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Is it possible to use Timeline View to display records base on time?

  • March 10, 2024
  • 3 replies
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EricGuy
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Hello,

I am building a Scheduling tool for my company and a feature we do for our clients is "Scheduling Optimization", where we map out their schedules and look for ways to cut down on headcount, merge shifts, etc.

I was hoping to use the Timeline View to display the schedules with both date and time taken into consideration, but despite the "Day" view having an hourly breakdown, it still displays each shift as an "All Day" event: 

I am aware that the Calendar View does this properly, but the problem is the orientation; I'm often working with events that are 100+ staff per day, so the Calendar View is somewhat unusable:

The Daily Calendar view is a little better, but I need to see these records from a weekly view in order to properly assess possible optimizations. What I really am looking for is to be able to have either a Timeline View that properly displays record width based on time OR a Calendar View that I can flip the orientation where time is splayed sideways (if that makes sense!). 

I've also looked for possible extensions to help with this, but I couldn't find anything to help. I also have not attempted to use an Interface as a possible solution, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

3 replies

Sistema_Aotearo
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Yes, this is very strange behaviour. On my testing, I was not able to recreate this issue. My timeline view was showing up with the right times. Might I ask if you have the time zones set for your date fields? Also, are your date fields that configure your view a formula field type or just the date fields type?

Justin NgProgramme Coordinator at Sistema Aotearoahttps://www.sistemaaotearoa.org.nz/
EricGuy
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  • EricGuy
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  • March 11, 2024

@Sistema_Aotearo I have not yet messed with the timezones, but I don't think that would matter given that all shifts are appearing as all day events regardless.

Thank you for replying and my date field format is actually a good point; because our source data only gives times in a "9:00 AM" format without the date, I used a few additional steps:

1. A formula to convert the data from single line text to Date: IF({IN},(DATETIME_PARSE({IN},'h:mma')),BLANK()) which results in this format: 3/11/2024 9:00am

2. Used the following formula to combine the previous result with the actual date of the shift: 

DATETIME_PARSE(
DATETIME_FORMAT({DATE}, 'M/D/YYYY') & ' ' &
DATETIME_FORMAT({IN Conversion}, 'H:mm'),
'M/D/YYYY H:mm'
) which results in this format: 4/6/2024 9:00am
 
I couldn't figure out a better way to get the correct Date & Time into a single field other than manually configuring the cells 1 by 1, which won't be possible. I didn't think the above formula would be an issue though, because I've used it against a real time check AND the Timeline View accepted it as a Date format. 
 
If you know of a better way to create a field that accurately shows a specific Date & Time OR if I should be formatting my source data to be the correct Date & Time, let me know!
 
EDIT: I created a lookup field for my 2nd formula and it's returning a Date only value, so yeah that seems to be the issue. I can alternatively convert the formula into a date + time field, which does accurately reflect the hours in the Timeline View, but I would very much prefer to have a formula that does this instead of setting up a 2nd field with an automation to convert the value, since doing so will burn up a lot of my automation usage.
Sistema_Aotearo
Sistema_Aotearo
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Yeah, it seems your diagnostics is correct. I don't know if there's an Airtable solution that doesn't include automations. I'm also not too sure about third-party applications if they have anything like this.

Though it seems like what you're trying to achieve is doable. Seeing that the calendar view displays it correctly. Also, the Timeline view excepting it as a date field tells me it should function the way that you're expecting.

Might be one to bring to the developer's attention. I'm unsure if it's a bug or just an unintended feature!

Justin NgProgramme Coordinator at Sistema Aotearoahttps://www.sistemaaotearoa.org.nz/
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