Using Timelines

Timelines present data across a span of time. They can be used for entities, relationships, or both. You can plot events, actions, and so on over a course of time, and once the timeline is created you can zoom in or out to focus on more or fewer items.

  1. Click either Entities or Relationships. You must complete information for one or both of these options to generate a timeline.
  2. Select a field from which the Start date can be extracted. You must complete this field to generate a timeline.
    Note: If any component that meets the criteria of the timeline does not have an associated start date, it will not be included in the chart.
  3. Select a field from which the End date can be extracted. You can use the same field for the end date as you did for the start date; alternatively, you can use a different field.
  4. If you did not select an end date, select a Duration for the timeline. This figure represents the number of days from the start date through which the timeline should take place. This field can only contain values if the End date field is empty.
  5. Click the check mark icon or continue with advanced settings.
Advanced settings are not required; they allow you to fine-tune the timeline configuration.
  1. Click Group items to group elements in the timeline by type or by component.
  2. Select how you want the data to be grouped. Selecting By type will group entities based on values in the _stp_type field and relationships based on the value of the relationship label. Selecting By components will group items based on whether they are entities or relationships. Entities with durations are shown in blue bars, and instant-item entities are shown as blue dots. Relationships are shown in green.
  3. Specify the Date format you want to use in your timeline. The default date is based on the format used in the start date value format.
  4. Click the check mark icon.

You can create an additional timeline by selecting Charts > Timeline and following steps 1-5 again. However, if you select new criteria from the existing timeline and click the check mark icon, a new timeline will appear in place of the existing timeline.

Viewing Timeline Information

  • Instant items on a timeline do not have a label, but if you hover over the item the label will appear as a tooltip. Likewise, tooltips for entities show their labels as well. However, tooltips for relationships include the source, target, and relationship labels.
  • When you select an item on the canvas, that item is also selected in the timeline. Conversely, when you select one or more items on the timeline, those items are selected on the canvas as well. You can also see detailed information for the selected item(s) on the Model Components Pane and the Selection Pane.
  • The vertical slider on the bottom of the timeline allows you to scroll back and forth across all dates in the timeline.
  • You can adjust the level of zoom in the timeline either with the mouse wheel or by dragging the handles on either end of the slider.
  • Double-click the slider selection to have the timeline include data for the entire range of dates.
  • Double-click the handle on the left side of the slider to change the visible timeframe to begin at the start date. For example, if your date range was from 1990-2000, and your current view showed 1995-1997, clicking the left handle would change your view to start at 1990.
  • Double-click the handle on the right side of the slider to change the visible timeframe to end at the end date. For example, if your date range was from 1990-2000, and your current view showed 1995-1997, clicking the right handle would change your view to end at 2000.