Preview support (also create without logging in?)

[rufuspollock]

Simple way to view/preview a timemap (without logging in) given a gdoc or a datapackage ...

Aside: if we wanted formal create perhaps we store under anon with a uuid?

Why?

• Make it easy for people to test timemaps quickly without having to log in and create one
• Useful for the create workflow at some point

  Work

Core

• [x] /preview route with support for passing in url and other relevant info ...

Optional

• [ ] Use preview when creating your timemap in create step
• [x] Anonymous creation (including UX changes both to create but also front page)
• [x] Shut down / redirect timeliner to here

[rufuspollock]

@nmashton do you think it would be nice for user experience to preview what your timemap will look like in create stage before you hit publish?

[rufuspollock]

@atomrab - you mentioned that anonymous creation (i.e. without logging in) would be very useful - this is now possible via this "preview" function here (though need to integrate into workflow). Couple of questions for you:

• is anonymous creation pretty important (you mentioned it would be for your students who don't have twitter accounts)
• is /preview?url=... as url unattractive? Should i have e.g. /view?url=...

[atomrab]

@rgrp yes, at least if timeliner is being deprecated -- the class just went through the first project submission, and of 32 groups representing ca. 220 students, only five or six had twitter logins and used timemapper rather than timeliner.

I would favor /view? over /preview?. It just looks more official. I suppose it will be impossible to generate a static url without login?

Thanks!

[rufuspollock]

@atomrab ok /view is fine. Its not impossible to get static urls in the non-logged in case - e.g. we could have /anon/{some-generated-id}. Would having a "nicer" static url be preferable?

[rufuspollock]

FIXED. Anonymous creation is now there (which lots of people want). Don't do previewing yet but could do. Redirect from timeliner is now done!

[rufuspollock]

@atomrab still interested in your thoughts on urls etc

[atomrab]

@rgrp emphatic "yes" to clean static urls (/anon/{generated-id} would work perfectly). I've been sort of idly noodling about how some of the information being generated could feed back in to the web of data, and although I don't have any clear ideas about this yet, clean static urls would be a good first move.

[rufuspollock]

@atomrab ok - atm we have the /view?url= but could probaby turn this into /anon/... (but you won't be able to edit the config - of course can still edit the spreadsheet data)