Cannot get Timeline view to work

It looks like that your have configured the view perfectly!

I can confirm that there are problems to run the timeline 2.x module completely locally.
There is a complex bug when including the new SIMILE Ajax library (Requiered by new SIMILE timeline 2.3).

So first questions: Would it work using the external SIMILE server (select it in admin/settings/timeline)? Has this Drupal installation a connection to the internet? In case you have Firebug installed: Are there any errors reported on the console?

I'm working on that and I'll file an issue, if i can not get it to work today. As well I will put a little "debug" function into the timeline module to help with better troubleshooting on these white screens.

This problem could be caused by using library 2.2.1. Please try to checkout the following source of the SIMILE-Ajax libraries:
svn export http://simile-widgets.googlecode.com/svn/ajax/tags/2.0-on-static-simile/src/webapp/api timeline_ajax
I have updated the INSTALL.txt file. Thanks for this bug report.

If there is still a problem. The 2.x branch has now a debug feature that you can enable on the admin/settings/timeline page. When you navigate to your view after enabling the debug mode there should appear a textarea with the array that is going to be passed to the timeline. Please post this (in an attached txt file).

Your array is generated almost perfectly. Unfortunately I can not rebuild this error, your timeline shows up nicely. There is a problem with Date conversion though. Dates before 1970 are getting converted badly. This issue I was going to address next.

Anyway I really would like to figure out why nothing is showing up on your installation. Three questions:

# Do you have Firebug extension for Firefox installed? Is there any js error showing on up on the console?

# Is it working when you are setting the location of Simile Timeline libraries (/admin/settings/timeline) to SIMILE Server?

# Which browser are you using? Is it working with another browser?

I'm having a similar problem, but its not fixed with new libraries.

It works OK (using default view from package) with simile server code, but not with local libraries. I have the 2.3.0 libraries, and so does the server. When using local libraries the timeline thingie is blank. With the server version its populated about as I'd expect it.

I have firefox and it shows no errors. I do notice that different arguments are passed to the simile server than the local one.

I've used both FF 3.0.12 (linux) and IE 7.0.5730.13 (winders)

I'm enclosing the debug dump from simile server & local responses. The former worked, the latter didn't and there is no difference in the debug data array other than the time of execution.

I just got this working with no problems.

The one thing you MUST do is: after you set your fields, make sure to go back into your timeline basic settings (the style options button) to set the field usage settings.

I don't see my timeline after trying to install the API locally.
I downloaded the API from http://code.google.com/p/simile-widgets/downloads/list
I hope thats right.
I have tryed both 6.x-2.0-beta1 and 6.x-2.x-dev timeline. It's working when using SIMILE server as Location of Simile Timeline libraries, but if I choose local folder the timeline is blank.
I have the libraries module installed and I have copied the timeline_js and timeline_ajax files to sites/all/libraries/simile_timeline.
I don't get any errors with firebug, it seems like all the files are reached.

Best regards/
David

Please use the sources that are specified in the INSTALL.TXT file! You need the SIMILE Ajax 2.0-on-static-simile version and where you downloaded the libraries it is shipped with another version of the Ajax Libraries.

INSTALL.TXT:

[...]
2. Obtain the libraries of SIMILE Timeline 2.3.0 and SIMILE Ajax 2.0-on-static-simile.

   * You can download a prepackaged and patched (see known issues) version from
     http://github.com/xamanu/SIMILE-Timeline-libraries/tree/master (press download button)

   * Or you can check out via Subversion the original files from the SIMILE servers:
     svn export http://simile-widgets.googlecode.com/svn/timeline/tags/2.3.0/src/webapp/api timeline_js
     svn export http://simile-widgets.googlecode.com/svn/ajax/tags/2.0-on-static-simile/src/webapp/api timeline_ajax 
     (Please note that you might want to patch the simile-ajax-bundle.js, see known issues)

http://github.com/xamanu/SIMILE-Timeline-libraries/tree/master (press download button)
[...]

Thanx it worked when i got the right libraries.

Best regards
Dajjen

If i use the Simile server script my timeline is running perfectly. But for several reasons I want to use the locale script. This is why I installed the library module (activated) and downloaded the files from http://github.com/xamanu/SIMILE-Timeline-libraries/tree/master into the sites/all/libraries/simile_timeline directory. Did I miss anything? Because if I go to the admin settings of timeline module (admin/settings/timeline) I can not choose "locale version". The only option is still the Simile Server.

What did I miss to configure?

Do I need to adjust code?
I had a look into the code and it is checking for the libraries/simile_timeline/ directory and since the files are in there I wonder why I can not choose the local option on the settings page.

thanks for the support! :)

Hi.
Try using the library files from the svn repository that are listed in install.txt in your timeline module.
That worked for me.
you should only install libraries module and create a folder-tree "libraries/simile_timeline" under yoursite/sites/all
then just put the folders that you checkout from svn (timeline_ajax, timeline_js) in that folder.

