Any recommendations on how to maintain each tiddler title unique

[Null]

Any suggestions on how to keep the title of each tiddler unique?

For example, I’m importing text from an Excel spreadsheet.

Example:
States
Alabama
California
Florida

Places in each state
DMV
Public Parks
State mascot

And I have three Springfields, and three entries called DMVs

Question 2:

And how about if there where an additional one such as:
Public Park Services
WC
Golf Cart
Bungee Jumping

How would you name each tiddler so that there are no overwritten tiddlers

Wordpress uses a field called slug, which is not visible. Is there anything similar in TW

So I could have
10 Male WCs - one for each WC in each Public Park of each State, and
10 Golf Cart entries - same as above

[yan]

Do some namespacing in the title field. For example, Alabama/Public Parks/WC, California/Public Parks/WC, and so on.

I suggest namespacing with a / character in particular, like folders in an operating system. Create a couple of tiddlers with /'s in them, then click More and then Explorer to see how they get arranged.
If you have a single-file wiki and turn it into a Node wiki, then your tiddlers will become files in a folder hierarchy just like this. But let’s also not ignore the Explorer function which will pick up on the / character for you.

That said, TiddlyWiki is effective because it doesn’t enforce hierarchy in data. So while namespacing the title, I’d also encourage you to link the tiddlers with tags and/or fields as necessary.

---

For an alternate title for display purposes (like the slug you mentioned), create a field called caption. This is the standard and used in a few places in TiddlyWiki out of the box, like in tab titles.
It can also be displayed alongside the title where it is present. I tend to treat it as secondary as I’m the exclusive user of my wiki, so I am happy with this small tweak you can drag into your wiki by @vilc. You can always switch it around as needed if you want to prioritise the title over the caption.

[Null]

@yan

More and then Explorer

This might be dumb but I don’t see the More tab in my TW.
Is there a way to get it back:

[Springer]

@Null

This might be dumb but I don’t see the More tab in my TW.
Is there a way to get it back:

There are multiple ways for it to be suppressed, but use advanced search (magnifier next to search bar), then choose system tab, to find this tiddler:

$:/core/ui/SideBar/More

Check whether it has the tag $:/tags/SideBar. (It should have that tag by default, and removing that tag is the easiest way to keep it out of the sidebar.)

That said, there are alternate ways of suppressing a sidebar tab, so details may depend on whether your wiki has some plugin or special css to modify its visibility.

[Null]

thanks! was also missing the Tools tab!

special css to modify its visibility.

Thought it was that, but removed the CSS temporarily and it didn’t fix the missing tabs. It was the missing $:/tags/SideBar I think from the Customizer plugin

[Null]

@yan

Create a couple of tiddlers with /'s in them, then click More and then Explorer to see how they get arranged.

Got back the More and Explorer tabs, but don’t see where are the tiddlers stored:

[EricShulman]

The <<tree>> macro takes two params:

• A “prefix” that specifies which tiddlers will be listed
• A “separator” that specifies the character used to indicate “branches” of the tree

By default, the “More > Explorer” sidebar uses <<tree "$:/" "/">>, so it only shows system tiddlers.

For your use-case, you will need to create your tiddlers with a prefix such as “States” (e.g. “States/Alabama/Public Parks/Golf”, “States/Alabama/Public Parks/WC”, “States/Alabama/Public Parks/Fountain”, etc.).

Then, you could just put <<tree "States/" "/">> in a tiddler to “explore” those tiddlers. Note that the <<tree>> macro automatically omits the prefix text from the display, so the above tiddlers would be listed as “Alabama/Public Parks/Golf”, “Alabama/Public Parks/WC”, “Alabama/Public Parks/Fountain”, etc.

enjoy,
-e

[yan]

@EricShulman

By default, the “More > Explorer” sidebar uses <<tree "$:/" "/">>, so it only shows system tiddlers.

Thanks for that - I had forgotten I had changed it on my own wiki.

[nemo]

is it possible to set a prefix to <<tree>> so it sees all tids? (basically so it can be used as a replacement to the ‘All’ tab, but with a tree collapsible UI?

[vuk]

@yan

I suggest namespacing with a / character in particular, like folders in an operating system.

