Play the map through time#

Scrub a timestamped layer forwards and watch features appear on the map, either cumulatively or inside a moving window.

The timeline turns a layer with timestamps into something you can play. Rather than see every feature at once, you scrub through time and watch features appear. That is how you spot when something happened as well as where.

The timeline binds itself automatically. If an imported layer carries a column that the app can read as a timestamp, the timeline wakes up on import, set to the latest time in the data and paused. If no such column exists, the transport stays greyed out with the hint 'Load a layer with time properties to enable the timeline'.

The timeline transport with step, play and step forward buttons, a speed chip, a mode chip and a date column dropdown, above a scrubber spanning early to late January

Cumulative or window#

The chip that reads CUM or WIN is the control that changes what you look at. Learn it before the rest.

Cumulative shows everything up to the playhead. Features accumulate as time runs forward and nothing ever leaves, which suits a picture of what has happened so far.

Window shows only what falls inside a moving span of time. Features appear and then drop away again as the window passes them, which is what you want for activity rather than totals. In window mode a second chip sets the span, and cycles through 5m, 15m, 30m, 1h, 2h, and 6h. It starts at 6h.

Play and scrub the range#

The transport holds three controls:

  • Play: runs the playhead forward and turns into Pause.
  • Step back and Step forward: move the playhead by a fiftieth of the range. A step past the end wraps around to the start.
  • Speed chip: cycles 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 times.

You can also drag the playhead directly. The scrubber labels the start and end of the range at its ends, and the current position in the middle. In window mode the middle shows the window's start and end instead of a single time.

Switch the time column#

The dropdown next to the chips picks which column drives the timeline. A layer often carries several dates, such as when something was created and when it was last changed, and they tell different stories. Switch columns to re-bind the timeline without a reimport.

What the playhead filters#

The timeline filters the layer everywhere, not only on the map. The attribute table and the statistics panel both narrow to the visible features, and a GeoJSON export writes out only what is visible at that moment. If an export has fewer features than you expected, check where the playhead sits.