The Timeline is an interactive visualization chart to visualize data in time. The data items can take place on a single date, or have a start and end date (a range). You can freely move and zoom in the timeline by dragging and scrolling in the Timeline. Items can be created, edited, and deleted in the timeline. The time scale on the axis is adjusted automatically, and supports scales ranging from milliseconds to years.
Timeline uses regular HTML DOM to render the timeline and items put on the timeline. This allows for flexible customization using css styling.
The following code shows how to create a Timeline and provide it with data. More examples can be found in the timeline examples page.
<!DOCTYPE HTML> <html> <head> <title>Timeline | Basic demo</title> <style type="text/css"> body, html { font-family: sans-serif; } </style> <script src="../../dist/vis.js"></script> <link href="../../dist/vis-timeline-graph2d.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> </head> <body> <div id="visualization"></div> <script type="text/javascript"> // DOM element where the Timeline will be attached var container = document.getElementById('visualization'); // Create a DataSet (allows two way data-binding) var items = new vis.DataSet([ {id: 1, content: 'item 1', start: '2013-04-20'}, {id: 2, content: 'item 2', start: '2013-04-14'}, {id: 3, content: 'item 3', start: '2013-04-18'}, {id: 4, content: 'item 4', start: '2013-04-16', end: '2013-04-19'}, {id: 5, content: 'item 5', start: '2013-04-25'}, {id: 6, content: 'item 6', start: '2013-04-27'} ]); // Configuration for the Timeline var options = {}; // Create a Timeline var timeline = new vis.Timeline(container, items, options); </script> </body> </html>
Install or download the vis.js library in a subfolder of your project. Include the library's script and css files in the head of your html code:
<script src="vis/dist/vis.js"></script> <link href="vis/dist/vis-timeline-graph2d.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />The constructor of the Timeline is
vis.Timeline
var timeline = new vis.Timeline(container, items, options);or when using groups:
var timeline = new vis.Timeline(container, items, groups, options);The constructor accepts four parameters:
container
is the DOM element in which to create the
timeline.
items
is an Array containing items. The properties of an
item are described in section
Data Format, items.
groups
is an Array containing groups. The properties of a
group are described in section
Data Format, groups.
options
is an optional Object containing a name-value map
with options. Options can also be set using the method
setOptions
.
The timeline can be provided with two types of data:
For items, the Timeline accepts an Array, a DataSet (offering 2 way data
binding), or a DataView (offering 1 way data binding). Items are regular
objects and can contain the properties start
,
end
(optional), content
,
group
(optional), className
(optional),
editable
(optional), and style
(optional).
A DataSet is constructed as:
var items = new vis.DataSet([ { start: new Date(2010, 7, 15), end: new Date(2010, 8, 2), // end is optional content: 'Trajectory A' // Optional: fields 'id', 'type', 'group', 'className', 'style' } // more items... ]);
The item properties are defined as:
Name | Type | Required | Description |
---|---|---|---|
className | String | no |
This field is optional. A className can be used to give items an
individual css style. For example, when an item has className 'red',
one can define a css style like:
.vis-item.red { color: white; background-color: red; border-color: darkred; }More details on how to style items can be found in the section Styles. |
align | String | no |
This field is optional. If set this overrides the global
align configuration option for this item.
|
content | String | yes | The contents of the item. This can be plain text or html code. |
end | Date or number or string or Moment | no |
The end date of the item. The end date is optional, and can be left
null . If end date is provided, the item is displayed as
a range. If not, the item is displayed as a box.
|
group | any type | no |
This field is optional. When the group column is provided, all items
with the same group are placed on one line. A vertical axis is
displayed showing the groups. Grouping items can be useful for
example when showing availability of multiple people, rooms, or
other resources next to each other. |
id | String or Number | no | An id for the item. Using an id is not required but highly recommended. An id is needed when dynamically adding, updating, and removing items in a DataSet. |
selectable | Boolean | no |
Ability to enable/disable selectability for specific items. Defaults
to true . Does not override the timeline's
selectable configuration option.
|
start | Date or number or string or Moment | yes |
The start date of the item, for example
new Date(2010,9,23) .
|
style | String | no |
A css text string to apply custom styling for an individual item,
for example "color: red; background-color: pink;" .
|
subgroup | String or Number | none |
The id of a subgroup. Groups all items within a group per subgroup,
and positions them on the same height instead of staking them on top
of each other. can be ordered by specifying the option
subgroupOrder of a group.
|
title | String | none | Add a title for the item, displayed when holding the mouse on the item. The title can be an HTML element or a string containing plain text or HTML. |
type | String | no | The type of the item. Can be 'box' (default), 'point', 'range', or 'background'. Types 'box' and 'point' need a start date, the types 'range' and 'background' needs both a start and end date. |
limitSize | Boolean | no |
Some browsers cannot handle very large DIVs so by default range DIVs
can be truncated outside the visible area. Setting this to
false will cause the creation of full-size DIVs.
|
editable | Boolean or Object | no |
Override the editable option of the timeline for a specific item
(assuming timeline.editable.overrideItems is false).
|
editable.remove | boolean | no | If true, item can be deleted by first selecting it, and then clicking the delete button on the top right of the item. See section Editing Items for a detailed explanation. |
editable.updateGroup | boolean | no | If true, item can be dragged from one group to another. Only applicable when the Timeline has groups. See section Editing Items for a detailed explanation. |
editable.updateTime | boolean | no | If true, items can be dragged to another moment in time. See section Editing Items for a detailed explanation. |
For the items, groups can be an Array, a DataSet (offering 2 way data
binding), or a DataView (offering 1 way data binding). Using groups,
items can be grouped together. Items are filtered per group, and
displayed as Group items can contain the properties id
,
content
, and className
(optional).
