"Emergency Save" - How to Save a Wiki if the UI is Broken

Tips & Tricks
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#1

There have been some discussions here in the group, where users told us, that they managed to break their UI.

This post describes a mechanism using the browser developer tools, that lets you save your wiki, even if your UI will not let you do that.

Use the following steps:

  • F12 open the dev-console
  • In the Console tab enter the following text
$tw.saverHandler.saveWiki({template:"$:/core/save/all", 
method: "download",
downloadType: "text/plain", 
variables: {filename: "backup-x.html"}})
  • This should open the browser save file dialogue with a predefined filename, that can be changed.

If you did not mess up the $:/core/save/all template it should work.
I did test this with the TW halted at a breakpoint. … So the UI is frozen, similar to js-scripts stopped.

Have fun!
Mario

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#2

Or as a bookmarklet:

javascript:(function()%7B%24tw.saverHandler.saveWiki(%7Btemplate%3A%22%24%3A%2Fcore%2Fsave%2Fall%22%2C%20%0Amethod%3A%20%22download%22%2C%0AdownloadType%3A%20%22text%2Fplain%22%2C%20%0Avariables%3A%20%7Bfilename%3A%20%22backup-x.html%22%7D%7D)%7D)()%3B

To use, create a bookmark (perhaps of this page), then edit the bookmark (right-click on most desktop browsers), and enter the above as the URL, changing the title as you see fit. Then click it on any wiki, and it will offer a backup file whenever you like.

This should work whenever the above works, but doesn’t require opening the web developer console.

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#3

Yes in FireFox it can be a Bookmarklet, if the bookmarks bar is visible. It will work with every TW loaded into a browser tab. So it’s more like a “general” save than an emergency save.

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image1566×1149 166 KB

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#4

It also works in Chrome and Edge on Windows, and Brave on Windows or Ubuntu.

#5

I found the script I actually use for my bookmarklet, which I wrote when this topic was first posted, and meant to share then, but totally forgot. The code looks like this:

const filename = ($tw.wiki.getTiddler('$:/config/SaveWikiButton/Filename')?.fields?.text ?? 'MyTiddlyWiki.html')
      .replace(/\.([^\.]+)$/, (_, ext) => '-' + new Date().toISOString().replace(/\D/g, '') + '.' + ext);
$tw.saverHandler.saveWiki({
  template:"$:/core/save/all", 
  method: "download",
  downloadType: "text/plain", 
  variables: {filename}
})

Which generates bookmarklet code of

javascript:(function()%7Bconst%20filename%20%3D%20(%24tw.wiki.getTiddler('%24%3A%2Fconfig%2FSaveWikiButton%2FFilename')%3F.fields%3F.text%20%3F%3F%20'MyTiddlyWiki.html')%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20.replace(%2F%5C.(%5B%5E%5C.%5D%2B)%24%2F%2C%20(_%2C%20ext)%20%3D%3E%20'-'%20%2B%20new%20Date().toISOString().replace(%2F%5CD%2Fg%2C%20'')%20%2B%20'.'%20%2B%20ext)%3B%0A%24tw.saverHandler.saveWiki(%7B%0A%20%20template%3A%22%24%3A%2Fcore%2Fsave%2Fall%22%2C%20%0A%20%20method%3A%20%22download%22%2C%0A%20%20downloadType%3A%20%22text%2Fplain%22%2C%20%0A%20%20variables%3A%20%7Bfilename%7D%0A%7D)%7D)()%3B

The instructions above still apply:

To use, create a bookmark (perhaps of this page), then edit the bookmark (right-click on most desktop browsers), and enter the above as the URL, changing the title as you see fit. Then click it on any wiki, and it will offer a backup file whenever you like.

And it generates file names like NRT_Balancing_Notes-20241126213219815.html or TTEC_Chess-20241126212235734, or if you don’t have a value in $:/config/SaveWikiButton/Filename, just MyTiddlyWiki-20241126213459896.html. The timestamps are the same style as used internally by TW, although I use local time rather than UTC.

The name MyTiddlyWiki.html might not suit you for a generic backup. Just replace that in the bookmarklet code with whatever you prefer, perhaps, tiddlywiki.html.

But a significant limitation is that this doesn’t take into account the techniques from another recent thread, which allows you to build a timestamp into your filename. I will try to ponder this later, as I think it would be useful to handle that case as well.

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#6

It’s possible to use this approach with Firefox on Android as well. It requires installing the MobiDevTools browser extension. This packages GitHub - liriliri/eruda: Console for mobile browsers and provides a dev-console on mobile.

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