Tohuwabohu excorcism

Exhibit

An MIT Framework to present data quickly, by using JS

Information about it:

Here is a basic howto.
Here is a Reference - an API to every EXHIBIT View
Here is a set of howto articles
Here is the Sourcecode on Google Code

Help can be requested at the simile widgets google group.

PRESENTATION

Collection

Placing a collection div somewhere, e.g under the <body> - forces EXHIBIT to display only the entries (from the JSON file) of the type Author. Useful if there is more information in the JSON, like a list of publications.

<div ex:role="collection" ex:itemTypes="Author"></div>

Facettes

Filters for the data, to display only chose cathegories

 <div ex:role="facet" ex:expression=".discipline" ex:facetLabel="Discipline"></div>
 <div ex:role="facet" ex:expression=".relationship" ex:facetLabel="Relationship"></div>
 <div ex:role="facet" ex:expression=".shared" ex:facetLabel="Shared?"></div>
 <div ex:role="facet" ex:expression=".deceased" ex:facetLabel="Deceased?"></div>

Views

Views represent the art of presentation, which will be used to present the data, like Tabular, Timeline etc. To precisely style a View - lences should be used. When additional views are inserted to the viewPanel - they will be displayed as tabs.

TABLE:

 <div ex:role="exhibit-view"
     ex:viewClass="Exhibit.TabularView"
     ex:columns=".label, .imageURL, .discipline, .nobel-year, .relationship-detail"
     ex:columnLabels="name, photo, discipline, year, relationship with MIT"
     ex:columnFormats="list, image, list, list, list"
     ex:sortColumn="3"
     ex:sortAscending="false">
 </div>

TIMELINE: For timeline View additional JS FIle must be inserted:

 <script src="http://api.simile-widgets.org/exhibit/2.2.0/extensions/time/time-extension.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

 <div ex:role="view"
     ex:viewClass="Timeline"
     ex:start=".nobel-year"
     ex:colorKey=".discipline">
 </div>

Lences

Is a template to format the presentation.

API:

Tag attribute	Explanation
ex:content=“.discipline”	graps the property value of the property “discipline”
ex:src-content=“.imageURL”	graps the property value of the property “imageURL” AND generates a TAG src, with the graped value. src can be replaced by any tag
ex:if-exists=“.co-winner” class=“co-winners”>…</div>	displays the div only, if the property value of property “co-winner” exists.
ex:content=“value”></span>	generates a link to the current item. Linkclick creates a popup with all data about the item.
<ul ex:content=“!date”> <li ex:content=“value”></li> </ul>	generates a list with item-value-popup-links to items, where the the date property has the value of current-item-label

DATA

As a database a changed JSON files is used. An automatic converter is available :

use the Babel service to convert your data into Exhibit's JSON format » Details
use an importer to convert your files into Exhibit's JSON format on-the-fly » Details

Glossar:

Word	Explanation
Item	Database Entry with different properties like type,label …
Item-property	The key name inside of the JSON container like type,label,uri …
Item-Type	there is a special property called type.
Item-Value	the data on the right side of : near the property

A singel JSON Database can contain different types of data. An Example of a converted data:

{
	"items" :      [
		{
			"label" :         "1988-01",
			"type" :          "Date"
		},
		{
			"label" :         "My little Knuth, Donald E.",
			"type" :          "Author",
			"original-name" : "Donald E. Knuth",
			"last-name" :     "Knuth",
			"date" :     	  "1988-01"
		},
		{
			"label" :         "Knuth, Donald E.",
			"type" :          "Author",
			"original-name" : "Donald E. Knuth",
			"last-name" :     "Knuth"
		},
		{
			"pub-type" : "unpublished",
			"uri" :      "urn:09caa715f9994e7b82e334d47a46d2fa",
			"date" :     "1988-01",
			"author" :   "Patashnik, Oren",
			"month" :    "January",
			"note" :     "The part of BibTeX\'s documentation that\'s not meant for general users",
			"type" :     "Publication",
			"year" :     "1988",
			"label" :    "Designing BibTeX Styles",
			"key" :      "btxhak"
		},

Properties

Some data entries in the JSON file can be crosslinked to another data entries, by setting its value-type in the JSON file. The property, which should be a link to another item should contain a label-value of the target.

{
       properties: {
           "co-winner" : {
               valueType: "item"
           }
       },
    "items" : [
        {   type :                  "Nobelist",
            label :                 "Burton Richter",
            discipline :            "Physics",
            shared :                "yes",
            "last-name" :           "Richter",
            "nobel-year" :          "1976",
            relationship :          "alumni",
            "co-winner" :           "Samuel C.C. Ting",
            "relationship-detail" : "MIT S.B. 1952, Ph.D. 1956",
            imageURL :              "http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1976/richter_thumb.jpg"
        },
        {   type :                  "Nobelist",
            label :                 "Samuel C.C. Ting",
...

Types

A property value can be defined different for plural!!! E.g. property “type” can be Nobelist or Nobelists!

   {
       types: {
           "Nobelist" : {
               pluralLabel: "Nobelists"
           }
       },
       properties: {

Table of Contents