We are thrilled to share that as of today, Timeline view is available in Airtable.
What is Timeline view?
Timeline view is a new view type that will allow you to track and visualize what’s most important to help you understand resources, events, tasks, or initiatives over time. This new view will allow you to color-code, group, filter, and sequence your records on a timeline so that you can see what’s happening, when.
Some features accompanying Timeline view include:
Groupings: Similar to Grid view, Timeline view allows for multiple levels of grouping, with each level being collapsible so you can see the most relevant information.
Swimlanes: Records that are grouped together are displayed in a horizontally-scrolling timeline we call a “swimlane.” Several records can sit side-by-side in the same swimlane; if they overlap, they stack on top of each other so nothing gets lost.
The ol’ drag-and-drop: Easily change deadlines and reassign tasks using the drag-and-drop shortcut. When you shift a record in Timeline view, that record will update throughout your table in real-time.
Share your reactions and questions below - or better yet, create your own Timeline view and share it with the community here!
Lastly, we’re hosting our very frist Airtable Community AMA on October 13th. If you’re not familiar, “AMA” means “Ask me anything” and our product team will be answering all your burning questions about Timeline view. You’ll have the opportunity to see Timeline view in action, chat with other Airtable users, and share any feedback with our product team. We look forward to seeing you.
So glad you asked! Gantt is a very targeted view based on the Gantt methodology used for plotting tasks and dependencies between tasks in order to visualize the critical path that defines a project. In comparison, Timeline view is incredibly flexible and can be used to represent any set of records over time, grouped by a particular field.
When grouping records, am I limited by the field type that I can group by? (Similar to limitations that Kanban View might have with just single select and collaborator fields)
No, you can group by any field type.
Can calculated (lookups, rollups, formulas) dates be used for start and end dates?
Yes, you can use calculated dates for start and end dates, but you have to make sure that the fields used for the “start date” and “end date” use the same time-related settings.
Specifically, if using a calculated date, make sure that settings in the “Format” section of the Field Configuration under “Include a Time Field” and “Use the same time zone (GMT) for all collaborators” match between the start date and end date fields. If this is not the case, you will see an error to this effect.
What is the default sorting for records with the same dates? (i.e. if start date and end date were the same, how would they stack?)
The default is record creation time (like an unsorted grid view), but you can use the “Sort” feature to set a sort order which will apply if records have the same start date.
What happens if some records have start and end dates but others only have one date? Do both dates have to have values in order for records to appear?
Currently, the Timeline View can be configured to either expect a single date field, or both a start and end date. If the Timeline is configured to expect an end date, records with only a start date won’t show up on the timeline.
Does the shared view functionality (filtering, etc) have the same user experience?
Shares should have all the same functionality and UX, though you won’t be able to edit the labels.
Can the text wrap?
Yes, text wrapping is supported!
How can I see a list of all records?
Find the ‘see records’ button in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
How can I include the Timeline View in a dashboard?
We encourage you to use the Embed App to see the Timeline View in a dashboard format.
Should I continue to keep using Timeline App, or will it be getting deprecated?
Just as with Gantt, over time we will be migrating Timeline capabilities to the Timeline View and deprecating the Timeline App. So we highly encourage you to migrate usage over to the Timeline View today!
It would be great if we could include choose multiple date fields in the Timeline view. This exists in the Calendar view, but it’s limited to 30 days. I’m interested in seeing a full year using a timeline view instead of a calendar view.
I’m liking this so far. The only issue I’m running into is that I tend to have a lot of single day events in my timeline view, and it’s hard to see what exactly those events are unless I zoom all the way in to the Week view. Even hovering over the event doesn’t give me a lot of info—just the name of the event, the start date, and the duration. It would be great if I could see that info, plus the info I’ve chosen to include under “Customize labels.” As it stands, it’s pretty clunky to have to zoom all the way in to get the info I need.
This feature would be especially helpful when events have more info than can fit in the bar and have to appended with an ellipsis.
Another possibly weird idea/request: What if there could be a way to, instead of creating a swim lane for when the timeline is grouped by a shared field, copy the event so it appears in every group it’s associated with. In this example I made, it would be great if instead of there being a “Person A, Person B, Person C” swim lane, those events could just appear in all 3 lanes. It would look like there are more events then there actually are, but it would be an accurate representation of all the events in each group. As it is, it’s hard to gauge what’s actually in group A, B, or C.
Seconded! @Jordan_Scott1 Adding support to visualize multiple sets of dates would work wonders for my team and be a great bridge between the date flexibility of Calendar view and the functionality of Timeline view.
Timeline is very cool, but REALLY needs to have the ability to show a day at a time, or even hour by hour. Event professionals would live on Airtable if they had this feature!
FYI- for timeline view field order (in Timeline it’s ‘label order’): when creating the Timeline, it takes the Field Order of the very first view in the list of views. This sets the ‘label’ and expanded view field order and visibility. Also, the label view when you click on it always shows the Start/End date range fields.
To manually change the remaining fields order, use ‘ :gear: Customize labels’ (there is no ‘Field order’ option in ‘ :gear: Copy another view’s configuration’).
Hi @Jordan_Scott1 is there a way to ensure that each bubble in the Timeline has its own line? I have a sort set up based on a date but for some reason the view is stacking two records with different dates on the same line instead of putting the second bubble further down where it should be based on the sort. So if I have 30 records based on May 1 to June 1, several will be in order, but next to the May 1 record it’s showing a May 15 record, and next to the May 2 record it’s putting a June 1 record, etc. Perhaps it’s assuming I’d rather fit more data per screen but this is not what I want - I just want to scroll down in the sort order.
Morning Airtable team - some feedback from my recent use with Time Line Views;
When a Time Line group is collapsed, the contents of the children should still be displayed within the collapsed state. At the moment, the collapsed group appears blank which could confuse the user resulting in misinterpretation of hidden data that should really be visible. Perhaps when the group is collapsed, the colours could be grey
We’re really needing the option to bump the Time Line marker to the local users timezone.
