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Timeline won't load...

Just says "Building Dates." I made sure the doc is public and published. I also don't have any empty rows. Help! Here's my spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmPU3dHkrso5dHRqQVJVYXJVelJ4OXVXWGQta3RxZmc&usp=sharing

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52 Comments

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  • 1
    Avatar
    Sharad Crosby

    Hi 

    I've created a Timeline: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M1_6UmvexWALLHzJvHJdyfS5xNeFH6TaPfB_BGfbwmw/edit#gid=0

    However, I receive an "Error:invalid_hour_err[82]" whenever I try to load/preview it. As Joe Germuska mentioned above, the problem could be an error with the sheet. But, I'm clueless at this point, I could really use some assistance.

    Thank You!

  • 0
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    Jelena Ristic

    Hello, 
    I am experiencing the same issues with timeline js today as well.

    It won't load and displays "ERROR: Error fetching CSV: TypeError: Failed to fetch".

    The timeline worked fine so far, the google spreadsheets are published to the web and set to public > anyone with the link can view.

    Looking forward to any input to solve this issue! Thank you very much!

  • 0
    Avatar
    Andrew Davis

    I'm attempting to do the same fix as Chris, which is to switch from G-docs to JSON, but even when I switch the source to JSON I'm getting the same error message. I tested with the demo JSON file to see if it was a problem with my data, but got the same result, "Timeline configuration has no events." Anyone know how to remedy this?

    Edited by Andrew Davis
  • 0
    Avatar
    Chris Bijalba

    Hi Andrew -

     

    https://github.com/NUKnightLab/TimelineJS3/blob/master/website/templates/examples/houston/timeline3.json has an example of what the JSON might look like.

    The reference is at https://timeline.knightlab.com/docs/json-format.html

     

    Here is what I embedded in the page:

     

    <link title="timeline-styles" rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/css/timeline.css">

    <script src="https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/js/timeline.js"></script>

    <div id='timeline-embed' style="width: 100%; height: 600px"></div>

    <script type="text/javascript">

    var timeline_json = {
    "title": {
    "background": {
    "url": "whatever image URL"
    },
    "text": {
    "headline": "Your headline",
    "text": "Your text."
    }
    },
    "events": {
    "media": {
    "url": "image url",
    "thumbnail": "thumbnail url"
    },
    "start_date": {
    "year": "1868"
    },
    "end_date": {
    "year": "1868"
    },
    "text": {
    "headline": "headline",
    "text": "text."
    },
    "group": "if you want to group items",
    "display_date": "1868"
    }
    };

    window.timeline = new TL.Timeline('timeline-embed', timeline_json);
    </script>

     

    You can use https://timeline.knightlab.com/docs/instantiate-a-timeline.html to download the JS and CSS and in those top two lines refer to your own server so you're not relying on any external resources (as far as I can tell).

     

    You can confirm the JSON is good by using a delinter like https://jsonlint.com/ that will point out any issues, but when this is the issue your timeline will just appear blank and never get any error since broken JSON means your page is not going to parse at all.

     

     

    Edited by Chris Bijalba
  • 0
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    Central Montessori

    If it says Error, years,months,days must be a number, it means you can't write something like this:

    Year            Month   Day

    2016 AD       July      14

    You have to write

    2016              7         14

    Or for 2016 BC, you have to write -2016. You can't write any letters

  • 0
    Avatar
    Diego Montes

    Hi! I´m trying to embed a timeline on my website and it´s not working. It says:

    "The contents you are looking for have moved. You will be redirected to the new location automatically . Please bookmark the correct page at http://agentttravel.es"

    or, when I replace the " http://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/embed" in the url with " https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline/latest/embed" as I´ve seen in other post, it says: 

    "MISSING START DATE, MAKE SURE THE HEADERS OF YOUR GOOGLE SPREADSHEET HAVE NOT BEEN CHANGED".

    I would really aprecciate some help because this Timeline is such a powerful tool and it would be a shame not been able to use it. I leave my Google Spreadsheet link below.

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/182D_AjXTJi6Fz2q1RhBw_bGWFc_LbXOUBysUciOpmLE/edit#gid=0


    Thanks in advance. 

    Regards, 


    Diego.

  • 0
    Avatar
    Mathilde Verillaud

    Hello, I see the last person with this problem messaged in 2019. I am trying to generate my timeline but get this answer: "Invalid Google URL. Please see the note above about how a recent change with Google Spreadsheets affects creating timelines." However, there is not note above. Can someone help me solving this? Thank you so much!

