Exhibit/Timeline - Item id and label mapping - database structure

[Andrew Olson]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to Exhibit and this is my first post. However, I
have done my due diligence and spent a week or so weaving through the
MIT, simile-widgets, and googlegroups pages as I try to get some
footing on my first project. Please excuse my newcomer ignorance if my
questions are too simple or answers found elsewhere.

My project:
I am attempting to create some visualizations of people (and their
data) involved with the Prussian royal courts between 1600-1950.
Because these are royal families, many of these people (items) are
linked to each other through properties such as "father", "mother",
"son", "daughter", "spouse." These relationships are important to be
able to see through the Exhibit.

My problem:
1) Names of people are neither consistent (crowned name/birth name),
unique, nor of a length that is amiable to error free data entry.

My desired solution:
Create a shorthand notation for each person. Use the shorthand in the
appropriate properties (father, son, etc.). Display the fullname in
the Exhibit views AND have these displayed fullnames linking to the
data on the person wherever it appears in the view.

I believe I can accomplish the display of the fullname pretty easy by
using the id to hold the shorthand and label to hold fullname, but
then I seem to loose the link to the person's data in the Exhibit
view.

I've also tried creating an additional item for each person's
shorthand notation (id=shorthand, label=fullname) and then using
expressions to get back to the person item and their data. This
actually works OK at displaying both fullname and linking, except that
I then still have the problem of non-unique names inhabiting the id
field.

Is there a solution that allows me to use ugly unique ids but display
them as pretty names with links to their ugly id's data wheverever the
pretty name appears?

Below is an example item where id=shorthand and label=fullname. Use of
shorthand and fullname is mixed in the properties (e.g. father,
mother, spouse use fullname, but daughters, soehne uses shorthand).

Any help out there?

Thanks in advance for the reply,
Andrew



{
"items":[
{"id":"FW_gw_ec",
"label":"Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg",
"type":"royal",
"uri":"http://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/cells/tDAMNYpmS-
hCFjOfXpKRAfw/od6/public/item#Kurf%C3%BCrst%20Friedrich%20Wilhelm%20von
%20Brandenburg",
"hof":["fw_lh","fw_d"],
"title":["König","Kurfürst"],
"koenig":"Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg",
"koenigin":["Kurfürstin Louise Henriette","Dorothea von Holstein-
Sonderburg-Glücksburg"],
"pedigreePosition":"1000",
"nachwuchsOrder":"00",
"birth":"1620",
"death":"1688",
"father":"Kurfürst Georg Wilhelm",
"mother":"Prinzessin Elisabeth Charlotte von der Pfalz",
"spouse":["Kurfürstin Louise Henriette","Dorothea von Holstein-
Sonderburg-Glücksburg"],
"daughters":["A_fw_lh","MA_fw_d","ES_fw_d","D_fw_d"],
"soehne":
["WH_fw_lh","KE_fw_lh","F_fw_lh","H_fw_lh","L_fw_lh","PW_fw_d","AF_fw_d","KP_fw_d","CL_fw_d"],
"origin":"file:///Applications/MAMP/htdocs/exhibit/queens.html#Kurf
%C3%BCrst%20Friedrich%20Wilhelm%20von%20Brandenburg"
}