Timeline Manager

A Ruby gem that helps order and transform grouped temporal data.

Synopsis

Consider these time lines.

<---- time ---->

Time A: |----------|
Time B:             |----->
Time C:     |---------|

Inserting Time C into Time A and B:

Time A: |---|
Time B:                 |-->
Time C:      |---------|

Overlaying Time C into Time A and B:

Time A: |----------|
Time B:            |----->
Time C:     |---------|

Overlapping Time C Into Time A and B:

Time A: |---|
Time B:               |--->
Time C:     |---------|

Splitting Time C Into Time A and B:

Time A: |---|
Time B:               |--->
Time C:     

Examples

TimelineManager::Timeline is the class that helps order and transform temporal data.

For example, the simplest method is overlay(obj). This method will perform no checks on any other object in the Timeline and simply add obj to the times in the Timeline

require 'date'
require 'timeline-manager'

timeline = TimelineManager::Timeline.new
timeline = timeline.overlay {start: DateTime.now, end: DateTime.now + 1}

puts timeline.data

# => [
	{
		start: DateTime.now,
		end: DateTime.now + 1
	}
]

timeline = timeline.overlay {start: DateTime.now, end: DateTime.now}

puts timeline.data

# => [
	{
		start: DateTime.now,
		end: DateTime.now
	},
	{
		start: DateTime.now,
		end: DateTime.now + 1
	}
]

insert(obj), however, does care about the times occupied by the other data when adding a new object to times:

require 'date'
require 'timeline-manager'

timeline = TimelineManager::Timeline.new
timeline = timeline.overlay {start: DateTime.now, end: DateTime.now + 7}

puts timeline.data

# => [
	{
		start: DateTime.now,
		end: DateTime.now + 7
	}
]

timeline = timeline.insert {start: DateTime.now + 2, end: DateTime.now + 4}

puts timeline.data

# => [
	{
		start: DateTime.now,
		end: DateTime.now + 1
	},
	{
		start: DateTime.now + 2,
		end: DateTime.now + 4
	},
	{
		start: DateTime.now + 5,
		end: DateTime.now + 7
	}
]

When inserting, Timeline will change the start and end of the other times in times such that the other start and end times do not overlap with the new object's start and end.

Usage

TimelineManager::Timeline.new([events, time_diff, start_method, end_method, post_delete, post_create, post_update])

Note that every parameter but events is a named parameter, and must be specified when passing in arguments. Ordered arguments beyond events are ignored.

• events

  The objects to be sorted, ordered, manipulated, etc. The objects should have a some way of accessing a start time and an end time, see start_method and end_method. Structure of objects is expected to be hash-like.

  Defaults to [].

• time_diff

  A Proc that returns the amount of time to move other time objects around. The Proc will be interpreted in a context that has ActiveSupport available.

  Defaults to Proc.new { 1.day }

• start_method

  The attribute accessor for the start time of your data.

  Defaults to :start.

• end_method

  The attribute accessor for the end time of your data.

  Defaults to :end.

• post_delete

  A method, proc or lambda to call after a passed in event is removed from the Timeline. Good for side effects, like logging or updating a database.

• post_create

  A method, proc or lambda to call after the new, passed in event is added to the Timeline. Good for side effects, like logging or updating a database.

• post_update

  A method, proc or lambda to call after a passed in event's start or end times have been updated. Good for side effects, like logging or updating a database.

TimelineManager::Timeline.data

Returns the unmodified data.

TimelineManager::Timeline.insert(event[, time_diff, start_method, end_method, post_delete, post_create, post_update])

Returns a new Timeline object.

Parameters are the same as Timeline, but can be set specifically for this event.

TimelineManager::Timeline.overlap(event[, time_diff, start_method, end_method, post_delete, post_create, post_update])

Returns a new Timeline object.

Parameters are the same as Timeline, but can be set specifically for this event.

TimelineManager::Timeline.overlay(event[, time_diff, start_method, end_method, post_create])

Returns a new Timeline object.

Parameters are the same as Timeline, but can be set specifically for this event.

TimelineManager::Timeline.split(event[, time_diff, post_update])

Returns a new Timeline object.

Parameters are the same as Timeline, but can be set specifically for this event.

Installation

Simply download the gem timeline-manager (perhaps with bundler -- bundler install timeline-manager), require timeline-manager and then instantiate: timeline = TimelineManager::Timeline.new