What is this?

This web page demonstrates Dido, a self-contained general-purpose tool for managing and publishing a little interactive database of information about any kind of objects you like.  Right now it's holding a collection of nobel prize winners, but you can change it into anything else using WYSIWYG editing.  You can manage any collection of data items, each of which has an arbitrary set of properties that can be assigned arbitrary values. 

You can interact with the data in this page.  On the right hand side you can see facets.  Clicking on a value in a facet will filter the collection down to those that match the selected value.  The page also offers several views of the collection---for example, you can click "Timeline" to switch to the timeline view.  The individual items are shown using a lens template that formats the individual items. 

If you want to edit the data in the page, first make sure that you've saved a local copy of the file (note: you can't just click file/save from the browser menu, because this page got changed to display itself to you; you need need to download the original document by finding a link to it and using the context menu to save a copy).  Now, just click the "edit data" button in the top right corner.  All the fields you can edit will light up; click on one and you can change its value.  When you're done, click "done editing" and you'll switch back to the original view, but with the new values.  To save the changes, click the "save" button in the top right corner and the data edits you've done will be saved into your copy of the file.

If you want to change how the data looks, click the "edit display" button on the top right.  You'll be taken to a WYSIWYG editing window where you can, most immediately, change things like the headings and text sing the toolbar at the top.  But you can also change the way the data collection is presented, by editing the facets, lenses, and views.  

Double clicking a facet will open a dialog box to configure it.  The most important elements are at the top: you can select the type of facet, and you can specify which property of the data is used to give values on which the facet will filter.  The list and cloud facets support filtering on arbitrary values; the numeric range and slider facets support filtering on a numeric value, and the text search facet creates a text search box that filters the data.  If you want to create a new facet, just mark click the spot you want it to appear with your cursor, then click the new facet icon () in the editing toolbar. More information about the different facets and their parameters can be found on the Simile project wiki page (which contains a list of links to specific documentation for each facet).

Similarly, double-clicking a view will let you change the parameters of that view.  You can specify the type of view: Tile makes a list of items, Thumbnail makes a grid typical of photo collections, Tabular creates a table with one item per row, Map plots items on a map google map,nnd Timeline on the Simile Timeline widget.  Each comes with its own settings: with the list or thumbnail view you specify which properties can be used to sort the data; with the tabular view you specify which properties of the data appear as columns.  For the map view, the most important specification is which property contains the latitude and longitude by which you want to plot items; similarly with timeline you need to specify the properties that represent the start and (optional) end times by which items will be plotted on the timeline.  To create a new view, click on the new view icon () in the toolbar.  Again, information about the different views and their parameters can be found on the Simile project wiki page. 

Editing a lens changes the way individual items are displayed.  Editing is done in place---just click in the lens region and start typing.  You can change the static text however you like.  The lens also contains yellow regions that represent "fill in the blanks" fields that are populated with the given properties from the item being shown.  You can change an existing fill in by double clicking on it---that will open a dialog box to let you specify which property you want to use to fill in that blank. You can add a new fill in the blank by click the add lens content () icon in the toolbar.  Double clicking the lens header lets you set the one important parameter of the lens---which type of items it is used to render.  You can have more than one type of item in the document, with a different lens for each.  To create a new lens (and specify its intended item type) click the new lens icon () in the toolbar.

The framework offers a viewpanel, a container that lets you switch among different views of the same information.  Double click a viewPanel header to edit the view panel, for example to add another view to its collection.  If you want to make a new one, click the new view panel button ().

When you're finished editing, just click the button that says so, and if you like the results, save them (again, that only works if you are editing a locally saved copy of the document).