New subject: Render sparql queries using the Histropedia timeline engine

10 Aug 2016

Hi all,

At long last, we’re delighted to announce you can now render sparql queries
using the Histropedia timeline engine \o/

Histropedia WikidataQuery Viewer
<http://histropedia.com/showcase/wikidata-viewer.html>

Unlike the main Histropedia site this tool renders timelines with data
directly from live Wikidata queries. It lets you map query variables to
values used to render the timeline. A few notable extra features compared
with the built in timeline view on the Wikidata query service:

*Precision* - You can render each event according to the precision of the
date (as long as you add date precision to your query). It will default to
day precision if you leave this out.

*Rank *– The events on the timeline have a rank defined by the order of
your sparql query results. You can also choose a query variable to use for
rank, but it’s not really needed if you use ORDER BY in your query to
control the order of results. Higher ranked events are placed more
prominently on the timeline.

*URL* – You can choose whichever URL you like from your query results,
which will be opened in a new tab when you double click on an event on the
timeline.

*Automatic colour code / filter* – You can choose any variable in your
sparql query to use for colour coding and filtering. From what I could tell
from the preview, this seems to be the same as the new map layers feature
that is close to launch on the Wikidata Query service (which looks awesome
by the way!)

Also similar to the ‘group by property’ feature on Magnus’ Listeria tool,
but using an arbitrary variable from the sparql results instead of a
Wikidata property.

*Some cool examples:*

Note: click on the droplet icon (top right) to see the colour code key and
filter options

   - Discoveries about planetary systems, colour coded by type of object
   <http://tinyurl.com/zlqupz9> (only items with an image and discoverer)
   - Who's birthday is today? colour coded by country of citizenship
   <http://tinyurl.com/hla7nqb>
   - Oil paintings at the Louvre, colour coded by creator
   <http://tinyurl.com/zu7cygv>
   - Descendants of Alfred the Great, colour coded by religion, in Japanese
   <http://tinyurl.com/h75utbg> – Note: select ‘no value’ in the filter
   panel for a fun edit list of people missing religion statement :)

More examples on a dropdown list from the query input page
<http://www.histropedia.com/showcase/wikidata-viewer.html> in the tool.

The tool has been created by myself and fellow Histropedia co-founder Sean
using our newly released JavaScript library. We are only just learning to
code, and it’s a very early stage app so please let me know if anything
breaks!

You can find more info on the JS library (called HistropediaJS) on this
announcement from the Histropedia mailing list
<https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!topic/histropedia-i/5_9_nBqvMx0>

Cheers!

Navino