chroniton

A time slider input for time-based visualizations and data.

Features

• Customizable label formatting
• API and UI for playing & pausing time
• Smart label position for current value
• APIs for setting and retrieving time data
• Touch-compatible for phones and such
• Keybindings for navigating with ← and →

Installation

The most recommended technique is to use browserify and use var chroniton = require('chroniton') to get the library.

$ npm install --save chroniton

Otherwise, download chroniton-bundle.js for chroniton with d3 included, or chroniton-only.js if you already are included d3 on your page as a global variable. Use the latter, for instance, if you have a script-tag include like <script src="http://d3js.org/d3.v3.min.js" charset="utf-8"></script>. You'll need to copy these files to your server.

There's an example of the necessary CSS to style chroniton in chroniton-example.css.

API

This follows the d3 reusable charts pattern and uses d3 internally, so documentation from that library is useful to complement this documentation.

chroniton()

Constructs a new timeline instance with default values.

All of the following API methods beginning with . are called on an instance created with chroniton().

This exposes a function that can either be called in a chain with d3's selection.call method or called directly as chroniton()(selection).

Example

// using d3
d3.select(document.body)
    .append('div')
    .call(chroniton());
 
// or not using d3
var div = document.body.appendChild(document.createElement('div'));
chroniton()(div);

.domain([start, end])

Given an array of two Date objects, set these as the earliest and latest date selectable through the input.

Example

d3.select(document.body)
  .append('div')
  .call(
    chroniton()
      .domain([new Date(+new Date() - 60 * 1000), new Date()])

.keybinding(true or false)

Turn on and off the default keybindings that link arrow left & right keys to moving the value forward and backward.

.labelFormat(function)

Use a different format to show the 'now' label in the input. The default value is d3.time.format("%Y-%m-%d"). The function should take a Date object as an argument and return a string. See d3.time.format documentation for hints.

Example

d3.select(document.body)
  .append('div')
  .call(
    chroniton()
      // hours and minutes - time format
      .labelFormat(d3.time.format('%X')));

.hideLabel()

The equvalent of calling .labelFormat(function() { return ''; }): this hides the label that shows what the current value is.

.width(number), .height(number)

Change these dimensions of the graph.

.tapAxis(function)

Call an arbitrary function on the input's axis object. Useful for calling any of the d3.svg.axis methods before the thing is constructed.

Example

d3.select(document.body)
  .append('div')
  .call(
    chroniton()
      .tapAxis(function(axis) { axis.ticks(5); }));

.on('change', function)

Listen for changes in the input. Programmatic changes also fire this event. Calls the given callback function with a current value as a Date object.

Example

d3.select(document.body)
  .append('div')
  .call(
    chroniton()
    .on('change', function(d) { alert(d); }));

.setValue(Date object, transition?)

Set the value of the input to a given Date object, redraw it, and fire a change event.

The transition argument, by default false, is whether the timeline should smoothly transition between the current date and the given date. If it's true, it'll transition with default options. Otherwise, you can give an object with options:

• duration: how long the transition will take
• ease: a d3 easing function given by name, like "linear"

.isAtEnd() & .isAtStart()

Return a boolean true or false value for whether the input is at the beginning or end of its permitted date range.

.playbackRate(number)

Set the playback rate multiplier. The default is for the slider to move at 10px per second: this will change that by a given multiplier.

.play()

Start playing: this animates the slider and emits change events as its value changes.

.pause()

Pause playing, keeping the playhead in its current place.

.playButton(true or false)

Set whether to show a play / pause button on the input. Clicking the button plays or pauses.

.playPause()

Toggles chart between playing and pausing status.

.stop()

Pause playing and return the playhead to the beginning.

.isPlaying()

Returns a boolean for whether the control is currently playing.

.loop(true or false)

By default loop is set to false. You can call this function so that when you call .play() the input loops once it hits the end rather than stopping.

Development

$ git clone [e-mail]:tmcw/chroniton.git
$ npm install

Run npm start to rebuild the source and start a development server on localhost:1337. There's a testing page at example/index.html.

Run npm run bundle to regenerate the bundle and standalone files.