Display the cascades used for a given tiddler

etardiff · November 21, 2025, 5:24pm

If, like @Springer (and @TW_Tones?) and me, you do a lot of work with cascades, you may have had the question I have semi-regularly: Which template tiddler is being used to render this one? (And how do I quickly access it to make changes?)

After going into the Control Panel one too many times just to work out the answer, it finally occurred to me that I could present this information on the tiddler itself. Here’s the template I came up with, ready for testing on TW-com or in your own wiki: Tiddler Cascade Info.tid (1.2 KB)

Raw code under the fold

tags: $:/tags/TiddlerInfo/Advanced
title: $:/emt/ui/TiddlerInfo/Advanced/CascadeInfo

\procedure cascade(label, tag)

\define cascade-filter() [{!!title}] :cascade[all[shadows+tiddlers]tag<tag>!is[draft]get[text]] +[!is[blank]]
\function get.filter() [{!!title}get[text]]
\function using.filter() [all[shadows+tiddlers]tag<tag>!is[draft]] :filter[<..currentTiddler>filter<get.filter>]

\function config() [<tag>trim:suffix[Filter]trim:suffix[Template]search-replace[tags/],[core/ui/ControlPanel/]]

<tr>
	<td><$link to=<<config>>>''<<label>>''</$link></td>
	<td><$list filter=<<cascade-filter>> emptyMessage="//none//" /></td>
	<td><$link to=<<using.filter>> /></td>
</tr>
\end

<br>''Cascade Info''

Currently using the following cascade templates:

<table>
<tr>
	<th>Cascade</th>
	<th>In use</th>
	<th>Source filter</th>
</tr>
<<cascade "Story Tiddler Template" $:/tags/StoryTiddlerTemplateFilter>>
<<cascade "View Template Title" $:/tags/ViewTemplateTitleFilter>>
<<cascade "View Template Body" $:/tags/ViewTemplateBodyFilter>>
<<cascade "Edit Template Body" $:/tags/EditTemplateBodyFilter>>
<<cascade "Tiddler Icon" $:/tags/TiddlerIconFilter>>
<<cascade "Tiddler Colour" $:/tags/TiddlerColourFilter>>
</table>

Bonus: it also works for missing or “virtual” tiddlers!

I chose to display my template as part of the “Advanced” tab in the tiddler info section…

But if you’d prefer it somewhere more visible, you can replace the $:/tags/TiddlerInfo/Advanced tag — e.g., with $:/tags/ViewTemplate to make it a default ViewTemplate section — or incorporate it elsewhere (as in @TW_Tones’ tiddler card system?)

Please feel free to use this however you like, and let me know if you think of any clever enhancements!

saqimtiaz · November 21, 2025, 5:29pm

@etardiff lovey work. Perhaps you could submit a version of this as a core enhancement? It has previously been suggested as a desirable improvement.

Springer · November 21, 2025, 5:43pm

Cool!

I had been manually adding a field called in-cascade to anything template-like, because I wanted to make sure I could easily reconstruct these relations, since backlinks don’t easily read inside filters. (Maybe this is the opposite of your direction of concern, but related!)

I also started including a tiny template-link icon tucked into most of my templates. During the tinkering phase of a project they’re so handy! (EDIT: But only if the template is actually showing!)

[I’ll take a closer look at your approach! …]

FOLLOW-UP: I love that tucking all this into the info panel makes it available no matter what other weirdness has been happening with my view templates. So often, when a template isn’t showing, it takes a while to navigate to the right cascade-tag for checking / reordering. The fact that this table is packed with these links makes troubleshooting is much more friendly.

etardiff · November 21, 2025, 6:00pm

That’s serendipitous! I’m not sure what modifications would be needed for the core (<<lingo>> macros at minimum, I imagine?), and even less sure I have time to relearn how to use GitHub right now. But I left a comment in hopes that it might be a good jumping-off point, at least. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!

Springer · November 21, 2025, 6:03pm

tiny fix was needed, now done

Somehow at least one cascade condition isn’t connecting properly… I’m set up to display a tag-pill in titlebar if the tiddler functions as a tag. The “in use” heading captures the tag template properly, but the source filter is missing the active filter, and instead yielding the cascade-condition that’s one further down the chain (in this case, the filter that prefers the caption if there is one)…

etardiff · November 21, 2025, 6:16pm

Interesting, I hadn’t noticed that one! I admit I haven’t yet worked out why it’s happening, but I think replacing

\function using.filter() [all[shadows+tiddlers]tag<tag>!is[draft]] :filter[<..currentTiddler>subfilter<get.filter>]

with

\function using.filter() [all[shadows+tiddlers]tag<tag>!is[draft]] :filter[<..currentTiddler>filter<get.filter>]

(that is, replacing subfilter with filter) yields the correct results. ~~If you can confirm all looks good on your end, I’ll update my OP as well.~~ Now updated in the .tid file and the codeblock, both in my OP here and in my GH comment. Thank you for catching that!

Springer · November 21, 2025, 6:21pm

That seems to clear it up!

TW_Tones · November 22, 2025, 1:17am

Lovely @etardiff a great resource. I will have to put it into my TiddlyWiki Research bundle until and if it goes into the core.

I have also found the need to explore the tiddlers that are iterated as a result of these cascades such as the $:/tags/ViewTemplate tag.

It results in a (lady) bug floating to the left of each view template item iterated, and mouse over shows what tiddler the content is generated from, and click to open.

Later if a get a nice local delist of an element, that is indicate I dont want this particular item display on this tiddler only, I may allow that with a control click.
- First I will test this inside the card mechanism

This is done with very few bytes but does need to edit a core tiddler, so in some ways it would make sense to incorporate in the core, and toggled on/off.

Or installed by plugin that is disabled when not in use (thus restores the core)

etardiff · November 22, 2025, 1:35am

Actually, I’d initially wondered about including a list of relevant $:/tags/ViewTemplate segments in the tiddler info, alongside the cascade information. As you can see, I ultimately abandoned that idea; since segments are often wrapped in conditionals to control their display, I couldn’t figure out an easy way to construct such a list without first wikifying each segment. But rendering the link inline with the segment itself is very clever! I do think it would merit its own stand-alone plugin for designers, if not a core setting that could be toggled.

Thanks for sharing your preview here! I’m sure it will be of interest to a similar group of tinkerers.

Springer · November 22, 2025, 1:46am

That’s the problem for which I created a little “phone home” icon within most of the custom view-templates I’ve designed (especially for virtual tiddlers, as they are all rendering conditionally, and stacked vertically in complex ways).

It’s not hard to make such a “take me to the template” icon relatively inconspicuous — and for a wiki with author and reader roles, to make it display only in author/editor mode.

For example, the “linkstyle” tiddler has a field-description at top, and other field-related overview stuff at bottom, but it’s also a tag, and also has a text field. There’s a icon that functions, in any of those places, to get me to the template. (The ladybug icon used by @TW_Tones would be cuter and more visually salient, of course!)

TW_Tones · November 22, 2025, 2:56am

I have long included in my own content a link to the template when $:/config/design-mode=yes however the one I discussed above gives me a link to “any template” item, from the core, plugins or some fancy play I did. However in this case these lady bugs are toggled off with $:/config/debug-mode=off/hide or something. And the are off almost always, except in design or research mode.

Scott_Sauyet · November 24, 2025, 1:52pm

Wow, I’m off of TW for a long weekend and come back to some amazing goodies!

Thank you for sharing, @etardiff and everyone else!