Timeline events list hyperlinked to Wikipedia, Request for collaborators Options

[infilms]

Folks -

I'm attaching a list of Timeline Events that hyperlinks to Wikipedia in case anyone wants to collaborate on helping me fact-check it with a view to making it available to anyone that wants it.

I liked the 'Timeline Events' feature of TNG but found that my knowledge of History was so poor that I needed to keep looking stuff up in Wikipedia to understand what my ancestors lived through! (should have paid more attention at school ....) Anyway - the idea I had was that it would be cool if key words in the Timeline Events list were hyperlinked through pop-up windows to Wikipedia. So if you see a reference to 'Napoleon' (for example) you could click the name 'Napoleon' and up comes Napoleon's page from Wikipedia. Or if you've heard about the 'Wars of the Roses' but like me don't really know what that was all about, you can simply click to find out. The attached file starts to make that possible - it's fun as it really helps you understand where someone's life fitted in the big picture of history with very little effort.

My reason for posting this now is to ask if anyone would like to collaborate with me in checking that all the hyperlinks work, correcting them where necessary, and also checking the facts in the list? Starting with the earliest event in the list and moving forward, I've got as far as 1600AD on my own (but that's only 25% of the way through as there are many more events for the later centuries). My idea is that we could split up the remaining years between a group of people and combine efforts to create a really comprehensive list that could be made freely available to the TNG community. Then every TNG user can enjoy an enhanced sense of history about their family. In suggesting this I want to acknowledge the inspiration for this project - all the other folks who have so kindly posted text timelines on this site and made them freely available.

Here's how I started and where I've got to:

- The timelines posted on this site provided the raw material - I merged them together, adding some stuff that I had compiled independently about social history.

- Then I edited out duplicates, ending up with a list of about 2000+ events (it's biased towards UK and Commonwealth history as that's where most of my ancestors/current relatives lived).

- I manually marked up the key words in each timeline event where I wanted them to link through to Wikipedia. I also made every event in the list start with an italicised reference to where it took place, so you can quickly get a handle on how relevant an event is to someone's life.

- Then I wrote a little BASIC program to guess what wikipedia page URL and HTML would be correct to create a hyperlink to a popup page about the marked up names or events, automatically generating code to make the popup work (this does mean that the Timeline Events list has bloated to about 1.4MB with lots of duplicated HTML and javascript - there is probably a more technically elegant way to do this but it seems to work)

- Finally I restored the file I'd generated to TNG and tried clicking on the automatically generated hyperlinks. To my pleasant surprise, most of the time they worked just fine and the effect seemed really cool. But sometimes not, and other times when I read the Wikipedia article I found that dates or facts in the list of events need revision.

So I'm attaching my partly corrected draft file now for others to try out. I have had to give it a .txt name suffix because TNG forums wouldn't let me upload a file ending .bak Therefore, you will need to change that back if you want to try this file out. I won't post details on how to restore the attached file to your TNG system as I am guessing that if you don't feel confident doing that you probably wouldn't feel confident editing the list of timeline events. I should also add the warning that the file as it stands does contains numerous factual errors and some dead links at the moment, so if the first one or two hyperlinks you try don't work - keep clicking to get the idea.

I'm going to carry on working forwards from where I have got to (AD1600) correcting as I go but would be delighted if anyone else wants to get involved as, with a 5 month old son to look after, it may take me some time to finish the job on my own!

All the best
Hugh Mason
Bath, England

[BMR789]

Great expansion on straight txt.

Will look to see how it works and how it runs.

I might be able to provide NZ examples to it.

But like you I also have newer members in the household. a 4 yr old, a 2 yr old and 1month old twins!!!

Regards

Blair

[infilms]

I might be able to provide NZ examples to it.

Thanks Blair - some extra NZ stuff would be great.

Meanwhile ... 1 month old twins!! That must be a LOT of work. But at least you have some prior experience. Did you know in advance? It's the guys who get twins first time around/unexpectedly that I feel for!

Hugh, Bath, England

[BMR789]

Well compared to the full list that you have - and since NZ has only been around for a wee blip of time - I won't be adding to many new entries.

Obviously would have to concentrate on the bigger picture events rather than being too detailed on events while big in NZ - wouldn't have registered anywhere else.

