Time slider
A timeline bar across the bottom of the map that plays your data through time. Bind a layer’s date field and its features are filtered live as the timeline moves; bind several layers and they move together. The bar also draws a small frequency histogram of the bound features, so your audience sees where in time the data actually is before they press play.
Binding a layer
Section titled “Binding a layer”The slider filters the layers you bind to it:
- from the Layers panel: Bind to time slider on any vector layer with a date field, the dialog detects the candidate fields and proposes a time window;
- or by asking the AI Assistant: “animate this layer over time” is enough; it picks the field, derives the range and turns the widget on.
A bound layer keeps its symbology: the timeline only decides which features are visible at the current date.
The widget can also animate external timed sources (a COG served per date, an XYZ template, a WMS with TIME, a timed GeoJSON) added in its parameters; those are for services published per date, not for your project layers.
Parameters
Section titled “Parameters”| Parameter | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start / End | The timeline range. Leave the end open to track today. |
| Step | The active time step (hour, day, month or year). |
| Steps offered | Which steps your audience can switch between. Offer one and the step selector disappears. |
| Speed | Playback speed, in milliseconds per step. |
| Loop | Playback wraps back to the start at the end of the range. |
| Auto-play | Playback starts when the map opens. |
| Playback controls | Exposed: play/pause and manual step buttons. Not exposed: the timeline only moves by dragging. |
| Speed control | Exposed: a ×0.5 to ×4 multiplier of your configured speed. |
| Collapsible / Collapsed | Whether the bar folds to a compact date pill, and whether it starts folded. |
| Timed sources | The external per-date services the slider animates, if any. |
What end-users see
Section titled “What end-users see”A bar at the bottom center of the map: a play button, the current date, and a scrubbable time axis with the histogram of the bound features behind it. Depending on what you exposed, they also get manual step buttons, a speed multiplier and the step selector. Dragging the axis (or using the arrow keys) is always available, and everything they do stays local to their session; your configured timeline is what the next visitor gets.