Groups can be applied to a timeline using the method
setGroups
or supplied in the constructor. A table with
groups can be created like:
var groups = [ { id: 1, content: 'Group 1' // Optional: a field 'className', 'style', 'order', [properties] } // more groups... ]);
Groups can have the following properties:
Name | Type | Required | Description |
---|---|---|---|
className | String | no |
This field is optional. A className can be used to give groups an
individual css style. For example, when a group has className 'red',
one can define a css style .red { color: red; } . More
details on how to style groups can be found in the section
Styles.
|
content | String or Element | yes | The contents of the group. This can be plain text, html code or an html element. |
id | String or Number | yes |
An id for the group. The group will display all items having a
property group which matches the id of the
group.
|
style | String | no |
A css text string to apply custom styling for an individual group
label, for example
"color: red; background-color: pink;" .
|
subgroupOrder | String or Function | none | Order the subgroups by a field name or custom sort function. By default, groups are ordered by first-come, first-show. |
subgroupStack | Object or Boolean | none |
Enables stacking within individual subgroups. Example:
{'subgroup0': true, 'subgroup1': false, 'subgroup2': true}
For each subgroup where stacking is enabled, items will be stacked
on top of each other within that subgroup such that they do no
overlap. If set to true all subgroups will be stacked.
If a value was specified for the order parameter in the
options, that ordering will be used when stacking the items.
|
subgroupVisibility | Object | none |
Ability to hide/show specific subgroups. Example:
{'hiddenSubgroup0': false, 'subgroup1': true, 'subgroup2':
true}
If a subgroup is missing from the object, it will default as true
(visible).
|
title | String | none | A title for the group, displayed when holding the mouse on the groups label. The title can only contain plain text. |
visible | Boolean | no |
Provides a means to toggle the whether a group is displayed or not.
Defaults to true .
|
nestedGroups | Array | no | Array of group ids nested in the group. Nested groups will appear under this nesting group. |
showNested | Boolean | no |
Assuming the group has nested groups, this will set the initial
state of the group - shown or collapsed. The
showNested is defaulted to true .
|
Options can be used to customize the timeline. Options are defined as a JSON object. All options are optional.
var options = { width: '100%', height: '30px', margin: { item: 20 } };
The following options are available.
Name | Type | Default | Description |
---|---|---|---|
align | String | 'center' |
Alignment of items with type 'box', 'range', and 'background'. Available values are 'auto' (default), 'center', 'left', or 'right'. For 'box' items, the 'auto' alignment is 'center'. For 'range' items, the auto alignment is dynamic: positioned left and shifted such that the contents is always visible on screen. |
autoResize | boolean | true |
If true, the Timeline will automatically detect when its container
is resized, and redraw itself accordingly. If false, the Timeline
can be forced to repaint after its container has been resized using
the function redraw() .
|
clickToUse | boolean | false |
When a Timeline is configured to be clickToUse , it will
react to mouse and touch events only when active. When active, a
blue shadow border is displayed around the Timeline. The Timeline is
set active by clicking on it, and is changed to inactive again by
clicking outside the Timeline or by pressing the ESC key.
|
configure | boolean or function | false |
When true, a configurator is loaded where all configuration options
of the Timeline can be changed live. The displayed options can be
filtered by providing a filter function. This function is invoked
with two arguments: the current option and the
path (an Array) of the option within the options
object. The option will be displayed when the filter function
returns true. For example to only display format options:
function (option, path) { return option === 'format' || path.indexOf('format') !== -1; } |
dataAttributes | string[] or 'all' | false |
An array of fields optionally defined on the timeline items that
will be appended as data- attributes to the DOM element
of the items.If value is 'all' then each field defined on the
timeline item will become a data- attribute.
|
editable | boolean or Object | false |
If true, the items in the timeline can be manipulated. Only
applicable when option selectable is true .
See also the callbacks onAdd , onUpdate ,
onMove , and onRemove . When
editable is an object, one can enable or disable
individual manipulation actions. See section
Editing Items for a detailed
explanation.
|
editable.add | boolean | false |
If true, new items can be created by double tapping an empty space in the Timeline. See section Editing Items for a detailed explanation. |
editable.remove | boolean | false |
If true, items can be deleted by first selecting them, and then clicking the delete button on the top right of the item. See section Editing Items for a detailed explanation. |
editable.updateGroup | boolean | false |
If true, items can be dragged from one group to another. Only applicable when the Timeline has groups. See section Editing Items for a detailed explanation. |
editable.updateTime | boolean | false |
If true, items can be dragged to another moment in time. See section Editing Items for a detailed explanation. |
editable.overrideItems | boolean | false |
If true, item specific editable properties are overridden by timeline settings |
end | Date or Number or String or Moment | none | The initial end date for the axis of the timeline. If not provided, the latest date present in the items set is taken as end date. |
format | Object or Function | none |
Apply custom date formatting of the labels on the time axis. The
default value of format is:
{ minorLabels: { millisecond:'SSS', second: 's', minute: 'HH:mm', hour: 'HH:mm', weekday: 'ddd D', day: 'D', week: 'w', month: 'MMM', year: 'YYYY' }, majorLabels: { millisecond:'HH:mm:ss', second: 'D MMMM HH:mm', minute: 'ddd D MMMM', hour: 'ddd D MMMM', weekday: 'MMMM YYYY', day: 'MMMM YYYY', week: 'MMMM YYYY', month: 'YYYY', year: '' } }For values which not provided in the customized options.format , the default values will be used. All
available formatting syntax is described in the
docs of moment.js.
You can also use a function format for each label. The function accepts as arguments the date, scale and step in that order, and expects to return a string for the label. function format({ minorLabels: Function(date: Date, scale: Number, step: Number), majorLabels: Function(date: Date, scale: Number, step: Number) } |
groupEditable | boolean or Object | false |
If true, the groups in the timeline can be manipulated. See also the
callbacks onAddGroup , onMoveGroup , and
onRemoveGroup . When groupEditable is an
object, one can enable or disable individual manipulation actions.
