The Compositor

The Telar Compositor is a visual editor for building and managing your exhibition — no spreadsheets, no command line, no code. It runs in your browser at compositor.telar.org and connects directly to your GitHub repository.

What is the Compositor?

If you have used Telar before, you know that content is defined through spreadsheet files — CSV files or Google Sheets — and published through GitHub. The Compositor replaces that workflow with a point-and-click editor. You can:

• Import existing content from a Telar repository or Google Sheets
• Add and edit objects with metadata, IIIF manifests, or uploaded images
• Build stories visually — write panels, set viewer coordinates, capture clip times
• Publish changes to GitHub with a single click
• Track your site’s build status in real time

The Compositor is designed for students, educators, and anyone who wants to focus on storytelling rather than data files.

How it works

The typical workflow has four stages:

1. Sign in — Authenticate with your GitHub account at compositor.telar.org
2. Connect a repository — Select an existing Telar repository and import its content
3. Edit — Use the visual editor to manage objects, write stories, and arrange steps
4. Publish — Review your changes, commit to GitHub, and watch the build complete

Every change you make in the Compositor is saved automatically on the server until you publish. Publishing creates a single commit in your repository — attributed to you — and triggers a GitHub Pages build automatically.

Requirements

To use the Compositor, you need:

• A GitHub account (sign up for free)
• A Telar repository created from the Telar template (see Getting Started for setup instructions)
• GitHub Pages enabled with the source set to GitHub Actions (see Getting Started for details)

In this section

• Getting Started — Sign in, connect a repository, and import your content
• Dashboard — Navigate your project, manage stories, and monitor your site
• Objects — Browse, edit, upload, and add objects to your exhibition
• Story Editor — Build stories with a visual editor, capture coordinates, and write layer content
• Video and Audio — Capture clips, set loop points, and work with multimedia steps
• Publishing — Review changes, commit to GitHub, and track your build
• Sync and Updates — Re-sync with your repository and upgrade Telar