repo

From my point of view this other Timeline repository has a nicer user experience, is in a more usable state, and uses technology I prefer for development. However, given the similarity of the two projects I feel like there should be some discussion between them to either focus development, or create contrasting features and uniqueness to each repo.

(I made an associated issue on the other repo)

[mholt]

Hey John, thanks for commenting. I saw your other comment here and I've been watching the project since then. I even read some of @nicbou's blog and found some of the articles interesting/relatable, like about parsing EXIF data.

A couple months ago (before your first comment) I started revitalizing this project's code locally, refactoring it from a command line app to an HTTP server, made many foundational improvements, and began work on a UI. I even gave it a new name, Timelinize. Although the eventual initial beta releases will target more technical audiences like ourselves, my goal is for my non-technical family members and friends to be able to use this too, and I think it will mostly require packaging the app a little nicer for various platforms and improving a few minor UX issues, for example, having a true file selector instead of just pasting a file path.

The REST API is already done, with endpoints for opening and initializing multiple repositories concurrently, adding accounts, listing current accounts, importing data, searching/retrieving data, and auto-recognizing which data source a file import might be associated with. I'm sure there will be more work here but it's already more functional than what timeliner can currently do.

Here are a few WIP screenshots so far:

(don't mind my TODO, lol)

I'm omitting screenshots of the actual content for now because I'm working with my own personal data. And it will probably change a lot between now and the beta.

Timelinize is a Go binary so it can be distributed without dependencies (except one pesky C dependency, sqlite, but I think I can statically compile that in) and works on all platforms.

I'm also stress testing it on data imports like Google Location History which, over the course of about a decade, accumulate hundreds of thousands of data points. Current timeliner" code tries to thin out the close/redundant ones, but I don't love that idea in the long term since I might be making assumptions that aren't sound. It will be interesting trying to sample from that firehose of data when projecting it into the UI. But the actual import is smooth and fast at least.

One of the projections of the Timelinize UI is a calendar view which looks similar in features to your screenshot above; you can view everything from a month or day.

Thanks again for sharing your project. I look forward to seeing what we can learn from each other.

[nicbou]

Hi there! My timeline thing is mostly built for my own needs, and isn't as refined as yours. Nonetheless, feel free to take anything you need from it.

[mholt]

Update: For anyone finding this later, Timelinize is in invite-only alpha phase during development, for anyone who wants to offer their feedback throughout the process. See #84, the updated README on this project, and https://timelinize.com.

[nicbou]

Congrats on the launch! I'm still working on nicbou/timeline, which is surprisingly similar. I took a completely different approach this time, making it work a lot like a static site generator. Keep up the good work @mholt