Here's a neat Javascript library developed by the folks at SIMILE: Timeplot. Timeplot takes the same input format as Timeline (think of Google Maps for time events) and produces interactive graphs.

Here's a few screenshots (with links to the examples):

As mentioned before, I think the Timeline Javascript should be Initializable. And since I see the need, who better to do it than I?

I've attached a new version of timeline-api.js to this posting. It has an initialization function that one can pass in a urlPrefix parameter (and hopefully more if the SIMILE folks pick it up):

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.example.com/timeline-api.js">
<script type="text/javascript">
Timeline.Initialize({
    urlPrefix : "http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/api/"
})
</script>
 

We're got a (very) basic integration of SIMILE and BlogMatrix going -- you can view it right here. A few notes:

• the "timeline-api.js" depends on being in the HEAD of the document, as it parses the SCRIPT elements in the HEAD to find the location of that file, so it can load dependent scripts. This doesn't really work for us, as we dynamically load scripts in the BODY as we find a need for them. It would be much better if they took an approach like TinyMCE, where an explicit load function is called with parameters (and if the parameters cannot be found, then you start trying to derive them)
• I'm very pleased to see that HTML works in the popups
• We obviously need a way of setting the beginning and end dates of the time, or the resolution, and the height
• You don't need to call a loader to external URI to get the data into the timeline (as the examples use). Just call eventSource.loadJSON(json-object, base-uri) and off you go.

Here's a pretty cool widget:

Timeline is a DHTML-based AJAXy widget for visualizing time-based events. It is like Google Maps for time-based information. Below is a live example that you can play with. Pan the timeline by dragging it horizontally.

Since we've already got the concept of a "Calendar of Events" (example), look forward to an implementation here on BlogMatrix soon!