Horizontal Timeline 2.0

Current Version: 2.0.5.3

Quick Links: Setup | Options | Autoplay | Known Issues | Known Issues That Won't Be Fixed | Deprecated

Note: This project is on hiatus due to University studies. Please bare with me and I'll try to resume development work on various bug fixes, etc, when I can. If anyone wants to help improve the project, please do so and submit a Pull Request, it will be much appreciated. Thanks for your patience and continued use of the plugin.

Horizontal Timeline 2.0, is a fully customisable jQuery adaptation of a script originally created by CodyHouse, to create a dynamic timeline on the horizontal axis.

Version 2.0 adds functionality that has been previously requested for the original version, and more:

Transformed into a jQuery plugin, with support for multiple timeline instances utilising ID's.
Uniform event date intervals replaces the scattered distanced style, with an option for a minimal first date interval.
Renamed prev/next buttons to scroll-left/scroll-right to reflect their functionality, added the real prev/next buttons to change the event content, added an option to disable the buttons altogether, and implemented new inactive button states.
Setup is now easier with minimal HTML, that allows the timeline to be created dynamically according to the total amount of event content, which has a natural support for ordering and reversing.
Event dates can now be displayed in various types: dateTime, date, time, dayMonth, monthYear, year, with completely customisable display text, and a new option for advanced reversing of the order and selection of the events.
Added new autoplay feature with a progress bar, pause/play buttons, adjustable speed and on-hover pause functionality, with an additional option to set different speeds on a per-event basis.
Added new go-to timeline link with customisable scroll functionality.
Added support for mouse-wheel scrolling, touch and swipe for touch devices, and keyboard arrow keys, with the option to disable the loading of the required plugin files.
Added new refresh, destroy, addEvent, removeEvent, and goTo methods with new attachable namespaced initialised, eventAdded, eventRemoved, eventChanged, goToTimeline DOM Events.
Added new options to change the button icons and to disable the use of the Font Awesome icon library.
Deprecated the use of multiple data attributes, data-date and data-custom-display, in favour of the all new combined singular data attribute, data-horizontal-timeline, that utilises an object to house all previously-used data.
Added new animation options to customise the event content animation.
Deprecated some of the individual options in favour of the object options.

For full documentation please check out the Horizontal Timeline 2.0 website

Visit the Changelog for details of fixes, changes, additions and removals.

Setup

<head>
    // Add horizontal_timeline.2.0.min.css 
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="CSS/horizontal_timeline.2.0.min.css">

    // OR add via jsdilvr CDN via the Github repo
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/ycodetech/horizontal-timeline-2.0@2/css/horizontal_timeline.2.0.min.css">

    // Add jQuery 
    <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.12.0/jquery.min.js"></script>

    // Add horizontal_timeline.2.0.min.js
    <script src="JavaScript/horizontal_timeline.2.0.min.js"></script>

    // OR add via jsdilvr CDN via the Github repo
    <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/ycodetech/horizontal-timeline-2.0@2/JavaScript/horizontal_timeline.2.0.min.js"></script>   
</head>

The easiest way to link the files in your document is to add them via jsdilvr CDN. Otherwise, you can download them from here on Github.

Unlike the original, 2.0 dynamically creates the timeline according to the amount of event content there is. Making it even simplier to setup! All you need to do is create the event content…

<div class="horizontal-timeline" id="example">
   <div class="events-content">
      <ol>
         <li class="selected" data-horizontal-timeline='{"date": "16/01/2014", "customDisplay": "Custom Text"}'>
            // Event description here
         </li>
         <li data-horizontal-timeline='{"date": "23/05/2015"}'>
            // Event description here
         </li>
         …etc.
      </ol>
   </div>
</div>

Note: Timeline must always have a minimum of one event, otherwise it will throw an error stopping the whole plugin and output a message in the DOM too, because it is pointless having an empty timeline.

And then initialise the timeline with jQuery using the default options.

<script>
$('#example').horizontalTimeline();
</script>

Options

/* The Defaults */

$('#example').horizontalTimeline({
   // ! Deprecated in favour of the object options. //
   desktopDateIntervals: 200,   //************\\
   tabletDateIntervals: 150,   // Minimum: 120 \\
   mobileDateIntervals: 120,  //****************\\
   minimalFirstDateInterval: true,
   
   // ! End Deprecated options //
   
   /* New object options... */
   // If the deprecated single options exist in the user options, then use them,
   // otherwise default to the new object options.
   // Can not use in conjunction with the single options...
   // If both single and object options are set in the options, the object will take precedence.

   dateIntervals: {
      "desktop": 200,   //************\\
      "tablet": 150,   // Minimum: 120 \\
      "mobile": 120,  //****************\\
      "minimal": true
   },

