Pawtucket2 timeline doesnt work for entities

edited April 2019 in General Support

Works for objects (data = ca_objects.date ) and events (data = ca_occurrences.coverageDates),
but doesn't work for entities (data = ca_entities.lifespan) ... it just returns "error Timeline configuration has no events".

Actually, there is something funny when it does work: If I refresh a page with the timeline displayed it will never reload the timeline.......unless I purge the pawtucket temp files first....then it will reload....only once. I think this may not be related to the above issue.....but who knows.

running /develop from git.

Comments

  • This is still stumping me. I can NOT use lifespan as a data source in a timeline:

    Unknown column 'ca_entities.lifespan' in 'order clause' ....


    I am able to use it as browse category just fine:

    lifespan_facet = {

    type = normalizedDates,

    element_code = lifespan,

    normalization = decades,

    minimum_date = 1600,

    group_mode = none,

    label_singular = _("lifespan"),

    label_plural = _("lifespan"),

    description = _("Find entities according to associated ca_entities.lifespan. You can normalize these dates by year, decade or century."),

    },


    but I can NOT use it as a timeline data source:

    timeline = {

      name = timeline,

      icon = glyphicon-time,

      data = ca_entities.lifespan,

    display = {...

  • edited February 5

    Hi,

    I just realize that I have the same problem...

    Curiously, dates for entities and places are defined with lifespan, while for objects it is coverageDates. 😄

    If you define metadata coverageDates for entities, and use it instead of lifespan, and change element_code = lifespan by element_code = coverageDates, the timeline will display correctly!

  • The difference is that lifespan is an intrinsic field (an odd one?), and covereageDates is a defined metadata element.

    It's a work around, and I could create a script to copy the data over, but it is a few hundred entities to modify.


    It looks to me like the problem is within BaseFindEngine.php

    private function _sortByIntrinsic($t_table, string $hit_table, string $intrinsic=null, string $limit_sql=null, $direction='asc') {

    The function seems to assume that intrinsics are table fields....but lifespan is an oddball defines in models:

    'lifespan' => array(

    'FIELD_TYPE' => FT_HISTORIC_DATERANGE, 'DISPLAY_TYPE' => DT_FIELD, 

    'DISPLAY_WIDTH' => 40, 'DISPLAY_HEIGHT' => 1,

    'IS_NULL' => true, 

    'DEFAULT' => '',

    'ALLOW_BUNDLE_ACCESS_CHECK' => true,

    'START' => 'life_sdatetime', 'END' => 'life_edatetime',

    'LABEL' => _t('Lifetime'), 'DESCRIPTION' => _t('Lifetime of entity (date range)')


    and it contains two table fields: life_sdatetime and life_edatetime and this is as far as my understanding goes.

  • Lifespan was baked into entities to model the fact that entities always have a single range of dates for their existence. Having this field non-repeatable and always there simplifies things in some cases.

    The timeline was designed to be used with metadata elements, and chokes on intrinsics. You can certainly just define a metadata element and use that instead of lifespan. Or we can fix the timeline to handle intrinsics. If you prefer the latter please create an issue for it on GitHub.

  • Hi Seth,

    Thank you for the explanations.

    If timeline could handle intrinsics as well as metadata, it would solve this problem.👍️

  • I will create a git issue.

    In the meanwhile, my simple hack (it is a single case fix) is:

    within  function _sortByIntrinsic()

    if ($intrinsic =="lifespan"){

    $odby = "{$table}.`life_sdatetime`, {$table}.`life_edatetime`";

    }else{

    $odby =" {$table}.`{$intrinsic}`";

    }

    ...

    $sql = "

    SELECT {$table}.{$table_pk}

    FROM {$table}

    INNER JOIN {$hit_table} ON {$hit_table}.row_id = {$table}.{$table_pk}

    ORDER BY $odby {$direction}

    {$limit_sql}

    ";

  • Thanks. We'll look at adding this at some point.

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