bmocrypto / timeline-lwc

:octocat: An interactive timeline for the Salesforce platform.

Time Warp

Overview | Install Me | How it Works | FAQs | Contribute

An interactive Lightning Web Component for the Salesforce platform

Overview

A complete custom experience component. Created to allow users to view related records to a parent on an interactive timeline written with D3.js.

• Multi Object Support. Plot related records to Lead, Account, Contact, Opportunity and Case.
• Junction Object Support. Plot junction object records and use simple dot notation.
• Multi Language Support. All labels and error messages as translatable custom labels.
• Locale Support for Dates. Date formats change based on your Salesforce locale setting.
• 3rd Party JS. Demonstrates 3rd Party JS and Apex imperative callouts to populate data in an interactive timeline.
• Responsive interface. Uses flexipageRegionWidth to determine where in the page it is located.
• Minimises server roundtrips. Uses Lightning Data Service for tooltips and falls back to queried data when needed.

This sample application is designed to run on Salesforce Platform. If you want to experience Lightning Web Components on any platform, please visit https://lwc.dev, and try out the Lightning Web Components sample application LWC Recipes OSS.

Installation Instructions

1. Set up your environment. Follow the steps in the Quick Start: Lightning Web Components Trailhead project. The steps include:

• Enable Dev Hub in your Trailhead Playground
• Install Salesforce CLI
• Install Visual Studio Code
• Install the Visual Studio Code Salesforce extensions, including the Lightning Web Components extension

2. If you haven't already done so, authenticate with your hub org and provide it with an alias (myhuborg in the command below):

sfdx force:auth:web:login -d -a myhuborg

3. Clone the timeline-lwc repository:

git clone https://github.com/deejay-hub/timeline-lwc
cd timeline-lwc

4. Create a scratch org and provide it with an alias (timeline-lwc in the command below):

sfdx force:org:create -s -f config/project-scratch-def.json -a timeline-lwc

5. Push the app to your scratch org:

sfdx force:source:push

6. Assign the Timeline_User permission set to the default user:

sfdx force:user:permset:assign -n Timeline_User

7. Load sample data:

sfdx force:data:tree:import --plan data/timeline-plan.json

8. Open the scratch org:

sfdx force:org:open

9. Navigate to Sales, under App Launcher, select the Sales app.

10. Find the contact Jane Lo and drill into her detailed information.

11. Navigate to Setup, and select Edit Page

12. Drag the timeline component into the page - found under custom components

How it Works

Object Support

Timeline is installed as a custom component available in the App Builder component pallette. Currently the component is available on the following record home pages:

• Account
• Contact
• Lead
• Opportunity
• Case

This is a configuration limit specified in timeline.js-meta.xml. Since the timeline is designed to be driven from data it should be possible to extend the usage to other objects.

<targetConfig targets="lightning__RecordPage">
     <objects>
        <object>Contact</object>
        <object>Lead</object>
        <object>Account</object>
        <object>Case</object>
        <object>Opportunity</object>
     </objects>
</targetConfig>

Component Properties

The component has the following properties that can be set at design time in App Builder by an administrator

Property	Description	Validation
Parent Record	Adjusts the timeline parent id	Dynamic Picklist (valid relationships)
Title	Adjusts the label	String
Height	Adjusts the vertical height	Picklist (1 - 5)
Historical Time Range (Years)	Adjusts the start date	Picklist (0.25 - 5)
Future Time Range (Years)	Adjusts the end date	Picklist (0.25 - 1)
Zoom Based On	Adjusts the position of the zoom	Picklist (Current Date, Last Activity)
Zoom Range (Days)	Adjusts the extent of the zoom	Integer min 15 max 120

Custom Labels

Labels can be translated where appropriate. Navigate to Setup -> Custom Labels and add translations for your chosen languages. Note you will need the permission - Manage Transalations.

Label Name	Default translation
Timeline_Error_Apex	Apex error
Timeline_Error_Setup	Setup error
Timeline_Error_JavaScriptResources	Unable to load JavaScript resources
Timeline_Error_NoDataHeader	No data to display
Timeline_Error_NoDataSubHeader	Related records show up here on an interactive timeline. Check your filter or create a record.
Timeline_Error_Unhandled	Houston...we've had a problem
Timeline_Label_Days	day(s)
Timeline_Label_Items	item(s)
Timeline_Label_Showing	Showing:
Timeline_Label_Filters	Filters (Used in filter panel)
Timeline_Label_Filter_All_Types	All Types (Used in filter panel as select/deselect all checkbox)
Timeline_Label_Filter_Type_Legend	Types to Show (Used in Filter panel)
Timeline_Label_Files	Files & Notes (used in Filter when sObject is ContentDocumentLink)
Timeline_Label_Date_Range_Legend	Date Range (Used in Filter panel)
Timeline_Label_Apply	Label for apply button (Used in Filter panel)
Timeline_Label_Cancel	Label for cancel button (Used in Filter panel)
Timeline_Navigation_Toast_Header	Label used in Toast message header when drilling down on CaseComment
Timeline_Navigation_Toast_Body	Label used in Toast message body when drilling down on CaseComment

Configuring Child Records to Plot

Specifying which child records to plot is done using the Timeline_Configuration_mdt metadata type. When populating the metadata type the following is a description of the columns and their purpose

