Timeline Events in TiddlyTools

Plugins
1

Using this excellent plugin (or rather non-plugin package? [1]), I am trying to set up a Timeline Event (i.e. a trip itinerary). So in the calendar widget, i clicked on the start date of trip, clicked the ‘+’ button, clicked ‘create a new timeline’ … and then in the new tiddler, what i titled as ‘NameOfTrip’, following this instruction given on TiddlyTools/Time/Info tiddler:

  • To define a multi-day event that will appear every day in a range of dates, add a timeline.start and a timeline.end field, both with 8-digit YYYYMMDD values.

…i followed that instruction to the letter then saved the tiddler (auto-tagged as ‘timeline’), but then it didn’t show on calendar. So i deleted the two optional fields of ‘caption’ and ‘event color’ -since they came first, i thought that might interfere w/ function of the ‘timeline.start’ and ‘timeline.end’ fields… But it made no difference.

So, i dunno: am i doing something wrong, or maybe having a wrong expectation of how this should work? What i’ve always done (which works fine) is just create a new Journal tiddler for start and end dates… But my ideal would be to have a trip show up as one solid bar in a special color, spanning all consecutive days in the monthly calendar view. If that is somehow possible, via this tool or some other, i’d love to know how.

/walt

[1] Am not sure if i have the current version of this package, @EricShulman, but here’s what it says atop that ‘TiddlyTools/Time/Info’ tiddler (am using TiddlyDesktop v.0.0.14 (15), in case that matters):

author Eric Shulman
source It's About Time! — TiddlyTools: "Small Tools for Big Ideas!" (tm)
updated Wednesday, November 17th 2021 at 08:18:18am

This package contains 42 tiddlers. Drag this link to import into your own TiddlyWiki.

2

To define a Timeline Event, there are TWO separate tiddlers involved:

  1. First define a Timeline tiddler (e.g., “NameOfTrip”), automatically tagged with “timeline”. This can be done as you have described:

    1. click on ANY date in the calendar to show the date popup
    2. click the “+” button to show the “add an event” popup
    3. click “create a new timeline” button to create a “timeline” tiddler
    4. Enter a title (e.g., “NameOfTrip”)
    5. Press the “done” button to save the tiddler

  2. Then, define a separate Timeline Event tiddler, automatically tagged with “NameOfTrip”

    1. Click on the desired start date to show the date popup
    2. Click on the “+” button to show the “add an event” popup
    3. Scroll the listbox and select “NameOfTrip”
    4. Enter a title for this specific event
    5. Enter 8-digit YYYYMMDD values in the timeline.start and timeline.end fields
    6. Press the “done” button to save the tiddler

You can change the timeline’s color using the controls in the Calendar Settings popup (the “gear” icon in the calendar heading)

Note that the most recent version of TiddlyTools/Time/Calendar (modified on “18th July 2022”) can be found here:
https://tiddlytools.com/timer.html

let me know how it goes,
-e

1 Like
3

Following your instructions @EricShulman (thanks for the quick & good response), it worked great… Until i followed the upgrade instructions and imported the 24 new program tiddlers, whereupon i noticed a number of state-changes [1], including disappearance of my newly created trip timeline & related event from the calendar display.

No big deal fortunately, as i was able to quickly recreate those 2 new tiddlers for trip timeline & related event (couldn’t get them to display by diddling whatever params seemed relevant), so now my trip is back on the calendar… Along with some other things i still have to figure out how to either use or deactivate. Lots of powerful functionality in here, looks like, and so there is a bit of a learning curve.

[1] So about this upgrade process, i have a couple of observations & questions:

  1. Didn’t know i was running on an old version of the package (tho i do try to stay abreast of new here, i do miss a lot), so: is there some way to subscribe to updates?

  2. The changes in state of my instance following upgrade (i.e. params i had set for what to display and how, e.g. Calendar Events & Timelines, Timers, Alarms, etc.), seeing as how they changed what i considered to be my data, i experienced as somewhat disruptive. I’m guessing this may be related to the fact that this is a package and not a plugin (yes?), which puts me to wonder why it’s not a plugin, since the package seems to be so well known & appreciated in this community. In any case: before i go creating many more events that might be lost (and not so easily recreated) on my calendar come the next upgrade, i wonder if you can suggest a way to avoid such problems in future. ?

4

The only “state” change I can think of was that $:/config/Time is now named $:/config/TiddlyTools/Time.

This was done to make the configuration of time-related settings follow the same naming convention as other TiddlyTools settings.

For the most part, there haven’t many significant changes to the $:/config tiddler since Nov 2021 (which was the date on your previous installation) so, in theory, you could have just renamed your existing $:/config/Time tiddler to $:/config/TiddlyTools/Time and most (if not all) of your existing settings would have remained in effect.

2 Likes
5

Good to know, Eric- thanks! -So: i will save this tip to a TiddyTools tiddler i will create to hold such usage tips that may come in handy next time there’s an upgrade.

Speaking of which, i’m still wondering: how will i know when you publish another upgrade? Is there perhaps a certain thread here in Discourse that i might bookmark, or a Github repo to watch, or… Any way you can suggest to keep abreast of news about TiddlyTools?