Could you tell me what format you would like it in - CSV? - also how do i format it for you?

Yes Twins is hard yakka - 6 weeks of broken nights is a real killer!! We must be doing something right as they are putting on good weight.

Didn't find out until a scan at 19 weeks. * BIG SHOCK *

Go back to work tomorrow after Summer Holidays, and our Nanny starts tomorrow - so we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Wouldn't want twins first up - that is for sure.

Bath eh - wife's sister lives just outside of Bath at Chapmanslade (20 min in a car) - They will be out in late March - so that will be nice to see them again.

[Russellgs]

Folks -

I'm attaching a list of Timeline Events that hyperlinks to Wikipedia in case anyone wants to collaborate on helping me fact-check it with a view to making it available to anyone that wants it.

I liked the 'Timeline Events' feature of TNG but found that my knowledge of History was so poor that I needed to keep looking stuff up in Wikipedia to understand what my ancestors lived through! (should have paid more attention at school ....) Anyway - the idea I had was that it would be cool if key words in the Timeline Events list were hyperlinked through pop-up windows to Wikipedia. So if you see a reference to 'Napoleon' (for example) you could click the name 'Napoleon' and up comes Napoleon's page from Wikipedia. Or if you've heard about the 'Wars of the Roses' but like me don't really know what that was all about, you can simply click to find out. The attached file starts to make that possible - it's fun as it really helps you understand where someone's life fitted in the big picture of history with very little effort.

My reason for posting this now is to ask if anyone would like to collaborate with me in checking that all the hyperlinks work, correcting them where necessary, and also checking the facts in the list? Starting with the earliest event in the list and moving forward, I've got as far as 1600AD on my own (but that's only 25% of the way through as there are many more events for the later centuries). My idea is that we could split up the remaining years between a group of people and combine efforts to create a really comprehensive list that could be made freely available to the TNG community. Then every TNG user can enjoy an enhanced sense of history about their family. In suggesting this I want to acknowledge the inspiration for this project - all the other folks who have so kindly posted text timelines on this site and made them freely available.

Here's how I started and where I've got to:

- The timelines posted on this site provided the raw material - I merged them together, adding some stuff that I had compiled independently about social history.

- Then I edited out duplicates, ending up with a list of about 2000+ events (it's biased towards UK and Commonwealth history as that's where most of my ancestors/current relatives lived).

- I manually marked up the key words in each timeline event where I wanted them to link through to Wikipedia. I also made every event in the list start with an italicised reference to where it took place, so you can quickly get a handle on how relevant an event is to someone's life.

- Then I wrote a little BASIC program to guess what wikipedia page URL and HTML would be correct to create a hyperlink to a popup page about the marked up names or events, automatically generating code to make the popup work (this does mean that the Timeline Events list has bloated to about 1.4MB with lots of duplicated HTML and javascript - there is probably a more technically elegant way to do this but it seems to work)

- Finally I restored the file I'd generated to TNG and tried clicking on the automatically generated hyperlinks. To my pleasant surprise, most of the time they worked just fine and the effect seemed really cool. But sometimes not, and other times when I read the Wikipedia article I found that dates or facts in the list of events need revision.

So I'm attaching my partly corrected draft file now for others to try out. I have had to give it a .txt name suffix because TNG forums wouldn't let me upload a file ending .bak Therefore, you will need to change that back if you want to try this file out. I won't post details on how to restore the attached file to your TNG system as I am guessing that if you don't feel confident doing that you probably wouldn't feel confident editing the list of timeline events. I should also add the warning that the file as it stands does contains numerous factual errors and some dead links at the moment, so if the first one or two hyperlinks you try don't work - keep clicking to get the idea.

I'm going to carry on working forwards from where I have got to (AD1600) correcting as I go but would be delighted if anyone else wants to get involved as, with a 5 month old son to look after, it may take me some time to finish the job on my own!

All the best
Hugh Mason
Bath, England

Hugh,
Love what you have done so far. Would like to work on the US and CA sections for my site as that is where most of my ancestors came from. Could you provide the instructions or the BASIC program that creates the links. Maybe I can clean it up or make a css file that would clean up the duplicates that it creates.
Russ