Timeline

Timeline app is very important because it collects all activity on the site in one single place. The app automatically registers events from different profile and content related apps and also allows to do direct posts via Post to Feed form.

As you may see direct post may include text with emojis, sheared links, photos and videos. The post can be public or has limited visibility which can be done using standard Visibility field, also it can be posted anonymously using Post as anonymous switcher. 'Publish at' field allows to create delayed posts, but by default this feature is available to moderator and administrator profiles only.

Timeline app allows to represent all collected data in two ways:

• Timeline - this representation displays all events (items) on a timeline, where the newest event comes first. So, in this representation a viewer may easily see a time sequence of events which were happened on the site or with the profile which timeline is currently viewed.

• Outline - this representation displays all events (items) as combined set of blocks. It doesn't allow to see the time sequence between displayed events, but it gives general understanding about the last activity on the site.

By default timeline blocks can be seen on different pages: Home, Dashboard and Profiles. They look similar but display different events:

1. Timeline from home page is called Public Feed. It displays only public events from the whole site. Some of these events can be seen on profile timelines.
2. Timeline from Profile page is called Profile Feed. It displayes events related to the viewed profile only. Events in this timeline are filtered using default Privacy engine. It means that a Viewer №1 may see one set of events while a Viewer №2 will see another one.
3. Timeline from Dashboard page is called Feed. It's a special timeline which combines events related to currently logged in member and all profiles he follow. It means that this timeline is very useful for a user to quickly receive information about the other site members he iterested in.
4. Hot Feed is a timeline which isn't displayed anywhere by default but is available in Studio -> Pages builder. This timeline allows to show the most recent, commented and voted events in a separate timeline block. It can be shown on any page you want. Note. To use the feature you need to activate hot list aggregation in Studio -> Timeline -> Settings and put Hot Feed (Timeline) or Hot Feed (Outline) on necessary page.

Almost similar situation we can see with Post to Feed blocks.

1. Post to Public Feed creates public posts on Public Feed. This post form doesn't allow to use Visibility field.
2. Post to Feed from Profile page creates a post on the Profile Feed which the form is displayed on. Profile viewer can create only public posts while the profile owner may limit the visibility for his post using Visibility field.
3. Post to Feed from Dashboard page creates a post on the profile timeline of currently logged in member. But also it allows to create posts on profile, group, space, etc. timelines of members, groups, spaces, etc. followed by currently logged in member. This possibility is also realized via Visibility field.

Now let's take a look at actions available for logged in users in each timeline event. First of all it's standard actions like comment, vote, share, report. If event relates to some post, photo, video, event, group, etc. from appropriate app then the information about comments, votes, etc will be taken from the app. For direct posts in timeline the information is collecting inside Timeline app itself.

Some actions from More (...) menu are available for advanced (moderators and administrators by default) members only:

1. Promote allows to promote some event. Promoted event has special title which separates it from the others visually.
2. Pin for all allows to pin the event at the very top of Public Feed. It's useful for site owner to show some important event(s) at the very beginning for some time. Almost similar feature Pin here is available in Profile Feed for profile owner. It allows profile owner to pin some event(s) on his own timeline.
3. Hide from feeds allows to remove the event from timeline. Note, if the event relates to some content from content based apps then this action doesn't affect the content in associated app.

Timeline administration in Studio has different settings which alloews to enable/disable built in features. Some of them are disabled by default.

• Show events checkboxes list allows to enable/disable events. Disabled events won't be shown in any timelines.
• Videos autoplay is Disabled by default, the other choices are Enabled without sound and Enabled with sound. This feature is availble in Timeline representation only. When enabled, the video is automatically started to play when it's displayed during page scrolling.
• Number of preloaded comments is disabled (0) by default, maximum value is 7 items. When some number greater then 0 is used timeline will preload selected number of latest comments for each event.
• Enable Hot list aggregation and Interval of time (in hours) to get Hot events are needed to aggrigate hot events for Hot Feed described earlier.

Dynamic Browsing

In UNA 13 Timeline app has got a new feature, so called Dynamic Browsing. It allows to browse different Timeline feeds on one page. To activate it you need to go to Studio -> Pages, select some existent page or create a new one. Then you need to add Dynamic Browsing: Menu and Dynamic Browsing: Views Timeline blocks. So, the page will look like the following.

1. Dynamic Browsing: Menu block in the left has a list of all default feeds, like Feed, Public and Hot. Also you may find feeds from all contexts (Persons, Organizations, Events, Groups, etc) followed by you. So, it allows to check on the same page what's new in contexts you are interesting.
2. Dynamic Browsing: Views block dynamically loads the feed selected in Dynamic Browsing: Menu block. Also it allows to use Filters. Filters is also a new feature in Timeline app. For example, you are viewing some Feed and want to see only Videos (posts related to Videos app) from this feed. Filters will allow you to do this.