My Timeline creates a chronological personal view of events created by the signed-in user and, optionally, events for which that user has a registration.
Personal-purpose view: the selected purposes are not classifications stored in each event. They are presentation and date-selection modes used by this menu item to build the current user's timeline.
Create the Menu Item
- Open Menus in the Joomla administrator and create a new menu item.
- Select JEM → My Timeline as the menu-item type.
- Place it below the site's User Area or account menu.
- Set Joomla Access to Registered or to the custom access level intended for contributors.
- Select one or more timeline purposes and decide whether registered events should be added.
- Configure the date filter, card position and optional page text, then test with realistic user accounts.
Which Events Are Included?
My Timeline begins with events created by the current user. If Include registered events is enabled, it also accepts events for which the user has a registration record. Every result must still pass its publication, category and Joomla view-access checks.
| Configuration | Ownership or registration rule |
|---|
| Include registered events = No |
Only events whose creator is the current user are considered. |
| Include registered events = Yes |
Events created by the user or containing a registration record for that user are considered. |
The date-purpose filter is then applied to that initial selection when Filter My Timeline is enabled. Multiple selected purposes are joined with an OR condition: an event is retained when it satisfies any selected purpose.
Timeline Purposes
| Purpose | Events selected while filtering is enabled | Card presentation |
|---|
| Personal calendar |
Upcoming/open-date events plus recently completed events within the configured Days before today range. |
Current and upcoming cards receive the Personal calendar purpose badge. |
| Activity history |
Events whose effective final date is before today. |
Past cards receive the Activity history badge. |
| Own planning |
Upcoming and open-date events; completed events are excluded. |
Current and upcoming cards receive the Own planning badge. |
| Event diary |
Past events, like Activity history. |
Past cards receive the Event diary badge and can show a plain-text excerpt of the event introduction. |
| All of the above |
Removes the purpose-based date restriction and therefore includes past, upcoming and open-date events. |
Cards receive the All of the above badge and can show event-introduction excerpts. |
Important combination rule: selecting Activity history together with Own planning includes both past and upcoming events. Selecting All of the above makes the other purpose selections redundant for filtering. If Filter My Timeline is disabled, the purpose-based date restriction is not applied at all, although purposes can still affect badges and diary excerpts.
Menu Options
| Option | Internal name | Default | Effect |
|---|
| Timeline purpose |
mytimeline_purposes |
Personal calendar + Own planning |
Selects one or more of the five modes described above. The default gives a current personal calendar with the configured recent-past allowance. |
| Filter My Timeline |
filtermytimeline |
Yes |
Applies the purpose-based date conditions. Set to No to show all otherwise eligible owned or registered events. |
| Days before today |
mytimelinepast |
1 |
Defines how many recent past days Personal calendar retains. Negative values are treated as zero. This value does not limit Activity history or Event diary. |
| Include registered events |
mytimeline_include_registered |
No |
Adds accessible events with a registration belonging to the current user; owned events remain included. |
| Timeline event position |
timeline_side |
Right |
Places cards on the right, on the left or alternately on both sides of the vertical axis. |
| Show date on timeline |
timeline_show_axis_date |
Yes |
Shows or hides the event date beside each timeline point. Times may still appear when global time display is enabled. |
| Show Introtext |
showintrotext |
No |
Displays the configured page introduction above the personal timeline. |
| Introtext |
introtext |
Empty |
Safe HTML used as the optional page introduction. |
| Show footer text |
showfootertext |
No |
Enables custom text below the timeline. |
| Footer Text |
footertext |
Empty |
Safe HTML displayed below the timeline when enabled. |
Understanding the Date Boundaries
- For a multi-day event, JEM uses the end date as the effective final date. Otherwise it uses the start date.
- An event is considered past for purpose filtering when its effective final date is before today.
- Planning accepts events whose effective final date is today or later, as well as events without a start date.
- Personal calendar also accepts open-date and upcoming events, plus events inside its configured recent-past window.
- The timeline is ordered by event start date, start time and then record creation time.
| Example configuration | Expected period |
|---|
| Personal calendar; 1 past day |
Open-date, upcoming and very recently completed events. |
| Own planning only |
Open-date and not-yet-finished events. |
| Activity history only |
All accessible completed events in the selected normal or archive state; Days before today does not shorten this history. |
| Filter My Timeline = No |
All accessible owned events and, if enabled, registered events, without a purpose-based period restriction. |
What Each Card Shows
- Date on the axis when enabled, plus start and end time when available and globally enabled.
- Event title with a link to Event Detail when detail links are enabled.
- Recurrence and publication-state icons where applicable.
- A Created by me badge for owned events.
- A Registered badge for included registered events that are not also owned by the user.
- One or more purpose badges based on the selected purposes and whether the event is treated as past.
- Venue, city, state and categories according to the inherited global JEM presentation settings.
- For Event diary or All of the above, a plain-text excerpt of up to approximately 180 characters from the event introduction.
When multilingual event content is supplied through an associated Joomla article, JEM applies the accessible associated article content before building the card excerpt.
Right, Left and Alternate Layouts
- Right: dates appear to the left of the axis and every card appears to the right. This is the default.
- Left: cards appear on the left and date/time blocks on the right.
- Alternate: successive cards switch sides on wider screens.
- Mobile: all options collapse to a consistent readable arrangement rather than preserving two narrow card columns.
Access, Publication and Login
- My Timeline requires an authenticated Joomla user.
- A guest is redirected to the Joomla login page with a return URL for the requested timeline.
- The normal timeline selects published and unpublished eligible events; the Archive action selects archived events.
- Each event and at least one of its published categories must be accessible to the current user's Joomla view levels.
- An event with no accessible published category is removed from the result.
- Adding registered events does not bypass content access or publication checks.
Menu access is separate from content access. Set the menu item to Registered to hide it from guests, but continue to configure JEM event/category access and frontend permissions correctly. My Timeline does not grant editing rights; use My Events for frontend event management.
Timeline Actions
The button bar can provide normal/archive switching, print output and PDF output according to the current JEM configuration. The Archive action is a publication-state view: it selects archived events rather than serving as the only way to see old published events. Purpose filtering is then applied within the chosen state unless All or disabled filtering removes that date restriction.
My Timeline Compared with Other Personal Views
| View | Primary selection | Best use |
|---|
| My Timeline |
Events created by the user, optionally plus registered events, refined by purpose |
Personal calendar, planning, activity history or event diary. |
| My Events |
Events the user owns or is allowed to manage |
Editing and changing publication state in a structured list. |
| My Attendances |
Registrations belonging to the user |
Reviewing places, registration status and comments in a table/list. |
| My Attendances Timeline |
Registrations belonging to the user |
Chronological presentation of bookings without owned-event purpose modes. |
Dates and Time Zones
My Timeline uses the event's date/time data and the same time-reference rules as other JEM event views. An event may use Joomla timezone, Venue timezone or a custom event timezone. If Venue timezone is selected, verify the timezone stored in that venue.
The civil date controls purpose filtering, while UTC timestamps help the card determine whether the occurrence has passed. Around midnight or across several venue timezones, always test the result with the site's intended Joomla timezone and realistic event locations.
Practical Examples
Select Personal calendar, keep filtering enabled with 1 past day, leave registered events disabled and place cards on the right. The user sees owned current and upcoming events with a small recent-past allowance.
Select Own planning and enable Include registered events. The timeline combines upcoming events created by the user with events they plan to attend; badges distinguish owned records from registration-only records.
Select Event diary, keep filtering enabled and use Alternate placement. Past event cards include an excerpt of their introduction, creating a visual record of completed activities.
Choose All of the above or disable Filter My Timeline. Enable registered events only if bookings should join owned events. Use this broad configuration carefully on accounts with many records because My Timeline does not use list pagination.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Check |
|---|
| The visitor is redirected to login |
This is expected for guests. Confirm that the Joomla login returns the authenticated user to the original URL. |
| The timeline is empty |
Confirm event ownership, selected purposes, date state, publication state, accessible published categories and event/category access levels. |
| A registered event is missing |
Enable Include registered events, verify the registration belongs to the current account and check the purpose/date and access rules. |
| Past events appear despite selecting Own planning |
Check whether another selected purpose, especially Activity history, Event diary or All, broadens the result; also confirm Filter My Timeline is enabled. |
| Days before today seems to have no effect |
It controls the recent-past window for Personal calendar. It does not limit Activity history, Event diary, All or disabled filtering. |
| Diary text is absent |
Select Event diary or All and ensure the event has accessible introductory content. |
| The page becomes very long |
Narrow the purposes/date selection or avoid All. The current My Timeline view loads its matching cards without list pagination. |
Before Publishing
- Set the menu item to Registered or the intended contributor access level.
- Test each selected purpose separately before testing combinations.
- Test with owned events, registration-only events, open-date events and multi-day events.
- Verify published, unpublished and archived behaviour with accessible and restricted categories.
- Check right, left and alternate layouts on desktop and mobile.
- Verify intro/footer text, print, PDF and archive actions.
- Check the page length for users with a large event history.
Related Documentation
Related GitHub Issues