The editing of groups follows the same principles as for items, see
section Editing Items for a detailed
explanation.
|
groupEditable.add | boolean | false |
If true, new groups can be created in the Timeline. For now adding new groups is done by the user. |
groupEditable.remove | boolean | false |
If true, groups can be deleted. For now removing groups is done by the user. |
groupEditable.order | boolean | false |
If true, groups can be dragged to change their order. Only applicable when the Timeline has groups. For this option to work properly the groupOrder and groupOrderSwap options have to be set as well. |
groupHeightMode | String | 'auto' |
Specifies how the height of a group is calculated. Choose from
'auto','fixed', and 'fitItems'. If it is set to 'auto' the height will be calculated based on a group label and visible items. If it is set to 'fitItems' the height will be calculated based on the visible items only. While if it is set to 'fixed' the group will keep the same height even if there are no visible items in the window. |
groupOrder | String or Function | 'order' |
Order the groups by a field name or custom sort function. By
default, groups are ordered by a property order (if
set). If no order properties are provided, the order
will be undetermined.
|
groupOrderSwap | Function | none |
Swaps the positions of two groups. If groups have a custom order
(via groupOrder ) and groups are configured to be
reorderable (via groupEditable.order ), the user has to
provide a function that swaps the positions of two given groups. If
this option is not set, the default implementation assumes that
groups hold an attribute order which values are
changed. The signature of the groupOrderWap function
is:
function groupOrderSwap(fromGroup: Object, toGroup: Object, groups: DataSet)The first to arguments hold the groups of which the positions are to be swapped and the third argument holds the DataSet with all groups. |
groupTemplate | function | none |
A template function used to generate the contents of the groups. The
function is called by the Timeline with a groups data as the first
argument and the group element as the second, and must return HTML
code, a string or a template as result. When the option
groupTemplate is specified, the groups do not need to have a field
content . See section
Templates for a detailed explanation.
|
height | number or String | none |
The height of the timeline in pixels or as a percentage. When height
is undefined or null, the height of the timeline is automatically
adjusted to fit the contents. It is possible to set a maximum height
using option maxHeight
to prevent the timeline from getting too high in case of
automatically calculated height.
|
hiddenDates | Object | none |
This option allows you to hide specific timespans from the time
axis. The dates can be supplied as an object:
{start: '2014-03-21 00:00:00', end: '2014-03-28 00:00:00',
[repeat:'daily']}
or as an Array of these objects. The repeat argument is optional.
The possible values are (case-sensitive):
daily, weekly, monthly, yearly . To hide a weekend, pick
any Saturday as start and the following Monday as end and set repeat
to weekly.
|
horizontalScroll | Boolean | false |
This option allows you to scroll horizontally to move backwards and
forwards in the time range. Only applicable when option zoomKey is defined or
zoomable is false .If you also set verticalScroll: true , then the vertical
direction will be preferred, unless the user has hardware to
specifically scroll horizontally.If you need bi-directional scrolling with regular vertical scroll-wheels, then take a look at horizontalScrollKey .And if you want to invert the direction see horizontalScrollInvert .
|
horizontalScrollKey | String | '' |
This option allows you to scroll horizontally with a vertical
scroll-wheel, while holding down a key. Available values are '' (does not apply),
'altKey' , 'ctrlKey' ,
'shiftKey' or 'metaKey' .Only applicable when option horizontalScroll is
defined.Note: Hardware which directly enables horizontal scrolling is unaffected by this setting, since the user can control that behaviour independently via the driver. |
horizontalScrollInvert | Boolean | false |
This option allows you to invert the horizontal scroll direction. By default scroll-up will move the view to the right (future) and scroll-down to the left (past). Only applicable when option horizontalScroll is
defined.Note: Hardware which directly enables horizontal scrolling is unaffected by this setting, since the user can control that behaviour independently via the driver. |
itemsAlwaysDraggable | boolean or Object | Object |
When a boolean, applies the value only to
itemsAlwaysDraggable.item .
|
itemsAlwaysDraggable.item | boolean | false |
If true, all items in the Timeline are draggable without being selected. If false, only the selected item(s) are draggable. |
itemsAlwaysDraggable.range | boolean | false |
If true, range of all items in the Timeline is draggable without
being selected. If false, range is only draggable for the selected
item(s). Only applicable when option
itemsAlwaysDraggable.item is set true .
|
locale | String | none | Select a locale for the Timeline. See section Localization for more information. |
locales | Object | none | A map with i18n locales. See section Localization for more information. |
longSelectPressTime | number | 251 |
The minimal press time in ms for an event to be considered a (long) press. |
moment | function | vis.moment | A constructor for creating a moment.js Date. Allows for applying a custom time zone. See section Time zone for more information. |
margin | number or Object | Object |
When a number, applies the margin to margin.axis ,
margin.item.horizontal , and
margin.item.vertical .
|
margin.axis | number | 20 |
The minimal margin in pixels between items and the time axis. |
margin.item | number | 10 |
The minimal margin in pixels between items in both horizontal and vertical direction. |
margin.item.horizontal | number | 10 |
The minimal horizontal margin in pixels between items. |
margin.item.vertical | number | 10 |
The minimal vertical margin in pixels between items. |
max | Date or Number or String or Moment | none | Set a maximum Date for the visible range. It will not be possible to move beyond this maximum. |
maxHeight | number or String | none | Specifies the maximum height for the Timeline. Can be a number in pixels or a string like "300px". |
maxMinorChars | number | 7 | Specifies the maximum number of characters that should fit in minor grid labels. If larger, less and wider grids will be drawn. |
min | Date or Number or String or Moment | none | Set a minimum Date for the visible range. It will not be possible to move beyond this minimum. |
minHeight | number or String | none | Specifies the minimum height for the Timeline. Can be a number in pixels or a string like "300px". |
moveable | boolean | true |
Specifies whether the Timeline can be moved and zoomed by dragging
the window. See also option zoomable .
|
multiselect | boolean | false |
If true, multiple items can be selected using ctrl+click,
shift+click, or by holding items. Only applicable when option
selectable is true .
|
multiselectPerGroup | boolean | false |
If true, selecting multiple items using shift+click will only select
items residing in the same group as the first selected item.
