Release v0.9.0

First published build.

Zotero Timeline adds authored events to Zotero, each with an EDTF date and typed links to the library items that support or contradict it, drawn as timelines in their own tab. It stays below 1.0 until it has held up in real use.

⬆️ Install

Download zotero-timeline.xpi below. In Zotero, open Tools, then Plugins, click the gear icon, choose "Install Plugin From File...", and pick the file. A plugin that fails to load does so quietly, so check that "Zotero Timeline" is listed under Tools, then Plugins.

• Zotero: 8, 9 and 10.0. Zotero 10.1 and later will not load the plugin until a release confirms them.
• Updates: the build carries an update URL, so Zotero's plugin updater will offer later versions.

✨ What's in it

Several timelines share one chronological axis in a single tab, all of them editable.

• Timeline: a Timeline tab from the Tools menu or Shift+T, with one lane per timeline, optional sub-lanes, and a sidebar to create, rename, delete, show, hide and reorder timelines. A library you can only read opens read-only, and says so. The Timeline tab
• Events: a title, a description, tags, and an EDTF date, so "1621?", "1580~" and "1943-05/1943-06" are drawn as uncertain, approximate and interval. A date the plugin cannot read is kept and flagged, never dropped. Create by clicking the canvas, drag to change a date, duplicate onto another timeline. Editing events
• Sources: link an event to items and standalone notes, each link with a type from a vocabulary you edit per library, and jump from a source to its item. Source links
• Item pane: a Timelines section lists the events that cite the selected item, and clicking one jumps to it on the canvas. Item pane
• Menu: right-click items in the library to add them as sources to an existing event, or to start a new event with them already attached.
• Navigation: filter every visible timeline by tag; jump to a date, zoom and fit.
• Data: timelines live in Zotero notes, so they sync with your library with no extra setup. The plugin warns before one grows too large to sync.
• Settings: the link-type editor, the hide preference, and buttons that open the bug and feature forms on GitHub with your versions filled in. The interface is also available in Dutch.

🔧 Under the hood

Most of the work that is not a feature went into checking the plugin against a live Zotero.

• Testing: a live suite of about 550 specs runs inside Zotero 8, 9 and 10 on every pull request, and a written walk through seven user journeys covers what the suite cannot see.
• Fixes: more than 30 defects found by those checks were fixed before this release.

⚠️ Known rough edges

Four problems ship with this release.

• Editing one timeline on two machines before they sync can lose that whole timeline's changes on one side, not just the conflicting edit. Why
• Trashing the "Zotero Timeline (plugin data)" item hides every timeline in that library until you restore it. How to recover
• Duplicating an event discards unsaved edits in the editor without asking. Save first. Duplicate
• Hiding the container row patches a Zotero internal and fails open: a Zotero update that breaks it shows one extra row, with no message.

📚 Documentation

Full docs at https://oekeur.github.io/zotero-timeline/. Your first timeline goes from a fresh install to a timeline with a cited event.

This is the first tag, so its commit range is the project's entire history.

Release Manifest

This release is used to host update.json, please do not delete or modify it!
Updated in UTC 2026-10-07T14:46:44.576Z for version 0.9.0