I do know the answer and or work arounds to your questions. However they get complicated depending on context and requirements.
However to move forward the most accessible list ordering process built into tiddlywiki is the tags. As soon as you use a tag on two or more tiddlers you can drag and drop to reorder the tiddlers in the “tag list”. One of these ordered lists can exist for any tag so you could just us another tag eg; the preference tag, to select the same set of tiddlers and adjust that.
- A set of tiddlers to be “Initially” ordered in a tag can be initially placed in their order using list-before and list-after in each tiddler in the tag list.
- Once tiddlers are in a tag list using the drag and drop reordering in the tag pill they can be reordered.
- This will update the “list” field of the “tag tiddler” which then contains a list of all tiddlers with that tag in the order you set.
- Regardless of the existence or otherwise of this “list” field the filter
[tag[tagname]] will return the tiddlers in their current order.
Personally I think we can avoid setting a numeric value to “fix in place” the order of some tiddlers, but it can be done with a button inside which we list all the tiddlers and use a setfieldWidget for each, to set each to the number representing their position.
The following sets a position field in tiddlers with the TableOfContents tag
<$button>
<$list filter="[tag[TableOfContents]]" counter=position>
<$action-setfield $tiddler=<<currentTiddler>> $field="position" $value=<<position>>/>
</$list>
Save positions
</$button>
You can now use the tag pill drag and drop to reorder the items tagged TableOfContents <<tag TableOfContents>>
The new order can be seen with;
<$list filter="[tag[TableOfContents]]">
</$list>
The captured order can be seen with;
<$list filter="[tag[TableOfContents]nsort[position]]">
{{!!position}} <$link/><br>
</$list>
- Note we use nsort for number sorting
- Note this time we get position from the field not the counter
But you can see from the above the position, even members in the list, is captured in the order at the moment in time the button was pressed.
An alternative way is to save the list of “tiddler titles in the order you want” to a field or tiddler then use this when listing in the desired order.
- You still need to address the addition of new members to the list.
<$set name=newlist filter="[tag[TableOfContents]]">
<$button>
<$action-setfield $tiddler=<<currentTiddler>> $field="ordered-list" $value=<<newlist>>/>
Save current tag list order in ordered-list
</$button>
</$set>
<$list filter="[enlist{!!ordered-list}]">
<$link/><br>
</$list>
Now add the TableOfContents tag to a new tiddler, it will not have a position field, and appear at the top when ordering by position field.
It will not appear at all in the ordered-list
The following gets the current list by sorts it by ordered-list
;Using sortby
<$list filter="[tag[TableOfContents]] +[sortby{!!ordered-list}]">
<$link/><br>
</$list>
- Note the new tiddler appears at the top.
I can’t afford the time to keep this demonstration going just now, but will hopefully return. But I hope this makes the issues and methods clearer.