Only applicable when option selectable and
multiselect are true .
|
onAdd | function | none |
Callback function triggered when an item is about to be added: when
the user double taps an empty space in the Timeline. See section
Editing Items for more information.
Only applicable when both options selectable and
editable.add are set true .
|
onAddGroup | function | none |
Callback function triggered when a group is about to be added. The
signature and semantics are the same as for onAdd .
|
onDropObjectOnItem | function | none |
Callback function triggered when an object containing
target:'item' in its drag data is dropped in to a
timeline item.
|
onInitialDrawComplete | function | none | Callback function triggered when the timeline is initially drawn. This function fires once per timeline creation. |
onMove | function | none |
Callback function triggered when an item has been moved: after the
user has dragged the item to an other position. See section
Editing Items for more information.
Only applicable when both options selectable and
editable.updateTime or
editable.updateGroup are set true .
|
onMoveGroup | function | none |
Callback function triggered when a group has been moved: after the
user has dragged the group to an other position. The signature and
semantics are the same as for onMove .
|
onMoving | function | none |
Callback function triggered repeatedly when an item is being moved.
See section Editing Items for more
information. Only applicable when both options
selectable and editable.updateTime or
editable.updateGroup are set true .
|
onRemove | function | none |
Callback function triggered when an item is about to be removed:
when the user tapped the delete button on the top right of a
selected item. See section
Editing Items for more information.
Only applicable when both options selectable and
editable.remove are set true .
|
onRemoveGroup | function | none |
Callback function triggered when a group is about to be removed. The
signature and semantics are the same as for onRemove .
|
onUpdate | function | none |
Callback function triggered when an item is about to be updated,
when the user double taps an item in the Timeline. See section
Editing Items for more information.
Only applicable when both options selectable and
editable.updateTime or
editable.updateGroup are set true .
|
order | function | none |
Provide a custom sort function to order the items. The order of the items is determining the way they are stacked. The function order is called with two arguments containing the data of two items to be compared. WARNING: Use with caution. Custom ordering is not suitable for large amounts of items. On load, the Timeline will render all items once to determine their width and height. Keep the number of items in this configuration limited to a maximum of a few hundred items. |
orientation | String or Object | 'bottom' |
Orientation of the timelines axis and items. When orientation is a string, the value is applied to both items and axis. Can be 'top', 'bottom' (default), 'both', or 'none'. |
orientation.axis | String | 'bottom' |
Orientation of the timeline axis: 'top', 'bottom' (default), 'both', or 'none'. If orientation is 'bottom', the time axis is drawn at the bottom. When 'top', the axis is drawn on top. When 'both', two axes are drawn, both on top and at the bottom. In case of 'none', no axis is drawn at all. |
orientation.item | String | 'bottom' |
Orientation of the timeline items: 'top' or 'bottom' (default). Determines whether items are aligned to the top or bottom of the Timeline. |
preferZoom | boolean | false |
If true, scrolling vertically on timeline center panel will be
prevented, and zoom action will be preferred, without need of
zoomKey .
|
rollingMode | Object | Object |
Specify how the timeline implements rolling mode. |
rollingMode.follow | boolean | false |
If true, the timeline will initial in a rolling mode - the current time will always be centered. I the user drags the timeline, the timeline will go out of rolling mode and a toggle button will appear. Clicking that button will go back to rolling mode. Zooming in rolling mode will zoom in to the center without consideration of the mouse position. |
rollingMode.offset | Number | '0.5' |
Set how far from the left the rolling mode is implemented from. A percentage (i.e. a decimal between 0 and 1) Defaults to the middle or 0.5 (50%) |
rtl | boolean | false |
If true, the timeline will be right-to-left. Note: you can achieve
rtl timeline by defining a parent node with dir="rtl" .
The timeline knows to take the nearest parent node direction and
apply it. Notice that the timeline will prefer the
option.rtl over any parent dir="rtl"
|
selectable | boolean | true |
If true, the items on the timeline can be selected. Multiple items
can be selected by long pressing them, or by using ctrl+click or
shift+click. The event select is fired each time the
selection has changed (see section Events).
|
sequentialSelection | boolean | false |
If true, then only sequential items are allowed to be selected (no
gaps) when multiselect is true
|
showCurrentTime | boolean | true |
Show a vertical bar at the current time. |
showMajorLabels | boolean | true |
By default, the timeline shows both minor and major date labels on
the time axis. For example the minor labels show minutes and the
major labels show hours. When showMajorLabels is
false , no major labels are shown.
|
showMinorLabels | boolean | true |
By default, the timeline shows both minor and major date labels on
the time axis. For example the minor labels show minutes and the
major labels show hours. When showMinorLabels is
false , no minor labels are shown. When both
showMajorLabels and showMinorLabels are
false, no horizontal axis will be visible.
|
showWeekScale | boolean | false |
By default, the timeline doesn't show week number scale in the date
labels on the time axis. When showWeekScale is
true , week number labels are shown.
|
showTooltips | boolean | true |
If true, items with titles will display a tooltip. If false, item tooltips are prevented from showing. |
stack | boolean | true |
If true (default), items will be stacked on top of each other such that they do not overlap. |
stackSubgroups | boolean | true |
If true (default), subgroups will be stacked on top of each other such that they do not overlap. |
cluster | Object or boolean | false |
If true, overlapped items will be grouped to clusters, zooming will change that grouping. Use this option when a huge amount of items should be rendered. |
cluster.maxItems | number or null | 1 |
Overlapped items will be not grouped until the number of items is
within maxItems. The default value of maxItems is
1 , it means that each two overlapped items will be
clustered.
