If Scalar’s built-in maps and timelines do not work, you can also use maps and timelines from third-party platforms or tools such as Esri Story Maps, Neatline, Tiki-Toki, TimelineJS, and StoryMapJS within or as a supplement to your projects. These platforms and tools will allow you to layer multiple maps or timelines and work with various types of media items and prose content simultaneously. Please note that third-party content raises additional considerations for preservation and that each of these platforms have different advantages and disadvantages. The "Which Mapping Tool Is Best for You?" section of this page contains brief descriptions and considerations for some commonly used platforms.
Esri Story Maps allows you to link static and interactive maps to narrative texts, images, and multimedia content. Below are some of its advantages and challenges you might want to consider before making a selection.
Advantages
Challenges
Neatline allows you to plot and annotate artifacts (letters, photographs, paintings; any visual material) on maps as well as link particular views of those maps and thus artifacts to events in a timeline. Below are some of its advantages and challenges you might want to consider before making a selection.
Advantages
Challenges
Tiki-Toki Timeline Maker is a web-based platform which allows users to create visually striking timelines. Below are some of its advantages and challenges you might want to consider before making a selection.
Advantages
Challenges
TimelineJS is an open-source Javascript and CSS based tool that allows you to create visually rich, interactive timelines, using only a Google spreadsheet. Below are some of its advantages and challenges you might want to consider before making a selection.
Advantages
Challenges
StoryMaps JS is an interactive mapping and multimedia tool to help tell stories on the web that highlight the locations of a series of events. Below are some of its advantages and challenges you might want to consider before making a selection.
Advantages
Challenges
There are two approaches when using third-party maps or timelines on your scalar page. The first approach is embedding third-party content into a scalar page. The second approach is using an embedded link to the third-party map or timeline as media import link. Below is a brief description of each approach’s strength and step-by-step processes.
You can use any maps and timelines from third-party platforms such as Story Map, Neatline, Tiki-Toki, TimelineJS, Google Maps, etc. in your Scalar page by embedding them through an HTML iframe tag (inline frame tag). This strategy is effective when you would like to adjust the size of your map or timeline and/or improve accessibility for screen readers.
For example, the following are the steps you need to take if you want to make your third-party map take up the majority of your page.
<iframe src="[your url]" frameborder="0" height="650" width="100%"></iframe>
Please make sure to insert the URL you have inside the quotation marks after src=. Also be sure to include http:// at the beginning of the URL you are using. Your code should look like below.
<iframe src="an example URL" frameborder="0" height="650" width="100%" ></iframe>
Some third-party mapping platforms such as ArcGIS Online allows you to take their embedded link and use it as a media import link. This strategy has the benefit of treating the embedded link like other Scalar media items. You can make it a path, comment, annotation, or tag, depending on your needs.
Here is how to do it.
Contact Scholarly Communication and Publishing at scpub@library.illinois.edu for guidance or visit our website.