Using the Timeline Assistant

You can use the timeline assistant to specify the chronological order of events that are associated with items contained in a set or the results of a query. Using the timeline assistant, you define the timed item type, which forms the main subject of the timeline, and the charting scheme that will determine the details that are displayed on the chart surface.

Procedure

  1. Create the set or query to define the records that you want to chart on a timeline.
  2. Select Analysis > Analyst's Notebook > Timeline Assistant.
  3. Select the entity or link type that will be main subject of the timeline by selecting from the Timed Item Type list.
    • If you select an entity type, the entities of this type will be represented by event frames on the chart. You can add linked items that will be represented as theme lines.
    • If you select a link type, the entities at the ends of the links are represented as theme lines on the chart.
  4. In the Linked Items area, click Add and choose the link and link end combinations you want to represent as a theme line.
    Note: This is unavailable if the timed item type is a link type.
  5. In the Records area, select Query or Set and choose a query or set to provide the records of the timed item type to add to the chart.
  6. If you selected a query, you can turn on Filter linked items using query in order to use the selected query to filter the records for the chart. It is only valid if you have set up one or more link/link end combinations in the Linked Items area.
    Table 1. Filter linked items using query summary
    When turned off When turned on
    The queries you can choose from are restricted to those that output 'Timed Item Type' entities. The queries you can choose from are further restricted to those where a part of the structure matches the 'timed item type - link type - linked entity type' combinations that you set up in this dialog, where 'timed item type' must be one of the query's output entities, and all the combinations involve that same entity.
    The query is only used to select the timed entities, the link and linked entity part of the query structure is not used as a filter. As well as the query selecting the timed entities, the associated part of the query structure (the link and end entity) is also used to filter the included link and linked entity records.
    As an example, you might have a query structure part: {Person entity} - {Involved link} - {Crime entity (condition 'type is Theft')}
    When turned off When turned on
    The chart would include all the people involved in a theft crime, along with all their crimes, whether they were thefts or not. The chart would include the same people, but would now include only their theft crimes.
  7. Select the charting scheme to use or click New to create a new scheme. As a minimum, the charting scheme must specify how the date and time are populated for the timed item type.
  8. In the Options area, you may choose to Separate simultaneous events by milliseconds but note that this may mean certain analysis functions do not give the expected result. For detailed information on using this option, see Specifying general options.
  9. Turn on Add to current chart to add the records in the set or query to the current chart. Turn off the check box to add them to a new chart.

What to do next

After creating a timeline chart, you can add other iBase items by selecting Find or one of the Expand options from the shortcut menu for the iBase database.
Note: When creating timeline charts in this way, you need to set the Timeline or Custom Representation style in the Charting Settings dialog. For details, see Specifying general options.