Best regards
Dajjen

I tried this on my local server (localhost.. i tried to install local files from both options and get a blank screen).

C

Hello,
please provide me with more info so I can help you.

Is this really a White screen of death (Completely Blank Page) or is just the timeline not showing up?
Can you check (f.e. with firebug) if all files get included or not.
Try enabling the "debug mode" in the timeline general settings and attach the output as a text file to this post.

thanks

the timeline shows up when I use external server and does not show up when it is local server
there is no wsod

array (
  'events' => 
  array (
    'events' => 
    array (
      0 => 
      array (
        'title' => 'SUP Man',
        'link' => '/content/sup-man',
        'start' => '2010-01-14T04:00:00Z',
        'durationEvent' => false,
        'classname' => 'events-set-0',
        'description' => '

  
    
                      <div class="views-field related-title">
                      <label>Group name</label>
            <span class="field-content"><a href="/development/content/development" title="Development" alt="Development">...</a></span>
                  </div>
      
    
                      <div class="views-field title">
                      <a href="/development/content/sup-man" title="SUP Man" alt="SUP Man">SUP Man</a>                  </div>
      
    
      
    
                      <div class="views-field buyitnowbutton">
                      <form action="/development/ourevents/all/all/all"  accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="uc-catalog-buy-it-now-form-145">
<div><input type="hidden" name="nid" id="edit-nid" value="145"  />
<input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit-145" value="Signup"  class="form-submit list-add-to-cart" />
<input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-eabffbbbfe4ecb30ca4c68395009fd52" value="form-eabffbbbfe4ecb30ca4c68395009fd52"  />
<input type="hidden" name="form_token" id="edit-uc-catalog-buy-it-now-form-145-form-token" value="e426d854be4d7c2244d8dad6d72e108a"  />
<input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-uc-catalog-buy-it-now-form-145" value="uc_catalog_buy_it_now_form_145"  />

</div></form>
                  </div>
      
    
      
    

      
    
                      <div class="views-field field_orientation_value">
                      <label>Orientation Focus</label>
            <span class="field-content"><a href="/development/NAO/All" rel="tag" title="">All</a></span>
                  </div>
      
    
      
    
      
    
      
    
                      <div class="views-field related-longitude">
                      <label>Longitude</label>
            <span class="field-content">0.000000</span>
                  </div>
      
    
                      <div class="views-field related-latitude">
                      <label>Latitude</label>
            <span class="field-content">0.000000</span>
                  </div>
      
    
  

',
      ),
    ),
    'dateTimeFormat' => 'iso8601',
  ),
  'id' => 'ao_events',
  'orientation' => 0,
  'initial_focus' => 'Jan 13 2010 20:00:00',
  'timezone' => 0,
  'controls' => false,
  'bands' => 
  array (
    0 => 'DAY',
  ),
  'summary' => 'MONTH',
  'theme' => 'ClassicTheme',
  'bubble_max_height' => '',
  'bubble_width' => '250',

Hi,

same issue here with the latest release 6.x-2.1 (2009-Nov-16). I think I followed the installation instructions precisely, but neither with locally installed libraries nor from the remote server any timeline is showing up.

Installation steps:

* Downloaded and enabled 'timeline' and 'libraries' modules as usual (drush dl timeline; drush enable timeline etc.)
* Cloned http://github.com/xamanu/SIMILE-Timeline-libraries/tree/master into ./sites/all/libraries
* Tried the unaltered view 'timeline_nodes', and created a new view.
* Cleard all Drupal caches (via admin_menu "Clear all caches") and cleared the views cache

Observations:

* When goint to ./admin/settings/timeline, I can't select the locally installed libraries until I do a chmod a+w -R simile_timeline in ./sites/all/libraries. This is reported by watchdog, also.

At ./sites/all/libraries/simile_timeline I have:

# ls -lah
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 ..
drwxrwxrwx 8 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 .git
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 timeline_ajax
drwxrwxrwx 6 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 timeline_js

# ls -lah timeline_ajax/
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 .
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 ..
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 content
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 images
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 scripts
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 7,4K 29. Dez 15:21 simile-ajax-api.js
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 112K 29. Dez 15:21 simile-ajax-bundle.js

# ls -lah timeline_js/
drwxrwxrwx 6 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 .
drwxrwxrwx 5 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 ..
drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 ext
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 images
drwxrwxrwx 4 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 scripts
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 4,0K 29. Dez 15:21 styles
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root  11K 29. Dez 15:21 timeline-api.js
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5,7K 29. Dez 15:21 timeline-bundle.css
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 118K 29. Dez 15:21 timeline-bundle.js

Configuration of the view:

* Filters: The view is filtered down to one content type with approximately 100 nodes, and filtered to published nodes;
* Fields: CCK Date, Node title, Node body;
* Timeline Field usage: "title" is a plain node title; "start date" is a CCK date field.
* Relationships: none; Arguments: none

If I access the configured path for the view, I'm getting a blank display (no WSOD, just no view or timeline widget, but left and right blocks etc. are still there). Watchdog reports no errors or warnings. If I enable debug mode at ./admin/settings/timeline, I'm getting lots of output in the debug window, but still no timeline.

