Frontends:TyndaleStep Functionality Overview
From CrossWire Bible Society
This page aims to describe a number of different areas of the application. It is a reference page that designers and developers can refer to change, highlight, annotate, etc.
Contents |
Core Bible Display Module
Timeline Module
Aim
The aim of this module is to complement a Bible passage by showing the user a set of events that put the passage in context of the historical era.
Data
There are many ways of categorising the data. For example, there are point in time events (e.g. a birth) vs events over a period (the ministry of Jesus). Events may have direct scriptural references or may be present to show contextual data (e.g. Egyptian history may be helpful to understand portions of the book of Exodus).
In its source form, the data has been categorised by culture (Persian, Egyptian, Jewish, etc.). The dataset is made more complex by adding "uncertainty" where dates are uncertain or only accurate to a certain level (e.g. to a decade). Secondly, there can also be different views as to the dating of particular events. The two representations of the events may therefore change the context of the passage in reference to the Egyption/Persian history.
Functionality
From a user's point of view, the following features are desired:
Entry points
- Navigating to a particular passage should have an annotation/alert/icon to signal that "timeline data" is available. Clicking on this alert should then display the relevant part of the timeline
- Searching by event name
- Search by date
Data display
- Different types of event can be represented by different icons (a star indicates a battle, a crown indicates a coronation, ...)
- Different timebands show different scales in order to maximise the context given (e.g. Period of the Exodus plagues can be highlighted on the the Egyptian history band)
- Option to display more or less data (maybe hide/display a timeband)
- See availability of data, i.e. if data is not displayed indicate to the user how much more there is available
- Should we have different timebands for different cultures? or different timebands for different scales?
- Clicking on an icon shows the details of the event
- The details of the event contains a link to a dictionary entry
- Clicking an icon highlights any verse in the passage which has a link to it
- Linking to other module data (e.g. other linking to a Genealogy)
- Where there are multiple scripture references attached to an event, making a link available to go to a different passage (show on Left pane / show on Right pane) - could help people compare the descriptions of the events.
- display "decision points" where different presuppositions can result in different timelines eg Judges are overlapping or consecutive; Exodus is about 1450 or about 1250;
- If the timeline component is already visible, changing a passage should change the date of the timeline (where appropriate).
- A feature (icon ?) to "lock" the passage to the timeline should be added.
- The user should be able to decide which passage (left pane or right pane or most recently updated) should be used for the timeline
- Scrolling left and right should display the past and the future.
- Zoom in and out should enable to user to see more or less context (how do we ensure the timeline does not get cluttered - stacking?)
Management features
- Saving a timeline view so that the user can get back to it
- Annotating a timeline? and Sharing annotations with a group of users
Exit points
- Clicking a close/hide button
- Reducing the size of the timeline component