   /* End new object options */

   dateDisplay: "dateTime",  // dateTime, date, time, dayMonth, monthYear, year
   dateOrder: "normal", // normal, reverse

   autoplay: false,
   autoplaySpeed: 8,  // Sec
   autoplayPause_onHover: false, 

   useScrollWheel: false,
   useTouchSwipe: true,
   useKeyboardKeys: false,
   addRequiredFile: true,
   useFontAwesomeIcons: true,
   useNavBtns: true,
   useScrollBtns: true,
   
   // ! Deprecated in favour of the object options. //
   iconBaseClass: "fas fa-3x", // Space separated class names
   scrollLeft_iconClass: "fa-chevron-circle-left",
   scrollRight_iconClass: "fa-chevron-circle-right",
   prev_iconClass: "fa-arrow-circle-left",
   next_iconClass: "fa-arrow-circle-right",
   pause_iconClass: "fa-pause-circle",
   play_iconClass: "fa-play-circle",
   
   animation_baseClass: "animationSpeed", // Space separated class names
   enter_animationClass: {
      "left": "enter-left",
      "right": "enter-right"
   },
   exit_animationClass: {
      "left": "exit-left",
      "right": "exit-right"
   },
   // ! End Deprecated options //
   
   /* New object options... */
   
   // If the deprecated single options exist in the user options, then use them,
   // otherwise default to the new object options.
   
   // Can not use in conjunction with the single options...
   // If both single and object options are set in the options, the object will take precedence.

   iconClass: {
      "base": "fas fa-3x", // Space separated class names
      "scrollLeft": "fa-chevron-circle-left",
      "scrollRight": "fa-chevron-circle-right",
      "prev": "fa-arrow-circle-left",
      "next": "fa-arrow-circle-right",
      "pause": "fa-pause-circle",
      "play": "fa-play-circle"
   },
   animationClass: {
      "base": "animationSpeed", // Space separated class names,
      "enter": {
	  "left": "enter-left",
	  "right": "enter-right"
       },
       "exit": {
	  "left": "exit-left",
	  "right": "exit-right"
       }
   }
   
   /* End new object options */
});

Check out the docs.

Autoplay

The idea of autoplay is that it continuously loops whilst in view, with manual buttons to pause and resume the loop cycle at the user's command. There is no current plans to implement a feature that allows autoplay to stop after a certain amount of loops, due to it conflicting with the sole purpose of autoplay. [Feature Request]

However, there is a workaround that utilises the eventChanged DOM event and triggering a click on the pause button. Please check out the codepens:

Known Issues

Autoplay can't be set on multiple timelines, meaning the maximum per page is 1.
Timeline incorrectly gets and sets the wrong width after creating the HTML. Only happens on load for the first time or hard-reload, with refresh of the timeline or soft-reload seems to rectify the problem. Seems to be related to the navigation buttons not having a width for a few seconds after timeline creation.

A hotfix that was first introduced in v2.0.5-alpha.2 solved the issue with a 300ms setTimeout delay in the init function. However, this consequently created errors if a method runs directly after the initialisation code. A workaround was introduced in v2.0.5.1 as the initialised DOM event, which would be fired after the delay. If a method needs to be ran directly after the initialisation, use it inside the attachable event. See the CodePen. (Not sure how to fix properly.)

These issues are hopefully going to be fixed in the future. If you want to help me out and fix any of these issues yourself, please do so and make a pull request for me to review and merge it with the plugin. All help will be appreciated.

Known Issues that won't be fixed.

The event content animation can become stuck between classes and glitch out. Can not fix as it relies on the animationend event, which doesn't always get fired, presumably the cause of the issue.
IE11 and Safari 5.1.7 for Windows 10 both have issues with the timeline, and encounters errors. Will not fix due to the browsers being severely outdated and their dev console errors are lacking descriptions to even attempt to find the cause of the errors.

Deprecated

All the following options are deprecated and will be removed in version 2.0.6!

As of v2.0.5-alpha.3 ...

data-date
data-custom-display

(In favour of the combined singular data attribute: data-horizontal-timeline with key:value pairs.)

As of v2.0.5.1 ...

desktopDateIntervals
tabletDateIntervals
mobileDateIntervals
minimalFirstDateInterval
iconBaseClass
scrollLeft_iconClass
scrollRight_iconClass
prev_iconClass
next_iconClass
pause_iconClass
play_iconClass
animation_baseClass
enter_animationClass object
exit_animationClass object

(In favour of object options and a combined nested object for the animationClass.)

yCodeTech / horizontal-timeline-2.0

Horizontal Timeline 2.0

by yCodeTech

Twitter @yCodeTech