Timeline

Graphlytic's Timeline is a filter for filtering out nodes and relationships based on date and time data stored in properties.

Controls

images/download/attachments/44499247/gl_timeline.jpg

1) Timeline switch

Timeline can be switched on and off with the timeline switch in Tools panel : images/download/thumbnails/44499247/toolbar_timeline.png

2) Timeline slider

Slider for setting the time interval which will be visualized. The logic of filtering out of nodes and relationships based on their timestamps is explained in the chapter "Filtering" (see below).

images/download/attachments/44499247/slider.png

Timeline profiles

Timeline profiles are definitions of database properties that should be used to compute timeline validity data for graph elements (nodes and relationships). It's useful to have different timeline profiles if you need to analyze the graph in regards to different business dates defined as separate timeline profiles.

Profiles are available (the icon is displayed) only when Timeline profiles are defined in the global setting Visualization settings.

Timeline ranges

With the Timeline ranges menu it's very easy to preset the most used past intervals like "Last 1 year" or "Yesterday". Choose the appropriate interval with this icon: images/download/thumbnails/44499247/ranges_menu.png

A range is a number of milliseconds that will be used to set the range after picking it. The maximum value of the Timeline slider will be set to the maximal value possible and the minimum value will be set to the maximal minus the range value.

List of available is configurable on the global level in the Visualization settings

Data model

Timeline filter is based on the premise that every element (node or relationship) can be created once and deleted once (in timely manner) so every element has to have 2 properties defined which represents the "start date" and "end date" of the element's lifespan. These two properties together with the datetime format can be configured in Visualization setting.

If your data model has only one datetime point (e.g. events or workflows) then simply set "start date" and "end date" to the same datetime (same property can be used in configuration).

Filtering

Everytime the Timeline interval is changed the data snapshot in visualization is recalculated with only time-relevant elements. The relevancy is calculated based on the "start date" and "end date". More can be seen in next picture where are 3 nodes and 1 relationship with different time relevancy shown in different time intervals.

images/download/attachments/44499247/Timeline_chart.png

Above time axis : time relevancy of graph elements visualized as bars with start and end according to time axis.

Below time axis : elements that will be visualized if the time interval is set according to the vertical dashed lines.

Configuration

Timeline has to be explicitly defined in the Visualization setting otherwise it's deactivated and can't be started in the visualization.