Discussion regarding bidirectional syncing of a wiki?

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#1

To preface, I use tiddlywiki on multiple devices at work, where downloading applications isn’t available due to security restrictions.

I use my wiki primarily for documentation and notes on a windows laptop(s) and my android phone.

so my question is, are there any options available that would allow me to keep a copy of tiddlywiki on my phone that bidirectionally syncs with a webhosted copy?

i.e. could you… I’m not 100% sure how to ask this correctly but, use a service like syncthing to keep an up to date copy on one device and have any saved changes also updated to tiddlyhost or github?

the reasoning behind this is how I often times need to go to remote locations where there isn’t internet available.

I’ve been told about the browsersave plugin but that seems a bit unsafe, tiddlyhost is great but not offline first unfortunately. same goes for github to my knowledge.

my only uncertainty is whether or not tiddlywiki pwa would be an offline first bidirectional syncing option, or if it requires a paid service or installation of software…

Id like to hear from others as to their setups and particularly anyone who might have a similar need and how they handle it?

#2

I’m also struggling with the same issues.

Syncthing works really well, but would you be allowed to install it on your work machines? You just have to be sure to sync everything up before going to your remote location.

Opinionated browser storage works pretty well. Sometimes it goes hours or days without needing to save. But then something will cause the browser to check if it’s online, and then you can only access your original site (tiddlyhost) by internet connection. So far the technology itself is pretty robust. That is, it keeps your tiddlers even if the device reboots. You just can’t add more than 5/10 megs at a time. 5 megs of text is a lot.

If you have a service like pCloud, you can tell it to pin a file on android. Then Tiddloid can load and save it. For me this works 90% on one device, but maybe 60% on another device. It might work better with other services.

But you would want to sync with pCloud on your laptop, which requires a program. So would your employer allow that?

I imagine you could do the same thing with Google Drive or One Drive.

#3

unfortunately network security standards are pretty strict, no usb read/write, no installation of non vetted software or file hosting services that aren’t on the closed network 🫤

#4

What are you allowed? Can you reach tiddlyhost? Are you allowed One Drive or Google Drive? (which are industry standard services).

#5

tiddlyhost and githubs about all I got 🥲 that or onenote, but only if its tied to my work email

#6

It seems like the way to work it is the other way around. Serve up your files via webdav from your phone. So far, I’ve only found one app that will actually do this. But not sure if it can work without internet connection.

#7

Curious idea, but sounds cool. mind elaborating on what you have in mind as far as how it’d work?

#8

Is the laptop yours? And/or, can you connect to external websites (e.g. hotspot).

I set my phone up as a hotspot – but without a connection to wifi or mobile data (this would be your situation in the field, right?). Then I used an app called webDav FS and set it up to serve a directory with my TW file. I noted the IP and port that it provides. Using that IP I was able to load the directory in a browser on a different device and navigate to my TW file. I loaded the file and made some changes. It saved instantly. I reloaded to verify that the changes had really been made.

Ok, that was just one quick test. But the idea is that your device (your phone) becomes the central host for your wikis. When you’re back in the office, if your phone is allowed on your wifi network, then your phone can serve up through your wifi system instead of your hotspot ip (because you will probably be connected to the internet via the office router).

I wasn’t worried about security during testing. I note that this particular app will let you apply a password and SSL, but I didn’t test these features. YMMV.

You would want to test this with maybe some bigger files (I used empty.html). Also, you might have to have the app screen open in the free version.

#9

Can you quietly run portableapps.com?
Quite a few sync solustions on there.
Install without admin.

#10

On Android there is https://github.com/tiddly-gittly/TidGi-Mobile, which can scan QR code and sync with https://github.com/tiddly-gittly/TidGi-Desktop , and TidGi-Desktop supports sync to Github out-of-box.

Note that TidGi-Desktop is an Electron app wrapping the nodejs wiki, but it could import and export HTML wiki. And I think it don’t require admin to install.

#11

The apps I’m seeing are for synching between two local file folders. Syncthing isn’t on the short list.

#12

Tiddlywiki PWA does that : Setup your own TiddlyPWA server on Raspberry Pi 5 (using cloudflare tunnel) (you can also use glitch to try it first, it’s free). Once your wiki is setup, you can use it offline and it will sync when it comes back online. The only issue I have with TPWA is that I can’t share my wikis with it in read-only mode.

#13

so it can! I had read into it but didn’t have enough time to really dig into it, but thats good to know.

its not read only by default or anything is it?

some, oddly enough. I get mixed results depending on the application. I did try a portableapps version of obsidian which worked partially.

So the laptops issued to me, but I do not own it (i would rather be using my thinkpad instead) and while I can use non company networks for remote work, would this mean I would need to route all internet traffick through my phone or keep swapping between connections?

there is a vpn service that I unfortunately have to use to cinnect to company software 😮‍💨

I will give this a look but if my memory serves me right, installation even if it doesn’t require administrative rights is prevented, however I am not 100% sure without being in it :sweat_smile:

…

I wonder if its possible to run a TWPWA sync server from an android device using something like termux to interface with it :thinking:

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#14

I thought you said when you were remote you had no internet connectivity?

#15

Its dependent upon where I am remotely working at.

for instance, right now I’m able to use my phone for connection but last week i was out of range for any connections, and the week before I was in office lol

its a bit of pain unfortunately. (cant tell you how often I end up getting nagged to read emails because of it :unamused:)

#16

When you’re in the office, can your phone use the local wifi?

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#17

oh, yes through the guest wifi, but the laptop connects to the company network. I work as a contractor for them

#18

No, in fact there is no read-only mode :confused: If you give access to your wiki, there is currently no mechanism to prevent edits. What I do is use tiddlywiki pwa for my private wikis, and tiddlyhost for public facing wikis.

1 Like
#19

Ahh Okay I see I misread haha

…

So! It looks like I am not the first to think about using termux, another member used Bob with Termux, so I think that will end up being my best bet.

(Now I just need to figure out what Bob is lol)

#20

Bob is (was?) a node.js server that served up multiple wiki files and also node folders using just one address and port.

But if you just want to turn your phone into a wiki server, the webdav server I mentioned previously would be easier. Termux will let you run servers (or at least it used to be – Android is always getting stricter), but that doesn’t solve the basic problem.

The problem is that your work laptop would have to connect to the guest network shared by your phone (for any server on your phone). So you would be connecting back and forth. Also, the ip you use for browsing your site would be changing. If these items are not a problem … then that’s probably a good way to go. Using the browser storage plugin, you’d only have to reconnect occasionally to the server (either to save or to reload). Well, I think.