Thanks for your patience during our recent outage at scalar.usc.edu. While Scalar content is loading normally now, saving is still slow, and Scalar's 'additional metadata' features have been disabled, which may interfere with features like timelines and maps that depend on metadata. This also means that saving a page or media item will remove its additional metadata. If this occurs, you can use the 'All versions' link at the bottom of the page to restore the earlier version. We are continuing to troubleshoot, and will provide further updates as needed. Note that this only affects Scalar projects at scalar.usc.edu, and not those hosted elsewhere.
Scalar 2 User's GuideMain MenuGetting StartedExplains account and book creation, and some interface basics.QuickStartsA path of all QuickStart content in this user's guide.Working with MediaHow to get the most out of your use of media in Scalar.Working with ContentCreating and editing content in Scalar.Working with WidgetsWorking with StructureHow to use Scalar's many options for structuring publications.Editorial WorkflowHow to use features for performing editorial review of content.VisualizationsExploring the contents of a book visually.LensesAn introduction to lenses, a tool for searching and visualizing Scalar content.Advanced TopicsDescribing Scalar's more advanced features.Third Party Plugins and Platforms
12016-10-15T12:52:32-07:00Timeline Layout21plain2023-03-29T08:30:05-07:00The Timeline layout uses Timeline.js to display any content contained or tagged by the current page in chronological order at its top. Content must include dcterms:temporal or dcterms:date in the format month, day, year, hour, minute, second. Each item on the timeline displays its thumbnail, title, description, and link for its content when clicked. The rest of the page follows the Basic layout, with text and media interspersed.
Bellow you'll find step-by-step instructions for using the Timeline layout.
Step one: Add metadata to content in your Scalar book. Navigate to the edit page for the content you’d like to add to your timeline, select “Metadata,” in the page editor, and click “Add additional metadata.” Then, within the metadata dialogue box, tick the box next to either “Temporal” or “Date” under “dcterms” and click “Add fields” at the bottom-right of the dialogue box. You should now have a new field under Metadata in the page editor – “dcterms:temporal” or “dcterms:date”; enter either a particular date (and time) or a range into that field using a supported date/time format (see below).
Step two: Add descriptions and thumbnails to content in your Scalar book (optional). The Timeline layout will also display an item’s description and associated thumbnail. To add a description to an item, simply enter your text into the description field in the page editor. To add a thumbnail click on “Styling” and choose “Thumbnail” from the dropdown menu. Then select an image from your media library or enter a url for the image’s location on the Web; click “save.”
Step three: Gather your content. Once you’ve added temporal metadata to the items you’d like displayed in your timeline, create a new page (or alternatively, use an existing page) and either tag those items to that page or add them to the page as a path.
Step four: Select the Timeline layout. Finally, set the current page to the Timeline layout via the drop-down menu under “Layout.”
Supported date formats for the timeline layout include the following:
MM/DD/YYYY (07/21/1988) MM/DD/YYYYe (07/21/1988BCE) - CE, AD, BCE, and BC are supported MM/DD/YYYY hh:mma (07/21/1988 2:59 AM) MM/DD/YYYYe hh:mma (07/21/1988BCE 2:59 AM) MM/DD/YYYY HH:mm (07/21/1988 14:59) MM/DD/YYYYe hh:mm (07/21/1988BCE 2:59)
One can also include a date range. Any two dates in one of the above formats may be used, separated by a hyphen. Thus the following formats are supported for date ranges: