> Hi Colin
>
> I've been looking at the timeline files a little more closely and was
> wondering if you could help me out with the following:
Chris,
There's a full spec in the google docs folder (History/Timeline
specification), but to answer your specific questions:
> Are dates always included in the yy-mm-dd format where yy can be 2 or 4
> digits, and the month and day are optional?
Yes.
> What is the difference between the importance and Timeline fields?
The timelines form a tree, with each item being attached to a single
timeline: this is the Timeline field. However, some events are
sufficiently important that they want to appear in higher-up timelines
too. To take an obvious example, the crucifixion of Jesus should appear
at least in the "New Testament" timeline, rather than just being hidden
two levels deeper under "Life of Jesus" and "Passion Week".
I haven't used this feature very much in the datasets as they stand -
best to see how things will look before we decide what to promote.
> I assume that the following fields are lists of reference data as
> opposed to free text fields:
> Importance
> Timeline
> Type
> Flags
Yes. The set of allowable types is to be determined. I think I've only
used Timeline, Dynasty, Reign, Life (for person's dates), Battle,
Period, and Event (catch-all) so far.
> Can you remind me the meaning of the following fields too?
> Flags (EY/EM)
> Certainty
> ID (was this just for you or are they cross-referenced across timelines)
Flags: we only have EY, EM at present. EY is "estimated year - no
biblical information so we've chosen one in the right timeframe". EM is
the same, except that we know (sometimes roughly) what year it happened
in, but have had to choose a month.
Certainty: see spec.
ID: we decided we wanted a unique ID to index the database by. The only
cross-referencing at present is to the IDs of timelines. It's possible
that more meaningful IDs may be preferable.
Colin
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