Timeline Feature

The Timeline feature is a unique A collection of fields that describe a specific type of content, like a news article, a person, or an event. Site admins can add additional content types by enabling optional modules. WDS can also create custom content types for a site. that allows site builders to showcase a schedule or historical information. For example, you can display a historical timeline of major events in your departments history or a major accomplishments by your faculty over a long period of time.

Enable the Timeline Feature A collection of features or functionality that can be enabled on sites. WDS has made several optional modules available to site administrators to enable on their site. For example, the "News" module enables the News content type and provide a News List Block for displaying news on a page.

The Timeline Feature module must be enabled before you can add timeline entries. 

Adding a Timeline Feature

Visit the timeline feature form by clicking Manage » Content » Add Content » Timeline Feature.

Similar to other content types like Page, there are fields for Title, Summary, Lede, Body, and Featured Image. And as with Pages, Timeline Features can be placed in the main menu and have a URL alias.

Unique to Timeline Feature timeline entries. You can add as many as you'd like (though it's best to keep the number reasonable to prevent the page from getting to large). Each entry represents an event or point in the timeline.

To create groups of entries, you can add the special "Jumplink" entry. This allows you to provide a header for all entries displayed beneath it. It also creates a sticky jump link menu, making it easy for your visitors to quickly navigate to each group.

Timeline Entry

Each timeline entry has the following fields:

  • Year, month, day, and time: These are used to mark the point in time for the entry. You can fill out each field independently, allowing flexibility in how granular you want to get. For example, you entries may be limited to specific months of the year only, so you can leave off a day and time value.
  • Title: This acts as a short heading for the entry and will appear beneath the date and time.
  • Description: Provide a summary of the entry.
  • Image: Display an image and indicate what aspect ratio to display it with.
  • Call to action link: Think of this as a "read more" link. If populated, the link will appear beneath the description to allow visitors to learn more about the specific subject.

To add additional entries, simply click the "Add Timeline entry" button at the bottom of the form.

Buttons for "add timeline entry" and "add timeline jump link"

Timeline Jump Link

When adding many timeline entries, sometimes it can be useful to group them. You can use the Add Timeline jump link button to add section headings and a jump link menu to your timeline. After adding at least two of these jump links entries to your timeline, a jump link menu will be automatically created that scrolls to location in your timeline where the jump link entry was placed.

Re-ordering and Managing Entries

When you add a new entry to the form, the previous entry you were working on will automatically collapse, making it easier to manage. There are individual Edit and Collapse buttons alongside each entry to control this manually. There's also an Edit all or Collapse all button at the top of the entries list.

Table of timeline entries on the Timeline Feature edit form

To remove an entry, use small menu button with three vertical dots to the right of the Edit button. This presents a mini menu with a remove option. You can also duplicate entries using this menu.

Use the drag handles on the left of each entry to drag and drop the order of entries as needed.