|
cluster.titleTemplate | string or null | none |
Cluster item tooltip, will replace {count} with the
number of items in the cluster
|
cluster.clusterCriteria | function or null | () => true |
If specified, determines whether overlapped items should go to the
same cluster. The signature of the clusterCriteria function is:
function clusterCriteria(firstItem: Object, secondItem: Object) : boolean. |
cluster.showStipes | boolean | false |
If true, line from cluster to time axis is displayed when content overflows. |
cluster.fitOnDoubleClick | boolean | true |
If true, the cluster will be centered on double click. |
snap | function or null | function |
When moving items on the Timeline, they will be snapped to nice
dates like full hours or days, depending on the current scale. The
snap function can be replaced with a custom function,
or can be set to null to disable snapping. The
signature of the snap function is:
function snap(date: Date, scale: string, step: number) : Date or numberThe parameter scale can be can be 'millisecond',
'second', 'minute', 'hour', 'weekday, 'week', 'day, 'month, or
'year'. The parameter step is a number like 1, 2, 4, 5.
|
start | Date or Number or String or Moment | none | The initial start date for the axis of the timeline. If not provided, the earliest date present in the events is taken as start date. |
template | function | none |
A template function used to generate the contents of the items. The
function is called by the Timeline with an items' data as the first
argument, the item element as the second argument and the edited
data as the third argument, and must return HTML code, a string or a
template as result. When the option template is specified, the items
do not need to have a field content . See section
Templates for a detailed explanation.
|
visibleFrameTemplate | function | none |
A template function used to generate the visible frame of the items.
The function is called by the Timeline with an items' data as the
first argument and the item frame element as the second, and must
return HTML code, a string or a template as result. When the option
template is specified, the items do not need to have a field
content . See section
Templates for a detailed explanation. This
would be used as an additional way to add content that is constant
in size with the visible frame of the item and does not get visibly
hidden with the item's internal container:
vis-item-overflow which is
overflow:hidden .
|
timeAxis | Object | Object |
Specify a fixed scale and step size for the time axis. |
timeAxis.scale | String | none |
Set a fixed scale for the time axis of the Timeline. Choose from
'millisecond' , 'second' ,
'minute' , 'hour' , 'weekday' ,
'week' , 'day' , 'month' ,
'year' . Example usage:
var options = { timeAxis: {scale: 'minute', step: 5} } Note: The 'week' scale only works properly when locales are enabled. |
timeAxis.step | number | 1 |
Set a fixed step size for the time axis. Only applicable when used
together with timeAxis.scale . Choose for example 1, 2,
5, or 10.
|
type | String | none | Specifies the default type for the timeline items. Choose from 'box', 'point', 'range', and 'background'. Note that individual items can override this default type. If undefined, the Timeline will auto detect the type from the items data: if a start and end date is available, a 'range' will be created, and else, a 'box' is created. Items of type 'background' are not editable. |
tooltip | Object | Object |
Specify how the tooltip is positioned. |
tooltip.followMouse | boolean | false |
If true, tooltips will follow the mouse as they move around in the item. |
tooltip.overflowMethod | String | 'flip' |
Set how the tooltip should act if it is about to overflow out of the
timeline. Choose from 'cap' , 'flip' and
'none' . If it is set to 'cap' , the tooltip will just cap its
position to inside to timeline. If set to 'flip' , the position of the tooltip will flip
around the cursor so that a corner is at the cursor, and the rest of
it is visible. If set to 'none' , the tooltip will be positioned
independently of the timeline, so parts of the tooltip could
possibly be hidden or stick ouf of the timeline, depending how CSS
overflow is defined for the timeline (by default it's hidden).
|
tooltip.delay | Number | 500 |
Set a value (in ms) that the tooltip is delayed before showing. |
tooltip.template | Function | none |
A template function used to generate the contents of the tooltip.
The function is called by the Timeline with an item's data as the
first argument, and the edited data as the second argument. It must
return HTML code, a string or a template as result. See section
Templates for a detailed explanation. See
also: tooltipOnItemUpdateTime.template .
|
tooltipOnItemUpdateTime | Object/Boolean | false |
Show a tooltip on updating an item's time. Note:
editable.updateTime must be true
|
tooltipOnItemUpdateTime.template | Function | none |
A template function used to generate the contents of the tooltip.
The function is called by the Timeline with an item data as the
first argument, and must return HTML code, a string or a template as
result. See section Templates for a
detailed explanation. See also: tooltip.template .
|
verticalScroll | Boolean | false |
Show a vertical scroll on the side of the group list and link it to
the scroll event when zoom is not triggered. Notice that defining
this option as true will NOT override
horizontalScroll . The scroll event will be vertically
ignored, but a vertical scrollbar will be visible
|
width | String or Number | '100%' |
The width of the timeline in pixels or as a percentage. |
xss | Object | none | Configure the XSS protection behavior of Timeline, which is always enabled by default. This means that most attributes and HTML elements are either removed or escaped before output. |
xss.disabled | Boolean | undefined |
Explicitly set this option to true to completely
disable Timeline's XSS protection.
Note: Please make sure you install protection against XSS vulnerabilities yourself! |
xss.filterOptions | IFilterXSSOptions | undefined | This allows to customize whitelisting of HTMLElements, attributes and different handler functions. For more details, please refer to the documentation of js-xss and the related typings. |
zoomable | boolean | true |
Specifies whether the Timeline can be zoomed by pinching or
scrolling in the window. Only applicable when option
moveable is set true .
|
zoomFriction | number | 5 |
Specifies how strong the zooming is for each scroll tick. Higher zooming friction will slow zooming speed. |
zoomKey | String | '' |
Specifies whether the Timeline is only zoomed when an additional key
is down. Available values are '' (does not apply), 'altKey',
'ctrlKey', 'shiftKey' or 'metaKey'. Only applicable when option
moveable is set true .
|
zoomMax | number | 315360000000000 |
Set a maximum zoom interval for the visible range in milliseconds. It will not be possible to zoom out further than this maximum. Default value equals about 10000 years. |
zoomMin | number | 10 |
Set a minimum zoom interval for the visible range in milliseconds. It will not be possible to zoom in further than this minimum. |
The Timeline supports the following methods.