  • 0
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    Sara Moreira

    Hi,

    Not sure if the support request I previously sent has really been submitted (I was logged out and can't find it here), so I send it again.

    I've been using timelineJS for a few years (but after 2015) and now the timeline has stopped working... In fact I've had a similar problem before (which you can find in this thread).

    I read the september blogpost about the new changes and I updated the wordpress plugin, but it still doesn't work.

    Even when using the KnightLab preview tool, it shows the same message: ERROR: Timeline configuration has no events.

    Here's the link to the spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PUKDP6bFySY9TCamLF7q_pSfic-5KIjXuKnof874v_E/edit#gid=0

    And here's the website: https://comcom.saritamoreira.com/timeline/

    Thanks in advance for your help.

    Best regards,

    Sara

  • 0
    Avatar
    Sunah Choudhry

    My timeline won't load and I'm trying to follow the steps given to others. I've checked the sheet multiple times and have checked media file types as well. I have no idea what's going on. 

    Doc is below!

    edit

  • 0
    Avatar
    Jerry Nevins

    Having the same issue even setting up the template to test things out, but it says Timeline configuration has no events. We'd used it successfully earlier this week but now it won't work even setting it up from scratch. 

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    Sara Moreira

    Hi everyone,

    I'm sharing the reply I got from the team below. It worked for me! Just changed sharing permissions to "anyone with the link can view".

    >>>

    "Many users are experiencing issues with TimelineJS and StorylineJS. The root issue is that the behavior of Google Sheets has changed, and is no longer returning spreadsheet data for our request.

    This kind of thing has happened before, and often is reverted by Google shortly after. We are investigating options for maintaining timeline access, but some things are outside of our control.

    For TimelineJS, a workaround for many users is to "share" your Google Sheet to "anyone with the link can view". (Please do NOT set it to "anyone with the link can edit," because it is easy for people who view your timeline to determine the link to edit your spreadsheet.)

    This will not work for StorylineJS.

    Please watch our Twitter account https://twitter.com/knightlab/ for updates."

  • 0
    Avatar
    Emma Mama

    Why won't my timeline load? It says Error Fetching CSV: Type ERROR: Failed to fetch. I even tried using their own timeline template and uploaded it but it still gets the same result.  My deadline is coming up and this happens. Please help ASAP. ty

  • 0
    Avatar
    Jessi Bowman

    I am receiving the "ERROR: Error fetching CSV: TypeError Failed to fetch" message when trying to view my published timeline. I made changes to the spreadsheet a few days ago and it was working fine. I even tried to restore the spreadsheet to an earlier version, to no avail. I am hoping this is not a fault in my spreadsheet! 

    Here's the link, for reference: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17hYrvXVWbhZiBgzUF6rej5qsFkV4qt1oAp2xDMHMmCU/edit#gid=0

  • 0
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    Gynna Millan

    Anyone having issues with timeline js today? I created a couple yesterday, but today none is working and an error message displays saying that the server cannot locate the CVS. Can anyone help? Thxs!!

  • 0
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    Chris Bijalba

    Hello - that message is the same that I received directly when contacting support.

    What's odd is that I was able to remedy the issue temporarily and the slideshow started working again, but have no idea how, and then a few minutes later it was back to malfunctioning. Caching?

     

    The longer term fix was to use inline JSON instead of the google sheet, and using either remote or local CSS/JS files.

    I opted for the local CSS/JS so that no dependencies are needed. It works, but now I have to figure out how to make the modifications that I had done via the embed options (starting scale, height, marker min height, etc), it isn't quite the same.

     

     

    Edited by Chris Bijalba
  • 0
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    Eric Bellmore

    Mine was throwing errors, so I have upgraded to the latest version of the timeline.js and now I'm getting 'invalid referrer' from the proxy server due to a 403 error. 

    {"message":"Invalid referrer","proxy_err_code":"invalid_for_proxy"}

    This is the URL it's attempting to access that throws the 403:

    https://sheets-proxy.knightlab.com/proxy/https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18ajQghGf14jaurpV2g-58HWXkBsiwOr1gZ1koWlgCxM/pub?output=csv

  • 0
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    Matteo Scannavini

    Hi, this is my spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jXB2GIXh7_YqxLHQfvcWcZrHhV3ctLCm6TxuXdScxXQ/edit#gid=0 

    I'm sure the sheet is public and it has no empty rows but when I try to publish I receive the error message: "fetching csv: type error: failed to fetch".