Workaround:

By default, the view is configured to display "0" (= unlimited) records per page. If I limit this to 25 records, a timeline starts to show up; if I raise this limit to 250 records, the timeline widget dissapears. For testing purposes I decreased the value to 150 - still no timeline; at 50 records, a timeline started to appear again.

When reversing the sorting order (view is sorted by date), the timeline widget again dissapears. When limiting the view from 50 to 25 records per page, the timeline widget appears again.

The behaviour is a bit unclear, but somehow and sometimes it seems to work ;)

Greetings, -asb

Solution to my issue as specified in #21

* When goint to ./admin/settings/timeline, I can't select the locally installed libraries until I do a chmod a+w -R simile_timeline in ./sites/all/libraries. This is reported by watchdog, also.

it should be chmod -R a+w simile_timeline.

Wow all my frustration for a permissions issue.

now should the entire file and directory be read/writable by the world? Does that present a security risk?

Hi,

I have to update this issue; sorry for this.

Restricting the view to display only 25 records per page makes the timeline appear. That's nice.

However, in the whole timeline a total of 25 dates/nodes/events is displayed - which renders the module practically useless (for 25 items nobody needs a fancy scrolling widget). There appears to be no way to display all records from the view in one timeline. That renders also the provided view "timeline_nodes" broken unless your site has less than 25 nodes. OK, I understand that tools like this are not made to visualize a few thousand nodes, but at least it should be capable to display all Drupal releases in one timeline (that's what I'm trying to do).

Setting this issue to "critical". Please feel free to adjust this if you find that appropriate.

Thanks & greetings, -asb

@asb this has actually nothing to do with the issue. So I opened up another issue: #716160: Performance overhaul (display a larger amount of events) This is a better place to have this in mind for the next release.

@SocialNicheGuru (#22): I must agree.

What I do know is that this is enough:

$ cd sites/all/libraries
$ sudo chmod 757 simile_timeline

Note the absence of the -R. Also note that only the public needs the extra write permissions.

But why!? I dug into the code and couldn't find anything special except for:

file_check_directory()

Note these lines:

<?php
  // Check to see if the directory is writable.
  if (!is_writable($directory)) {
    if (($mode & FILE_MODIFY_PERMISSIONS) && @chmod($directory, 0775)) {
      drupal_set_message(t('The permissions of directory %directory have been changed to make it writable.', array('%directory' => $directory)));
    }
    else {
      form_set_error($form_item, t('The directory %directory is not writable', array('%directory' => $directory)));
      watchdog('file system', 'The directory %directory is not writable, because it does not have the correct permissions set.', array('%directory' => $directory), WATCHDOG_ERROR);
      return FALSE;
    }
  }
?>

The solution is quite simple. Just modify the code in timeline.module from:

<?php
    // check if library is available 'sites/all/libraries/simile_timeline'
    if (file_check_directory($timeline_path)) {
      $messages = '';
      foreach ($timeline_library_files as $file) {
        $file = $timeline_path . $file;
        if (!file_exists($file)) {
          $messages .= '<div>' . t('Error: !timeline_filename not found', array('!timeline_filename' => '<span class="error">' . $file . '</span></div>'));
        }
      }
      // no errors found
      if ($messages == '')
        return TRUE;
      else
        return $messages;
    }
?>

to:

<?php
    // check if library is available 'sites/all/libraries/simile_timeline'
    if (file_exists($timeline_path)) {
      $messages = '';
      foreach ($timeline_library_files as $file) {
        $file = $timeline_path . $file;
        if (!file_exists($file)) {
          $messages .= '<div>' . t('Error: !timeline_filename not found', array('!timeline_filename' => '<span class="error">' . $file . '</span></div>'));
        }
      }
      // no errors found
      if ($messages == '')
        return TRUE;
      else
        return $messages;
    }
?>

Note the use of the PHP function file_exists() and not the Drupal function file_check_directory().
file_check_directory() is not properly used here IMHO. It serves a different purpose.

I've been experiencing this issue as well. It seems like it breaks randomly when changing my view. The first time it happened, i added a taxonomy field, the second time (a few day later) when adding a image to the timeline config.

Both times this was solved by overwriting the module's folder from the archive. Seems like a permissions thing as i made no changes to the module itself.

I should add that I am using the external scripts, so that's not the issues as noted above.

#26
yep!
this is the answer.