Method | Return Type | Description |
---|---|---|
addCustomTime([time] [, id]) | number or String |
Add new vertical bar representing a custom time that can be dragged
by the user. Parameter time can be a Date, Number, or
String, and is new Date() by default. Parameter
id can be Number or String and is
undefined by default. The id code> is added
as CSS class name of the custom time bar, allowing to style multiple
time bars differently. The method returns id of the created bar.
|
destroy() | none | Destroy the Timeline. The timeline is removed from memory. all DOM elements and event listeners are cleaned up. |
fit([options]) | none |
Adjust the visible window such that it fits all items. See also
function focus(id) . Available options:
|
focus(id or ids [, options]) | none |
Adjust the visible window such that the selected item (or multiple
items) are centered on screen. See also function fit() .
Available options:
|
getCurrentTime() | Date |
Get the current time. Only applicable when option
showCurrentTime is true.
|
getCustomTime([id]) | Date |
Retrieve the custom time from the custom time bar with given id. Id
is undefined by default.
|
getEventProperties(event) | Object |
Returns an Object with relevant properties from an event:
document.getElementById('myTimeline').onclick = function (event) { var props = timeline.getEventProperties(event) console.log(props); } |
getItemRange() | Object |
Get the range of all the items as an object containing
min: Date and max: Date .
|
getSelection() | number[] | Get an array with the ids of the currently selected items. |
getVisibleItems() | number[] | Get an array with the ids of the currently visible items. |
getWindow() | Object |
Get the current visible window. Returns an object with properties
start: Date and end: Date .
|
moveTo(time [, options, callback]) | none |
Move the window such that given time is centered on screen.
Parameter time can be a Date ,
Number , or String . Available options:
function can be passed as an optional
parameter. This function will be called at the end of moveTo
function.
|
on(event, callback) | none |
Create an event listener. The callback function is invoked every
time the event is triggered. Available events:
rangechange , rangechanged ,
select , itemover , itemout .
The callback function is invoked as
callback(properties) , where properties is
an object containing event specific properties. See section
Events for more information.
|
off(event, callback) | none |
Remove an event listener created before via function
on(event, callback) . See section
Events for more information.
|
redraw() | none |
Force a redraw of the Timeline. The size of all items will be
recalculated. Can be useful to manually redraw when option
autoResize=false and the window has been resized, or
when the items CSS has been changed.
|
removeCustomTime(id) | none |
Remove vertical bars previously added to the timeline via
addCustomTime method. Parameter id is the
ID of the custom vertical bar returned by
addCustomTime method.
|
setCurrentTime(time) | none |
Set a current time. This can be used for example to ensure that a
client's time is synchronized with a shared server time.
time can be a Date object, numeric timestamp, or ISO
date string. Only applicable when option
showCurrentTime is true.
|
setCustomTime(time [, id]) | none |
Adjust the time of a custom time bar. Parameter
time can be a Date object, numeric timestamp, or ISO
date string. Parameter id is the id of the custom time
bar, and is undefined by default.
|
setCustomTimeMarker(title [, id, editable]) | none |
Attach a marker to the custom time bar. Parameter
title is the string to be set as title of the marker.
Parameter id is the id of the custom time bar which the
marker is attached to, and is undefined by default. Any
marker's style can be overridden by specifying css selectors such as
.vis-custom-time > .vis-custom-time-marker ,
.${The id of the custom time bar} > .vis-custom-time-marker . Parameter editable makes the marker editable if true
and is false by default.
|
setCustomTimeTitle(title [, id]) | none |
Adjust the title attribute of a custom time bar. Parameter
title is the string or function to be set as title. Use
empty string to hide the title completely. Parameter
id is the id of the custom time bar, and is
undefined by default.
|
setData({ groups: groups, items: items }) |
none |
Set both groups and items at once. Both properties are optional.
This is a convenience method for individually calling both
setItems(items) and setGroups(groups) .
Both items and groups can be an Array with
Objects, a DataSet (offering 2 way data binding), or a DataView
(offering 1 way data binding). For each of the groups, the items of
the timeline are filtered on the property group , which
must correspond with the id of the group.
|
setGroups(groups) | none |
Set a data set with groups for the Timeline. groups can
be an Array with Objects, a DataSet (offering 2 way data binding),
or a DataView (offering 1 way data binding). For each of the groups,
the items of the timeline are filtered on the property
group , which must correspond with the id of the group.
|
setItems(items) | none |
Set a data set with items for the Timeline. items can
be an Array with Objects, a DataSet (offering 2 way data binding),
or a DataView (offering 1 way data binding).
|
setOptions(options) | none | Set or update options. It is possible to change any option of the timeline at any time. You can for example switch orientation on the fly. |
setSelection(id or ids [, options]) | none |
Select one or multiple items by their id. The currently selected
items will be unselected. To unselect all selected items, call
`setSelection([])`. Available options:
|
setWindow(start, end [, options, callback]) | none |
Set the current visible window. The parameters
start and end can be a Date ,
Number , or String . If the parameter value
of start or end is null, the parameter
will be left unchanged. Available options:
function can be passed as an optional
parameter. This function will be called at the end of setWindow
function.
|
toggleRollingMode() | none | Toggle rollingMode. |
zoomIn(percentage [, options, callback]) | none |
Zoom in the current visible window. The parameter
percentage can be a Number and must be
between 0 and 1. If the parameter value of
percentage is null, the window will be left unchanged.