    The same message is received when I use the original template. 

    My timeline was already published and has worked well since last week. I didn't update anything so I can't understand where the trouble is. This timeline is part of a project whose deadline is near. Can someone help me? 

  • 0
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    Coleen Smith

    I am having the same problem, today. Yesterday I made changes but verified the timeline worked after each change.  I noticed that Knightlab's demo "Women in Computing" is also failing to load with the same error. Plus, the examples are also not loading - some more gracefully than others :).  

    Update: Looks like it is working again. Thank you!

    Edited by Coleen Smith
  • 0
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    Richard Miller

    We've had a couple Mac users report that the timeline isn't loading for them:

    https://www.washington.edu/research/or/uw-research-timeline/

    Any clue why it would impact mac users (using Chrome as well as Safari) and not others? 

  • 0
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    Coleen Smith

    I had a "fetching" issue on the 01/05/22 that impacted all timelines I tried, but it resolved itself. Our timeline is huge (100+ rows) so I always worry, "Is this the day?" We are looking at other strategies ("daughter" topic/era focused timelines, reduces the #of events but you lose the context of what else was happening) or a new platform.  With so many events, users need to be able to search, and it would be nice to be able to have an explicit address for a specific event.

    I was able to view your timeline on my Mac w/Chrome. 

    One thing that I have to be careful about is embedding our timeline w/in the Anthology/iModules CMS.  During the final content block save, in Chrome & Safari, the system hangs or freezes.  Fire Fox is more resilient. When I update that block with the Timeline's embedded code, I use FireFox.

  • 0
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    Veronica Fontanella

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z10HKYj7EfXlBqlZEVoB7Ol1wuqSX3vMlbMZXB3BUDw/edit#gid=0 

    Mine just says loading timeline... and has not done anything else.  I am trying to get it to show since my students are creating timelines as well and it won't show.

     

  • 0
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    Luvpunkbetty

    Getting error: invalid config: time cannot be used w/o date. There are no times listed. 

     

  • 0
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    Quynhanh Tran

    My Excel Timeline REFUSES to load no matter how many times I try copying and pasting the link into the box. It keeps giving me an error and I have NO idea whatsoever how to fix it. I keep getting bizarre error that timeline is missing start date which makes ABSOLUTELY no sense whatsoever because I entered in both start and end dates in numbers ONLY like I'm supposed to. Could someone please help me or give me tips/advice on what to do here and how to solve this? 

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BpFWaA2diQnWvkL9SeMbohgNRt_1xqMKtPdcV7tyxx8/edit?gid=2047182178#gid=2047182178 

  • 0
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    Coleen Smith

    @Quynhanh Tran It may be the dash in front of your years. Try "1798" instead of "-1798"

  • 0
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    Quynhanh Tran

    Coleen, but I have to put the dash in front of the years because for my history class if your events take place in the BC(E) because if I didn't then it would misrepresent the events taking place in AD, so for that I have no choice. Thanks anyways for help.

  • 0
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    Coleen Smith

    The timeline you shared is about a 19th Century painter. This time frame is within the Common Era. Using negative signs would be incorrect. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era

    If this is for a different timeline than the one shared, I would check to make sure you haven't accidentally reformatted the year column to be text. I'd also check to make sure you are using a minus sign (from the numerical keys), instead of a hyphen or dash (https://wmich.edu/writing/punctuation/hyphen). My five Timelines have all been in the CE (AD) so I have not had to use negative numbers in the year column.

    Other than that, I'd suggest doing a deep dive into the help center or sending an email. 

  • 0
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    Quynhanh Tran

    Coleen, I just deleted all the dash signs in front of the years but it didn't change a thing, it still says error missing start date. I don't know what to do...

  • 0
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    Ruth Bubis

    Hi all,

    Joe Germuska I wonder if you could tell me what I'm doing wrong?

    My timeline is also stuck on 'building dates'.

    I have removed all of my tites/ eras, except the first Title.

    Here is a link, many thanks:

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AmiYFTGgx4podFJXcnMxdU9lT0hJcDc1LXVBNFpWSEE&output=html

  • 0
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    Laura D'Alessandro

    Hi Ditton, yes it is the same problem. Sorry, I didn't notice your thread. Hopefully someone can troubleshoot for us.

  • 0
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    Ditton Webmaster

    I hope so too, I posted it yesterday but so far no response, it appears to be a common problem, I've tried it on multiple devices & browsers, same problem keeps cropping up!

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