Integrate time manager plugin into core, add animation time variables to expression engine

[qgib]

Author Name: Nyall Dawson (@nyalldawson)
Original Redmine Issue: 7868

Redmine category:unknown

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Watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKesia0aGwE makes me think how sweet it would be if a variant of the Time Manager plugin was integrated into core. This could then allow us to use the animation time parameter for data defined symbology/labelling expressions. I'm thinking points which grow/shrink/fade with time, labels which show for a few seconds when a point appears before smoothly fading away, ...!

For instance, if the animation time was available via a variable such as "$animation_datetime", then an expression for fading a symbol over a week could be something like:

Color fill expression:
color_rgba(255, 0, 0, scale_linear(day(age($animation_datetime, layer_time_column)) , 0, 7, 255, 0))

Size expression:
scale_linear(day(age($animation_datetime, layer_time_column)) , 0, 7, 30, 0)

Would result in something like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM8XbzdlZIg

Even these kind of maps (from 0:22 onward) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUhrEMEQfXw would be possible!

[qgib]

Author Name: Regis Haubourg (@haubourg)

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Hi, +1 with that, especially fading option and $animation_datetime, that would help a lot for visual interprétation.
Cheers
Régis

[qgib]

Author Name: Giovanni Manghi (@gioman)

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• easy_fix was configured as 0

[qgib]

Author Name: Jürgen Fischer (@jef-n)

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• category_id was configured as Unknown

[nyalldawson]

Done!