Preparing your data
Timeline Storyteller for the web currently supports datasets of events in CSV, JSON, or
Google Spreadsheet format, while Timeline Storyteller for Power BI supports datasets of
events in any format that Power BI can ingest; please see this
tutorial for loading data into Timeline Storyteller for Power BI.
Each event is specified by the following attributes:
- Required:
start_date
, a date formatted as YYYY,
YYYY-MM-DD, or YYYY-MM-DD HH:MMZ (Z necessary for specifying UTC, otherwise HH:MM will
be time-zone dependent). BC dates are permitted, e.g., -27, -13800000000.
- Optional:
end_date
, a date using same format as
start_date
.
- Optional:
category
, a string corresponding to the category
of the event (which Timeline Storyteller encodes as colour).
- Optional:
facet
, a string corresponding to another
category of the event (which Timeline Storyteller uses to create a faceted timeline
layout; category
and facet
can be identical if desired).
- Optional:
content_text
, a string description of the event
(which Timeline Storyteller exposes as event annotations).
Example events in JSON:
Example 1:
{
"start_date":"1775",
"end_date":"1783",
"content_text":"American Revolutionary War.",
"facet":"North America",
"category":"North America"
},
Example 2 (small-scale timeline):
{
"facet":"Hugo, Victor",
"category":"other",
"start_date":"2015-07-10 11:00Z",
"end_date":"2015-07-10 11:59Z",
"content_text":"Taking an ice bath on the roof"
},
Example 3 (epoch scale timeline):
{
"content_text":"Human ancestors walk upright",
"start_date":"-4200000",
"end_date":""
},
Example CSV / Google Spreadsheet:
The "The Daily Routines of
Famous Creative People" demo
dataset used in Timeline Storyteller:
Loading Google Spreadsheets
- Refer to the URL of a spreadsheet, such as:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets
/d/1x8N7Z9RUrA9Jmc38Rvw1VkHslp8rgV2Ws3h_5iM-I8M/pubhtml
- Ensure that the spreadsheet is published (open the Google Spreadsheet 'File' menu,
select 'Publish to the Web').
- Ensure that
start_date
and end_date
columns are formatted as
text and not as dates (e.g., '1926-06-29
).
- Required: Spreadsheet URL
- Optional: Worksheet title (i.e., tab name) for this dataset:
dailyroutines
- Enter the spreadsheet URL and worksheet title into Timeline Storyteller's load dialog.