Adding items to the Activity View

When you add items to the Activity View, any temporal data that is associated with them can be represented as activity indicators on the item timeline. The activity indicators provide greater visibility of timings and sequences, making it easier to compare items.

About this task

Each item is represented as a row in the Activity View. The dates and times of sightings, meetings, interactions, and other events, are represented by activity indicators within each row.

By adding several items to the Activity View, you can see how relationships proceed and develop over time. In addition, patterns in the data can be identified.

Temporal data for chart items can be stored in several places, for example on the item itself and in cards, data records, and attributes. You can choose which properties are used to generate activity indicators. For example, your data might contain date and time information for a series of messages and also date of birth information for the people involved. You can choose to include only the date and time information from the messages and exclude the dates of birth.

You can choose to include properties on the items that you add to the Activity View and on their connected links. You can also include properties on any items that are connected to the added items and on their onward links. For example, you might choose to include properties for the onward links if your primary items are people who are connected to telephones. Relating the call information on the onward links to the people might be important to you.

Procedure

To add items to the Activity View:
  1. Click the Analyze tab, and then in the Gain Insight group, click Activity View.
    The Activity View opens.
  2. From the menu at the upper left of the Activity View, select the items to add:
    OptionDescription
    Add All Entities Adds each entity on the chart.
    Add Selected Entities Adds each entity that is selected on the chart.
    Add All Links Adds each link on the chart.
    Add Selected Links Adds each link that is selected on the chart.
    Add Ends of Selected Links Adds entities at the ends of selected links, without adding the link as a primary item.
    Add Ends Linked to Selected Ends Adds all the entities that are linked to the selected entities, without adding the selected entities or links as a primary item.
    Add Items of Type Adds all items of the type that you select.
    Add Items of Semantic Type Adds all items that are assigned the semantic type that you select.
    Tip:
    You can also add items to the Activity View by right-clicking on an item on the chart and selecting one of the Activity View options.
  3. Choose which temporal properties to use to generate activity indicators for the items that are added and any items that are connected to them. From the Added Items and Items Linked to Added Items lists, select each property that you want to use to generate activity indicators.
    Only properties that contain date and time information are available for selection. If the same date and time data is contained in more than one property, select only one of those properties to generate the activity indicator. If you select two properties that contain the same information, the activity is counted twice. Any dates with a value of greater than December 31, 2499 are ignored.
    Tip:
    The number next to each property list indicates how many properties are selected. To clear all the properties in a list, hover over the number and click the cross that appears.

Results

Items are added to the Activity View and only the selected properties are used to generate activity indicators.