Final Project - History of Rome
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cushinj
Apr 20, 2018, 1:19:20 AM4/20/18
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I really enjoy listening to history podcasts and lecture series. One of my favorites is Mike Duncan's History of Rome. It has a ton of content. For my project, I used TiddlyWiki to organize the full podcast series. I was inspired by a reddit post at:
I used that reddit post to navigate the series years ago. I knew I could create something more useful with TiddlyWiki:
First, I organized data into a Google Sheet. I created a macro for the text field in the sheet so I could easily edit all through one template after exporting. I used a lot of tools to ensure I didn't have to manually write any of this. For example, I used a link extractor to create a column of download URLs:
I imported the XLSX file using the Excel Plugin with the tag podcast and customized their body text with a template. I created tiddlers for each defined chunk of Roman History and created a sorted list of all podcast tiddlers for each period of time. These also included start and end years for the next step.
I used plugins to add a timeline to my wiki. These looked for the start and end dates in all tiddlers tagged period. I customized it to look for dates in a specific format to ensure BC dates would show. BC dates proved a true challenge, but after lots of research and some custom CSS I wrote, I got them displaying how I wanted.
My TiddlyWiki allows you to find grouped podcast, organized in a visual timeline. This is helpful for repeat listeners looking to go back to a certain part of Roman history. You click on the timeframe you're interested in, get a list of podcasts in proper order where you can click through for descriptions and a download link.
Thanks,
Justin
cushinj
Apr 26, 2018, 9:28:37 PM4/26/18
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I added step-by-step directions on how I created the timeline:
There are a few areas that are a bit mysterious still to me (I initially tried creating this with fewer plugins, but couldn't get it to work until I added others found through the Google Group). If I was to recreate this, I'd probably start by immediately importing every plugin I used.
In the spirit of "wiki," I could see the directions being used to allow users to customize the timeline and add their own resources.
-Justin
@TiddlyTweeter
Apr 27, 2018, 9:42:49 AM4/27/18
to {{DesignWriteStudio}}
Ciao Justin
I think taking that on was great. Its a really good example of using virtual space in a very informative way.
These are NOT criticisms, rather notes on "IF you want to take this further" ...
-- In visual design terms overall the navigation of the timeline needs honing. Why? Its too easy to lose the central focus on the period of central interest.
-- Another aspect is dealing with "needed overflow" ... it might work better with it further contained inside of a more obvious scroller. that would definitely be an issue on smaller devices.
-- Another route would to have a "slider-scale control" (there are two for TW I know of I can find the links to if you need) that could scale the timeline to appropriate dimensions when needed.
-- Possibly also an "auto-stepper" -- by which I mean some kind of navigator that jumps to (visually) the first time-lined item and incrementally steps through them.
You probably get the ideas?
Anyway
Best wishes
I think taking that on was great. Its a really good example of using virtual space in a very informative way.
These are NOT criticisms, rather notes on "IF you want to take this further" ...
-- In visual design terms overall the navigation of the timeline needs honing. Why? Its too easy to lose the central focus on the period of central interest.
-- Another aspect is dealing with "needed overflow" ... it might work better with it further contained inside of a more obvious scroller. that would definitely be an issue on smaller devices.
-- Another route would to have a "slider-scale control" (there are two for TW I know of I can find the links to if you need) that could scale the timeline to appropriate dimensions when needed.
-- Possibly also an "auto-stepper" -- by which I mean some kind of navigator that jumps to (visually) the first time-lined item and incrementally steps through them.
You probably get the ideas?
Anyway
Best wishes
cushinj
Apr 27, 2018, 9:55:56 AM4/27/18
to {{DesignWriteStudio}}
I agree. After checking it in mobile I see lots of areas for improvement. I was looking into adding some sort of date range picker as the initial tiddler. This way, you're not overloaded and can focus in on a certain timeframe. Zooming in manually with pinch-to-zoom gets clunky. Thanks for the tips all semester!
-Justin
@TiddlyTweeter
Apr 27, 2018, 10:25:09 AM4/27/18
to {{DesignWriteStudio}}
I got really interested in what you did because you reached out and played with various plugin combinations. In actuality that is how many people who use TW longer term think. Is there a plugin for that? is often their first thought. No one has time to code everything. And most users just want to get on with it.
However this is an issue in TW (under ongoing discussion) about how to better provide "libraries of solutions"--both macros and plugins--so you can find the solutions that DO exist.
FYI, I quoted you in that context here: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/tiddlywiki/VCVTAzl8zVY/ZwwctTfOAAAJ
@TiddlyTweeter
However this is an issue in TW (under ongoing discussion) about how to better provide "libraries of solutions"--both macros and plugins--so you can find the solutions that DO exist.
FYI, I quoted you in that context here: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/tiddlywiki/VCVTAzl8zVY/ZwwctTfOAAAJ
@TiddlyTweeter
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