Edit file that's been added to TW

[Shane_Ashby]

This is related to the following discussion:

Current capability for adding binary files to TW under node.js?

Hi I’ve read a little about the file upload plugin, but not clear what the current status is? I’m running 5.2.5 under node.js, and trying to add new filetypes that can be drag/dropped to add to wiki. Specifically I’m trying to add ms project files, but the files seem to get added as text data and I can’t open them afterward (unlike ms word and excel files that I can open and edit from the wiki, which is AWESOME).

The preceding issue is resolved and I’m able to add and open files from the wiki. Unfortunately I’m now realizing that if I open and edit one of those files, the changes are not saved back into the wiki. This does make sense, given that the files are technically being “downloaded” from the wiki.

The question is - how do I add files to the wiki, and make them editable from within the wiki? I want them to open in the native apps, but for the edits to go into the wiki copies of the files. Is there a way to do this, running under nodejs? Also I’m using Firefox, with settings locked down by IT.

[Scott_Sauyet]

@Shane_Ashby

The question is - how do I add files to the wiki, and make them editable from within the wiki? I want them to open in the native apps, but for the edits to go into the wiki copies of the files. Is there a way to do this, running under nodejs? Also I’m using Firefox, with settings locked down by IT.

I’m still a learner, only a short ways beyond being a beginner, so take this with a grain of salt, but I don’t think you’ll be able to do this with any current tooling. But this suggests an idea that we might one day be able to implement. I’ve raised it in a different topic.

[TW_Tones]

“Binary files” as we all anything that is not really text, or editable usually have and need ,their own editor. Unless you have a way to enable access to its native editor, or a clone, you are unlikely to be able to edit it inline within the wiki. To make it a little more complex tiddlywiki often base64 encodes such files/tiddlers to ensure control characters do not cause unexpected results at display or edit time.

This means within tiddlywiki, you have to then decode, edit, recode, binary files.

It is possible to get some browser tools that will allow you to edit at least text files, more particularly text areas (Not code mirror) in an external editor. For example you can make it so when you edit a text tiddler it opens notepad++ to edit and when you save it updates the tiddler.

If you could do this for more complex files, like MS Project the external editor would be MS Project. But you still have the base64 issue to address, it is far simpler, if this application supports it, to make use of the native applications editor, and viewers, if they exist, Ideally that works in the browser and allows you to edit and save to a separate file, but a file you can access externally in the wiki and trigger a viewer inside the wiki.

[Scott_Sauyet]

@TW_Tones

This means within tiddlywiki, you have to then decode, edit, recode, binary files.

This is exactly what prompted me to ask about

Turning a wiki into a virtual file system

@Shane_Ashby asked an interesting question. And while I don’t think what he wants is possible, it does suggest to me an intriguing possibility for a useful bit of tooling. Could we make a wiki into a virtual file system that could be mounted in an OS? Lots of tools do this. Dropbox acts like a file system I could simply drop files into, rearrange, etc. (Or at least it used to; I haven’t used it in years.) Windows sometimes uses zip files like this. Linux seems to be able to mount anything.…

The layer I’m imagining would do that automatically.