Timeline Zone

A timeline zone is used to show events over time for multiple types of data. This type of zone is helpful for providing a consolidated view of separate events occurring in time that may in fact impact each other. For example, in the billing system, a timeline can show bills, payments and collection processes for the same time period.

The topics in this section describe the functionality available in timeline zones.

Timelines Zones Are Configured By Your Implementation Team

The product provides support for creating timeline zones. However, whether timeline zones are configured for your implementation and on which portals they may be visible will depend on your specific configuration. Refer to Configuring Timeline Zones for general information about configuring timeline zones. Refer to your specific edge application’s documentation for details about what type of timeline information is provided out of the box.

You Can Move Through Time

You can click the controls at the top of a timeline zone to change the date-range of the zone's information. To reposition the timeline to a specific date, selected the desired month and year at the top of the zone and click the search arrow.

Controls at the top right of the zone allow you to navigate through time.

  • To go back one year, click the double-left arrow.

  • To go back one month, click the single-left arrow.

  • To go to today, click the middle dot.

  • To go forward one month, click the single-right arrow.

  • To go forward one year, click the double-right arrow.

Timelines Can Have Many Lines

Depending on how a timeline zone is configured, it will typically have one or more "lines" that show when significant events have occurred. Each line represents a specific type of data. The data may be related to a specific maintenance object, for example, payments may be displayed in one line and bills in another. It may also be possible to create multiple lines for different types of records for the same maintenance object. For example, if your product provides an algorithm to display cases, it may support defining a different entry for each case type.

Each Line Shows Events

Each line on a timeline may contain zero or more events where each event shows the date when the event occurs. For example, the payment line in a timeline has a separate event for every payment received from the customer. Each line's description contains the number of events on the line.

CAUTION:

If a line has more events than can fit onto a timeline, the line will show the first "chunk" of events and a message will appear in the "more info area" explaining that some events have been truncated. If this happens and the truncated events are in a later period, you can reposition the timeline's base period to show the truncated events.

Hovering Over An Event Shows the Event Information

When you hover over an event’s date icon, a pop-up widow appears showing details of the event. The following information may appear:

  • The event date.

  • The event “hover text”. Typically the standard information string is shown for each event.

  • The event's common "information string" appears. This information is hypertext to allow for easy access to the transaction on which the object is maintained.

  • Additional information may appear. This is dependent on the particular timeline algorithm. Refer to each timeline algorithm's description to find out if additional information appears in the pop-up area under any conditions.

  • If the algorithm has configured BPA scripts that can be executed to perform business processes on the object, the BPA script description appears prefixed with a "wizard's hat" icon.