Before making changes, consider upgrading. This modification has been corrected in TNG v12.2
The TNG simile-timeline window was blank, so I contacted Darrin who suggested some files were missing. Reinstalling the files in TNG did not resolve the problem. The good news is Darrin has taken care of this issue in TNG v12.1 along with some coding updates for new versions of php. I strongly suggest you upgrade to v12.1 if you haven't done so already. If your host upgrades to a newer version of php (7.2 or above), you will have errors.
Before reading further, if your host has a security content policy enabled, the Simile Timeline will probably be blank. I ran some tests making sure timeline was loaded locally and used the script-src 'self' parameter but could not get Simile Timeline to display any timelines.
Using Google->More tools->Developer tools (Ctrl+Shift+I) a 404 error was found with additional script errors due to the the timeline window not populating correctly.
I setup up a test sandbox and noticed the blank window usually occurs when running https. I was unable to determine the root cause but found simile-timeline uses a "dummy" history.html file which is called from simile-ajax-bundle.js.
A history.html file is included with simile-timeline but simile-timeline-bundle.js does not specify a path and uses underscores in the file name. This must have been an oversight because every example on simile-widgets.org had a 404 error except Compact Painter which has a 410 errors due to missing graphics files.
To correct this problem add the path and change the file name on line 1967 in simile-ajax-bundle.js as shown below.
Code: Select all
SimileAjax.History={maxHistoryLength:10,historyFile:"timeline_2.3.0/timeline_ajax/content/history.html",enabled:true,_initialized:false,_listeners:new SimileAjax.ListenerQueue(),_actions:[],_baseIndex:0,_currentIndex:0,_plainDocumentTitle:document.title};There are some differences in the dates between 2.3.0 and 2.3.1 when used with TNG.
The bubble dates in timeline 2.3.0 are off by one day.
Dates are correct in version 2.3.1 but adds hours, minutes, seconds and GMT.
Version 2.3.1 is available on Github with a change file stating "Version pre 2.4.0". The download below contains the library files and is configured to use local resources instead of static.simile.mit.edu or api.simile-widgets.org. The files use the correct file name and path for history.html, which should solve the blank screen issue. You can view version 2.3.1 on my genealogy website.
The timeline_231.zip file can be used by anyone that wants to run timeline. All files should reside in the timeline_2.3.1 folder, otherwise you could have a blank timeline window. For instructions please check simile-widgets.org. Report issues or check pull requests on Github. The simile timeline user group can be found on Google.
TNG users with a version older than v12.1 should download both timeline_231 and timeline mod v231 zip files. Extract the contents of timeline_231.zip to the TNG root folder. Then extract the contents of TNG_timeline-mod_v231.zip to the TNG mods folder. Go to Admin->Mod Manager and install timeline. When the timeline mod is installed TNG will use version 2.3.1. If the mod is uninstalled, TNG will use version 2.3.0.
Timeline 2.3.1 was tested on versions v11.1.3 and v12.0.2. (Timeline 2.3.1 does not work on TNG v10)
Regardless of the version you use, you may see vertical overlap of events in your TNG timeline chart. Go to Admin->Setup->Chart Settings->Timeline Chart and increase the chart height value. Alternately you can download the remove_tng_timeline_numbers_v12.2.0.3 mod from this post.