The spec refers to sample data in “Timeline sample data guideline [login to view URL]". I am worried that the timeline library may not like being handled by virtual DOM, and I did projects where non-reactive libraries where turned "reactive" by just constantly reinitializing them (which drove me to adopt cyclejs). I looked briefly at the api of timeline library I suppose that neither of these should get in the way. Looking at the examples there're already options for controlling it with buttons as per 3.1, and if you want the buttons to be external there's also API for that, as well as for controlling background as per 3.1.1.3 (time selection pointers) although I'm not sure to which extend. I'm willing to take another look if you get in touch with expressing interest in my proposal, at which point I will restructure milestones and possibly prices (likely down)
I'd like to propose to do this with cyclejs that has react integration (turning it into a react component). The key feature of cyclejs is dependence on xstreamjs which is reactive stream library. While reactjs has react in it's name, it is, in fact, proactive which means that will rerun everything there is to rerun when something should run again which doesn't predispose it to handling situations where there're many variables some of which will change very often (leisurely scrolling horizontally through the timeline for example). Additionally, while there's not much in styling guide, I'd rather leave it entirely to your designers