Implementing a timeline of objects

[Vibhu Rishi]

Hi Folks,

I am playing around with Django and making a site for my motorcycling group.

I am trying to implement a timeline view and thought I would share my thoughts with you and get some feedback.

So far, I have a few models which can be user created. A user can add a 'bike' , or a 'place' or add 'tips' to the place. Now, I want this all to be shown in a single flow on a page. Lets say the URL for this is <mysite>/timeline.

I am trying to figure out which is the best way to aggregate this data. So, far I have been thinking of the following :

1. Create another object, which I can call "timeline" object, and when the save for any of the above objects is called, I also create a 'timeline' object, and populate with the pk and a choice_field item for the 3 models. I don't particularly like this as if I want to add a new object, I will need to make changes to multiple places.

2. I create a base model from which I derive these models. There are a few common fields for the timeline view which create the base model. However, I don't know how i can differentiate between the different model types when I implement the view & Template.

3. If there is a way to chain the objects together in a view. In this case, I don't have to change my current code much - but I could not figure out if this can be implemented.  Essentially, i do a get on the different models into a meta model , sort them by creation timestamp and render in the view.

What are your thoughts ?

V.

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Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Leonardo da Vinci
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. - Confucius