Harden timeline quick extraction

assets/js/tools.js

@@ -388,6 +388,7 @@ const TIMELINE_I18N = {
 let lastTimelineEvents = [];
 let lastTimelineEventsOriginal = [];
 let lastTimelineWhatWeFound = '';
+let lastTimelineInputDateHintCount = null;
 let activeActorFilters = new Set();
 let timelineSearchTerm = '';
 let showSources = true;
@@ -1602,6 +1603,7 @@ function renderMainFinding(data) {
     lastTimelineEventsOriginal = data.events || [];
     lastTimelineEvents = [...lastTimelineEventsOriginal];
     lastTimelineWhatWeFound = data.what_we_found || '';
+    lastTimelineInputDateHintCount = data.trace_metadata?.input_date_hint_count ?? null;
     activeActorFilters = new Set();
     timelineSearchTerm = '';
     showSources = true;
@@ -1728,6 +1730,9 @@ function applyTimelineFilters() {
 
 function renderTimeline(events, grouped = false) {
   if (!events.length) {
+    if (lastTimelineInputDateHintCount === 0) {
+      return '<p class="timeline-empty">No recognizable dates were found in the extracted text. Check that the upload is text-searchable, or paste the relevant dated section and run again.</p>';
+    }
     return '<p class="timeline-empty">No matching events.</p>';
   }
   const MONTH_NAMES = ['Jan','Feb','Mar','Apr','May','Jun','Jul','Aug','Sep','Oct','Nov','Dec'];