Available options:
function can be passed as an optional
parameter. This function will be called at the end of zoomIn
function.
|
zoomOut(percentage [, options, callback]) | none |
Zoom out the current visible window. The parameter
percentage can be a Number and must be
between 0 and 1. If the parameter value of
percentage is null, the window will be left unchanged.
Available options:
function can be passed as an optional
parameter. This function will be called at the end of zoomOut
function.
|
Timeline fires events when changing the visible window by dragging, when selecting items, and when dragging the custom time bar.
Here an example on how to listen for a select
event.
timeline.on('select', function (properties) { alert('selected items: ' + properties.items); });
A listener can be removed via the function off
:
function onSelect (properties) { alert('selected items: ' + properties.items); } // add event listener timeline.on('select', onSelect); // do stuff... // remove event listener timeline.off('select', onSelect);
The following events are available.
Name | Properties | Description |
---|---|---|
currentTimeTick | Fired when the current time bar redraws. The rate depends on the zoom level. | |
click |
Passes a properties object as returned by the method
Timeline.getEventProperties(event) .
|
Fired when clicked inside the Timeline. |
contextmenu |
Passes a properties object as returned by the method
Timeline.getEventProperties(event) .
|
Fired when right-clicked inside the Timeline. Note that in order to
prevent the context menu from showing up, default behavior of the
event must be stopped:
timeline.on('contextmenu', function (props) { alert('Right click!'); props.event.preventDefault(); }); |
doubleClick |
Passes a properties object as returned by the method
Timeline.getEventProperties(event) .
|
Fired when double clicked inside the Timeline. |
dragover |
Passes a properties object as returned by the method
Timeline.getEventProperties(event) .
|
Fired when dragging over a timeline element. |
drop |
Passes a properties object as returned by the method
Timeline.getEventProperties(event) .
|
Fired when dropping inside the Timeline. |
mouseOver |
Passes a properties object as returned by the method
Timeline.getEventProperties(event) .
|
Fired when the mouse hovers over a timeline element. |
mouseDown |
Passes a properties object as returned by the method
Timeline.getEventProperties(event) .
|
Fired when the mouse down event is triggered over a timeline element. |
mouseUp |
Passes a properties object as returned by the method
Timeline.getEventProperties(event) .
|
Fired when the mouse up event is triggered over a timeline element. |
mouseMove |
Passes a properties object as returned by the method
Timeline.getEventProperties(event) .
|
Fired when the mouse is moved over a timeline element. |
groupDragged | Passes the id of the dragged group. | Fired after the dragging of a group is finished. |
changed | Has no properties. | Fired once after each graph redraw. |
rangechange |
|
Fired repeatedly when the timeline window is being changed. |
rangechanged |
|
Fired once after the timeline window has been changed. |
select |
|
Fired after the user selects or deselects items by tapping or
holding them. When a user taps an already selected item, the select
event is fired again. Not fired when the method
setSelection is executed.
|
itemover |
|
Fired when the user moves the mouse over an item. |
itemout |
|
Fired when the user moves the mouse out of an item. |
timechange |
|
Fired repeatedly when the user is dragging the custom time bar. Only available when the custom time bar is enabled. |
timechanged |
|
Fired once after the user has dragged the custom time bar. Only available when the custom time bar is enabled. |
markerchange |
|
Fired when the marker title has been changed. Only available when the marker is editable. |
markerchanged |
|
Fired when an alteration to the marker title is committed. Only available when the marker is editable. |
When the Timeline is configured to be editable (both options
selectable
and editable
are
true
), the user can:
multiselect: true
).
Option editable
accepts a boolean or an object. When
editable
is a boolean, all manipulation actions will be
either enabled or disabled. When editable
is an object, one
can enable individual manipulation actions:
// enable or disable all manipulation actions var options = { editable: true // true or false }; // enable or disable individual manipulation actions var options = { editable: { add: true, // add new items by double tapping updateTime: true, // drag items horizontally updateGroup: true, // drag items from one group to another remove: true, // delete an item by tapping the delete button top right overrideItems: false // allow these options to override item.editable } };
Editing can be enabled/disabled for specific items. Setting the property
editable
to true
or false
on a
data item will override the timeline option except when
timeline.editable.overrideItems
is set to
true
.
var items = new vis.DataSet([ {id: 1, content: 'read-only item', start: '2013-04-20', editable: false}, {id: 2, content: 'editable item', start: '2013-04-14'} ]);
Individual manipulation actions (updateTime
,
updateGroup
and remove
) can also be set on
individual items. If any of the item-level actions are specified (and
overrideItems
is not false
) then that takes
precedence over the settings at the timeline level. Current behavior is
that if any of the item-level actions are not specified, those items get
undefined
value (rather than inheriting from the timeline
level). This may change in future major releases, and code that
specifies all item level values will handle major release changes
better. That is, instead of using
editable: {updateTime : true}
, use
editable: {updateTime : true, updateGroup: false, remove:
false}
.
One can specify callback functions to validate changes made by the user. There are a number of callback functions for this purpose:
onAdd(item, callback)
Fired when a new item is about to
be added. If not implemented, the item will be added with default text
contents.
onUpdate(item, callback)
Fired when an item is about to
be updated. This function typically has to show a dialog where the
user change the item. If not implemented, nothing happens.
onDropObjectOnItem(objectData, item)
Fired when an object
is dropped in to an existing timeline item.
onMove(item, callback)
Fired when an item has been moved.
If not implemented, the move action will be accepted.
onMoving(item, callback)
Fired repeatedly while an item
is being moved (dragged). Can be used to adjust the items start, end,
and/or group to allowed regions.
onRemove(item, callback)
Fired when an item is about to
be deleted. If not implemented, the item will be always removed.