Field Name	Description
Parent_Object__c	The API Name of the parent object that the child record relates to
Object_Name__c	The API Name of the object that is the child to plot
Relationship_Name__c	The API Name of the relationship between Parent and Child
Position_Date_Field__c	The API Name of the field on the child (Object_Name__c) to use as the date value to use to position the record on the timeline (must be Date or Date/Time)
Detail_Field__c	The API Name of the field on the child (Object_Name__c) to use as the description for the record to plot on the timeline
Icon__c	A relative url to the image to use for this record
Icon_Background_Colour__c	The background colour to use for the above image (rgb and hex supported)
Type_Field__c	Reserved for 'Tasks' only. Used to specify the field to distinguish Calls vs Emails. Only used when Object_Name__c is Task
Fallback_Tooltip_Field__c	The API Name of the field on the child object to use when the UI API does not support this object. Timeline will use the Detail_Fieldc value and the Fallback_Tooltip_Fieldc as the tooltip.
Allow_Drilldown__c	Should the object support drilling into the individual record. If false then a toast error will appear when a user clicks on that record type
Drilldown_Id_Field__c	The field containing the Id value that should be used for the drilldown operation. e.g. Which record should the user be navigated to. Important for junction objects.
Tooltip_Id_Field__c	The field containing the Id value that should be used for the hover tooltip e.g. Which record should the user see when they hover over a record on the timeline. Important for junction objects.
Tooltip_Object_Name__c	The object used by the tooltip. The label is also looked up to use in the filter panel.
Test__c	Protected records used for Apex testing only.

FAQs

How to I specify the fields for the tooltip?

For the most part the component uses the UI API powered by the Lightning Data Service (LDS). This means that the tooltip will use the compact layout of the object automatically in a 2 column format. So just update the compact layout for the object and it works like magic. The bad news is that not all objects have support yet. For a list of supported objects see https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.uiapi.meta/uiapi/ui_api_get_started_supported_objects.htm. If you want to plot an object that isn't included in the list (e.g. Case Comments, Tasks etc) then the timeline can show 2 fields in the tooltip specified by the Detail_Fieldc field value and the Fallback_Fieldc field value. So fill these fields in only for those objects not supported by the UI API.

Does it support multiple languages other than English?

Yes - for left-to-right languages. The users locale setting in Salesforce determines the date formats used. For a list of supported locales see - https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=admin_supported_date_time_format.htm&type=5

All fields have their translated labels returned. Any custom labels can be translated (see Custom Labels).

Right-to-left languages can be supported but there are formatting issues currently that need to be fixed.

Please note that translated values are not currently included - you need to enable transalation workbench and add them yourself. If you would like to provide translated values for a language I would happily incorporate them for everyones benefit.

Does it support Communities?

Yes. The timeline will work on a record detail page in the community. Sadly we don't support changing Parent Field at this stage.

Does it support Mobile?

No. The timeline component is really best suited to the desktop. Long term it is a goal to come up with a mobile version suited to reduced real estate. At the moment the component cannot be dragged into a mobile layout.

Does it support Person Accounts?

Yes. We have included values for the parent object 'PersonAccount' this will automatically be applied to any Account where the IsPersonAccount field is true. Since PersonAccounts can have relationships through ContactId or AccountId to their corresponding related records we have included metadata types for both. So you can choose to plot related cases where the AccountId, ContactId or both are populated.

Does it support Files / Notes / Attachments?

Yes. Files and Notes (sometimes referred to as enhanced Notes) are supported. We have added any record in the ContentDocumentLink object.

Does it support External Objects / Big Objects?

No. Currently the SOQL is limited to those objects that can be included in a parent join. We would have to consider scale and performance too so for now the component only supports standard and custom objects.

Does it support History Objects?

No. History objects are deliberately removed from the query. They don't make good candidates to plot on the timeline due to the volume of updates typically seen.

Does it support Junction Objects?

Yes. We have tested support for Multiple Contacts to Tasks/Events || Multiple Contacts to Accounts and Contact Roles for Opportunities. We have also tested custom junction objects. We have added simple dot notation to be able to plot the fields from the destination object.

Contributing

Contributions are what make the trailblazer community such an amazing place. I regard this component as a way to inspire and learn from others. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

See contributing.md for timeline principles.

Utilities and Dependencies

Dependencies

• D3.js v 5.7.0
• moment.js v2.2.4

Code formatting

Prettier is a code formatter used to ensure consistent formatting across your code base. To use Prettier with Visual Studio Code, install this extension from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. The .prettierignore and .prettierrc files are provided as part of this repository to control the behavior of the Prettier formatter.

Code linting

ESLint is a popular JavaScript linting tool used to identify stylistic errors and erroneous constructs. To use ESLint with Visual Studio Code, install this extension from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. The .eslintignore file is provided as part of this repository to exclude specific files from the linting process in the context of Lightning Web Components development.

Code quality

PMD is a cross-language static code analyser. To use PMD with Visual Studio Code, install this extension from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. The .pmdruleset.xml file is provided as part of this repository to exclude specific files and/or types of code quality checks from the process in the context of Lightning Web Components development.

Codacy

Codacy automates code reviews and monitors code quality over time. Static analysis, code coverage and metrics for JavaScript and Apex. Tests for common styling and security issues.