How does that behave when exporting tiddlers into separate files, onto a file system that uses / as directory separator? IIRC the slash gets replaced with an underscore, thus giving a mismatch between tiddler titles and file names.

[Scott_Sauyet]

@vuk

IIRC the slash gets replaced with an underscore, thus giving a mismatch between tiddler titles and file names.

Correct, but such a possible mismatch is all but inevitable, unless you want to use the unique tiddler name directly as a file name and hence disallow all characters not allowed in filenames in any of our target platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, others?) , thus at least these characters:

/
<
>
:
"
\
|
?
*

as well as some reserved names

.
..

I’ve heard that there are some for Windows too, but I don’t know what they are. Probably at lease NUL.

And I don’t think we want such restrictions in our tiddler naming.

[TiddlyTitch]

@nemo

is it possible to set a prefix to <<tree>> so it sees all tids?

Not at present. “Blank” is not workable.

It needs an explicit root prefix … e.g.

… or defaults to $:/

TT

[TiddlyTitch]

@vuk

IIRC

IIRC = If I remember / recall correctly

Not your IIRC = Impressive Internet Relay Cat

TT

[EricShulman]

Give this a try:

Edit $:/core/macros/tree and replace:

\define tree(prefix: "$:/",separator: "/")

with

\define tree(prefix: "",separator: "/")

When the prefix param is blank (or omitted), the tree output will show all tiddlers.

-e

[TiddlyTitch]

@vuk

slash gets replaced with an underscore, thus giving a mismatch between tiddler titles and file names

Right.

That issue is a PITA.
Passing an address to the O/S is basically blocked in most browsers on creations without special tools.

Browser lockdown is an ongoing annoyance to many TW users who need access to their own file systems.

TT

cc: @pmario

[Null]

@yan

For an alternate title for display purposes (like the slug you mentioned), create a field called caption. This is the standard and used in a few places in TiddlyWiki out of the box, like in tab titles.
It can also be displayed alongside the title where it is present. I tend to treat it as secondary as I’m the exclusive user of my wiki, so I am happy with this small tweak you can drag into your wiki by @vilc.

Thanks, that sounds like a good solution!

@yan

You can always switch it around as needed if you want to prioritise the title over the caption.

So use title as the source of truth (unique ID), hide it, and
use caption as the Displayed “title”, a fake title

[TiddlyTitch]

@EricShulman

Edit $:/core/macros/tree

@EricShulman

\define tree(prefix: "",separator: "/")

When the prefix param is blank (or omitted), the tree output will show all tiddlers.

Thanks! Super-cool & easy!

I get what I need …

Now wondering: Why isn’t this the default?

TT

[Bob_Jansen]

@null, I create a unique title for each tiddler using the now macro, appending month day and milliseconds. This I hope, is unique.

Then for the actual ‘title’ of the tiddler, the user meaningful bit, I record that in the caption field as TW in most cases displays the caption field instead of the title field. That way, you can have duplicate entries because unlike the title field, the caption field does not have to be unique.

Happy to discuss further if you need it.

Bobj

[pmario]

@vuk

@yan

I suggest namespacing with a / character in particular, like folders in an operating system.

How does that behave when exporting tiddlers into separate files, onto a file system that uses / as directory separator?

There is a possibility to create a directory structure, that reflects the tiddler title. You can use the Custom Tiddler File Naming using a configuration tiddler named: $:/config/FileSystemPaths and $:/config/FileSystemExtensions

As others suggested, you could use TW namespacing. eg: Alabama/Public Parks/Golf and Alabama/Public Parks/WC

If you would tag them eg: data, you could add the following filter to $:/config/FileSystemPaths tiddler.

[tag[data]!has[draft.of]addprefix[_data/]]

All tiddlers that are tagged: data will be saved under the directory tiddlers/_data/<tiddler-title-structure> eg: tiddlers/_data/Alabama/Public Parks/Golf.tid

• You can have several rules in $:/config/FileSystemPaths
• The first one, that finds a match will be assigned

Just to be sure. This only works for Node.js based wikis. So this does not work for single file wikis

Hope that helps
-Mario

[nemo]

@TiddlyTitch

Now wondering: Why isn’t this the default?

That was my reaction too!