Each of the callbacks is invoked with two arguments:
item
: the item being manipulatedcallback
: a callback function which must be invoked to
report back. The callback must be invoked as
callback(item)
or callback(null)
. Here,
item
can contain changes to the passed item. Parameter
item
typically contains fields `content`, `start`, and
optionally `end`. The type of `start` and `end` is determined by the
DataSet type configuration and is `Date` by default. When invoked as
callback(null)
, the action will be cancelled.
Example code:
var options = { onUpdate: function (item, callback) { item.content = prompt('Edit items text:', item.content); if (item.content != null) { callback(item); // send back adjusted item } else { callback(null); // cancel updating the item } } };A full example is available here: editingItemsCallbacks.html.
Timeline supports templates to format item contents. Any template engine (such as handlebars or mustache) can be used, and one can also manually build HTML. In the options, one can provide a template handler. This handler is a function accepting an item's data as the first argument, the item element as the second argument and the edited data as the third argument, and outputs formatted HTML:
var options = { template: function (item, element, data) { var html = ... // generate HTML markup for this item return html; } };
var options = { template: function (item, element, data) { return '<h1>' + item.header + data.moving?' '+ data.start:'' + '</h1><p>' + item.description + '</p>'; }, onMoving: function (item, callback) { item.moving = true; } };
<script id="item-template" type="text/x-handlebars-template"> <h1>{{header}}</h1> <p>{{description}}</p> </script>Compile the template:
var source = document.getElementById('item-template').innerHTML; var template = Handlebars.compile(source);And then specify the template in the Timeline options
var options = { template: template };
template: function (item, element, data) { return ReactDOM.render(<b>{item.content}</b>, element); },
var templates = { template1: Handlebars.compile(...), template2: Handlebars.compile(...), template2: Handlebars.compile(...), ... }; var options = { template: function (item, element, data) { var template = templates[item.template]; // choose the right template return template(item); // execute the template } };Now the items can be extended with a property
template
,
specifying which template to use for the item.
Timeline can be localized. For localization, Timeline depends largely on the localization of moment.js. Locales are not included in vis.js by default. To enable localization, moment.js must be loaded with locales. Moment.js offers a bundle named "moment-with-locales.min.js" for this and there are various alternative ways to load locales.
To set a locale for the Timeline, specify the option
locale
:
var options = { locale: 'nl' };
locales
:
var options = { locales: { // create a new locale (text strings should be replaced with localized strings) mylocale: { current: 'current', time: 'time', deleteSelected: 'Delete selected' } }, // use the new locale locale: 'mylocale' };
Timeline comes with support for the following locales:
Language | Code |
---|---|
English |
en en_EN en_US
|
Italian |
it it_IT it_CH
|
Dutch |
nl nl_NL nl_BE
|
German |
de de_DE |
French |
fr fr_FR fr_CA fr_BE
|
Ukrainian |
uk uk_UA
|
Russian |
ru ru_RU
|
Polish |
pl pl_PL
|
Portuguese |
pt pt_BR
pt_PT
|
Swedish |
sv sv_SE
|
Norwegian |
nb nb_NO nn nn_NO
|
Lithuanian |
lt lt_LT |
By default, the Timeline displays time in local time. To display a
Timeline in another time zone or in UTC, the date constructor can be
overloaded via the configuration option moment
, which by
default is the constructor function of moment.js. More information about
UTC with moment.js can be found in the docs:
http://momentjs.com/docs/#/parsing/utc/.
Examples:
// display in UTC var options = { moment: function(date) { return vis.moment(date).utc(); } }; // display in UTC +08:00 var options = { moment: function(date) { return vis.moment(date).utcOffset('+08:00'); } };
All parts of the Timeline have a class name and a default css style. The styles can be overwritten, which enables full customization of the layout of the Timeline.
For example, to change the border and background color of all items, include the following code inside the head of your html code or in a separate stylesheet.
<style> .vis-item { border-color: orange; background-color: yellow; } </style>
The background grid of the time axis can be styled, for example to highlight weekends or to create grids with an alternating white/lightgray background.
Depending on the zoom level, the grids get certain css classes attached. The following classes are available:
Description | Values |
---|---|
Alternating columns | vis-even , vis-odd |
Current date |
vis-today , vis-tomorrow ,
vis-yesterday , vis-current-week ,
vis-current-month , vis-current-year
|
Hours |
vis-h0 , vis-h1 , ..., vis-h23
|
Grouped hours | vis-h0-h4 to vis-h20-h24 |
Weekday |
vis-monday , vis-tuesday ,
vis-wednesday , vis-thursday ,
vis-friday , vis-saturday ,
vis-sunday
|
Days |
vis-day1 , vis-day2 , ...,
vis-day31
|
Week |
vis-week1 , vis-week2 , ...,
vis-week53
|
Months |
vis-january , vis-february ,
vis-march , vis-april ,
vis-may , vis-june , vis-july ,
vis-august , vis-september ,
vis-october , vis-november ,
vis-december
|
Years | vis-year2014 , vis-year2015 , ... |
Note: the 'week' scale is not included in the automatic zoom levels as its scale is not a direct logical successor of 'days' nor a logical predecessor of 'months'
Examples:
<style> /* alternating column backgrounds */ .vis-time-axis .vis-grid.vis-odd { background: #f5f5f5; } /* gray background in weekends, white text color */ .vis-time-axis .vis-grid.vis-saturday, .vis-time-axis .vis-grid.vis-sunday { background: gray; } .vis-time-axis .vis-text.vis-saturday, .vis-time-axis .vis-text.vis-sunday { color: white; } </style>
Defining a timeline with many items and/or groups might affect initial loading time and general performance. Here are some tips to improve performance and avoid slow loading time:
DataSets
box-shadow
,
gradient background colors, etc.)
start
and an end
in the timeline
options. This will improve initial loading time.