Modeling an exchange via SMS/text

Q & A
1

I’m interested in modeling an exchange between several people using their phones. So right now I’m doing it in a very basic way through properties.

For example say these five guys were sending messages:

Artist Nickname
Bob Ross Clouds
Andy Warhol Soup
Keith Haring Radiance
Jean-Michel Basquiat Crown
Roy Lichtenstein Dots

So You’d have:

Bob Ross (Clouds): +17655550100,
To: (Soup) +12125550200, Keith +13105550300, (Crown) +12125550400, Roy +12125550500
Message: I’m not a happy little tree today.

Roy +12125550500
To: (Clouds) +17655550100, (Soup) +12125550200, Keith +13105550300, (Crown) +12125550400
Message: I’m spot on today.
Attachment: image.jpg (113k) (a single spot)

etc.

It becomes problematic to link the conversation as a timeline with my limited use of the software, I created properties for:

Property Notes
call_from Applies to Item Types: Event, Person
call_to AtIT: persons, multi-line
phone_number How do you link phone_numbers to characters consistently?
address Likewise linked to character?
sms_attach I want these images in the book

Basically I’m just modeling each element of the message chain and then grouping them into master threads as a post-production effort.

Anyone care to enlighten me on how to model this kind of linkage? Sorry if this question is open-ended but I think I’m missing a lot of implementations I could be making?

Best regards,
Edgewax

2

Have you taken a look at the sample project “Murder on the Orient Express”? Many of the concepts implemented there can be adapted to your use case. There, characters are assigned to events, with different roles, e.g., “witness” and “participant.”

In your case, you could assign the roles of “sender” and “receiver” to the character type. So an event would be a communication transmission with one sender and one or more receivers.

One of the properties of a communication transmission event of the “Short message” type, for instance, would be the content of the message. Other properties could be data attachments.

If the transmission were of the “telephone call” type, the corresponding property would be a dialogue between sender and receiver.
I would model addresses and phone numbers as properties of the character type.

Does that fit your question?

Cheers,
Peter

3

I’m not the OP, but, for what it’s worth, this seems like a good approach.

4

Just started a Murder on the Orient Express timeline.
It’s a great example, almost overwhelming. To see it used to augment a teacher in class would be a treat. Thanks, I’ll begin my investigation!
:policeman: :mag_right: :gift:

5

I love JSON export and AI loves it, too.

Prompt to Claude.ai, Sonnet 4.5:

Think carefully about the attached file and create a markdown table that shows all the types, properties, and relationships and how they are configured.

Murder on the Orient Express - Aeon Timeline Configuration

Entity Types

Type ID Label Plural Has Dates Icon Default Color Category Quick Access
defaultEvent Event Events Yes diamond purple200A OTHER scrollTo
defaultPerson Person Person Yes (Birth/Death) person red300 PERSON filter
RKLI8Zvh2726tXVSmsEEZ Exposition Expositions No pen red300 OTHER scrollTo
0D1CA3AF-17E0-4C8A-ACC7-7206907388DA Testimony Testimonies No comment red300 OTHER filter
pNtNEIOdUBHYTAkVxgVpa Clue Clues No key lightTeal OTHER filter
theme Murder Theory Murder Theories No gavel yellow OTHER filter
storyArc Story Arc Story Arcs No star denim OTHER filter
backstory Backstory Backstories Yes scroll denim OTHER scrollTo
flashForward Flash-Forward Flash-Forwards Yes fastForward red300 OTHER scrollTo
flashback Flashback Flashbacks Yes rewind lightTeal OTHER scrollTo
defaultNarrative Narrative Folder Narrative Folders No folder mono OTHER scrollTo
characterGroup Character Group Character Groups No people lightTeal OTHER filter
defaultLocation Location Locations No map red300 LOCATION filter
genericNode Mindmap Node Nodes No diamond mono OTHER none

Properties

Property ID Label Format Allowed Values Multiple Applied To Types
ZhcNNZQerTF7tCDhzzMtf Nationality text - No defaultPerson
6L7j7UsCj7aivyRUwXswZ Nickname text - No defaultPerson
tjAAplMdnndasYPtHomb0 Relevance list Significant, Circumstancial, Red Herring No Exposition, Clue
CqRweEsRTH9AkwyWQwFRN Status list Established Fact, Corroborated, Uncorroborated, Known Lie No Events, Expositions, Backstory, Flashback, Flash-Forward
eiT6b2cjNLXK5AcpQ073I Gender list Male, Female, Other No defaultPerson
3WZbvUsGS25PDqjSO3wN3 Motivation multitext - No defaultPerson
lA2Bj28FWckSxcUuR8S5t Real Name text - No defaultPerson
mQiiawS528A6UOQpucfby Characteristics multitext - No defaultPerson
61E0B369-583D-4F81-9CA7-71B692063057 Complete boolean - No (Completion indicator)
color Colors list indigo700A, orange, red400A, pink500, mono, lightTeal, grey, red300, pink900, yellow900 No All types
image Image string - No All types
links Links string - Yes All types
attachments Attachments string - Yes All types
summary Summary string - No All types
tags Tags string - Yes All types
initials Initials string - No All types

Relationships

Relationship ID Label Icon Color Line Style Bidirectional Target Types Inverse Label Show in Inspector
participantRef Participant circle filled midBlue SOLID No defaultPerson - Yes
witnessRef Witness circle lightBlue SOLID No defaultPerson - Yes
TpeBVbXNAa9M8QpwBlJVH Clue circle lightTeal SOLID No Clue Discussed in Yes
3A287673-A132-4E23-ACD1-710A9B9EBBBE Testimony circle filled red SOLID No Testimony - Yes
storyArcRef Story Arc circle filled yellow SOLID No storyArc - Yes
themeRef Murder Theory circle darkBlue SOLID No theme - No
causesRef Causes circle yellow SOLID No Events Caused by No
seeAlsoRef See also circle mono SOLID Yes Events - No
instigatorRef Instigates circle yellow SOLID No Events Instigated by No
parentRef Parent circle green400A SOLID No defaultPerson Child No
grandparentRef Grandparent circle teal400A SOLID No defaultPerson Grandchild No
siblingRef Sibling circle mint SOLID Yes defaultPerson - No
spouseRef Spouse circle purple200A SOLID Yes defaultPerson - No
partnerRef Partner circle (none) SOLID Yes defaultPerson - No
fianceRef Fiancé circle purple700A SOLID Yes defaultPerson - No
friendRef Friend circle fuschia SOLID Yes defaultPerson - No
familyRef Family circle lightPink SOLID Yes defaultPerson - No
associateRef Associate circle grey SOLID Yes defaultPerson - No
cOWmNNtOCUuzTBdHcQPgx Nurse circle (none) SOLID No defaultPerson - No
relatesToRef Relates to circle mono SOLID Yes All types - No
locationRef Location circle filled orange SOLID No defaultLocation - Yes
birthplaceRef Birthplace circle apple SOLID No defaultLocation - No
homeRef Home circle lightTeal SOLID No defaultLocation - No
startLocationRef Start Location circle red200A SOLID No defaultLocation - No
endLocationRef End Location circle red400A SOLID No defaultLocation - No

Key Configuration Notes

  • Timeline Settings: Compact event layout, showing item cards without identifiers or dates
  • Visible Relationship Types on Timeline: Clues, Story Arcs, Testimonies
  • Color Coding System: 10 custom colors for categorizing events (Train Movements=mono, Introduction=lightTeal, Murder Night=pink900, Evidence Search=pink500, Suspect Interviews=orange, Poirot musings=red300, etc.)
  • Tags: 11 custom tags including “Alibi”, “Clue”, “No Alibi”, “Imposter in Kimono”, “Murder Weapon”, etc.
  • Date System: Relative dates in days, using “1933-02-25” as applicable date with UTC timescale
  • Enabled Types: Events, Persons, Expositions, Testimonies, Clues, Murder Theories, Story Arcs are enabled; Locations, Flashbacks, Flash-Forwards, Mindmap Nodes are disabled

Now to start adapting to my work!

6

I never would have thought to export to JSON and have AI work with it. Cool.

8

It’s really interesting to see a complex timeline broken down in that way. Very cool!

It sounds like you have a good plan of attack from here, but feel free to send any questions to us at support@aeontimeline.com if you get stuck on anything.

10

I tinkered with some configuration this afternoon and am still working through the problem. Along the way, I noticed two UI behaviors that felt a little unintuitive, so I thought I’d share them as an FYI (I didn’t search the forum first—bad forum member here :upside_down_face:).

  1. In Settings, I was surprised to find that for a new name to actually register, you need to click outside the name field. At first, I was just typing names from a list, seeing them appear in the list, and assuming they were set. It wasn’t until I started configuring the new names that I realized they hadn’t been saved unless I clicked outside the field. Once I understood, it made sense—but it tripped me up at first. Just illustrating a use case where someone wouldn’t click outside the field in order to set the name.

  2. Similarly, when creating new item types, I didn’t set their plurals right away. I figured it wasn’t a big deal, but then I noticed the Item toolbar was showing all the new items with “item” in their hover context names. The edit icon at the top of the window also still said “item.” It might be helpful if entering a new item’s singular name could auto-populate the plural field by default (even if it’s not always grammatically perfect). For a moment, I thought I’d uncovered a bug.!

I’m in a rush, if you want this moved somewhere, I apologize in advance!