Exporting A Larger Selection Of Tiddlers

I wish to share research with a friend which will involve exporting a fairly large number of interlinked tiddlers, it might be a few hundred and it’s a judgement process.

My previous experience of exporting groups of dependent tiddlers to say an empty TiddlyWiki is that links are preserved if and only if the interdependent tiddlers are imported in one import operation - otherwise links appear only as text not active links so there is good reason to try and handle the import in one operation. (If my observations are correct then the import is being smart - links are preserved as links if they can be resolved to a target tiddler at the time of import - if a tiddler is absent then the link is reduced back to regular text)

I wondered if there were any useful tools or plugins aimed at dealing with larger numbers of tiddlers for export/import?

Ideal Solution?

I would find it very useful to be able to populate the story river with the tiddlers I want to export, perhaps I would start off with a single tiddler that was very much the “hub” of the intended cluster of tiddlers, I might then click on links and backlinks in that tiddler and so recursively “flesh out” the group of tiddlers I want to include in the export with the option to add and remove tiddlers until I feel I have got it right. I would then ideally be able to export all tiddlers currently in the story river in one go and be able to import them similarly.

The case I am looking at is not a black and white issue, it’s a matter of judgement deciding which tiddlers I want to include in the cluster to share via export, I might end up spending a few hours scrolling up and down the story river changing my mind. That’s why I like the idea of using the story river as part of the selection process, good visual feedback when adding or removing tiddlers from the displayed ‘list’ of candidates and a good feel of what I am intending to share and what I am intending to hold back.

Potentially if I start from one tiddler then at one extreme I could pretty much end up with several thousand tiddlers in the export since my TiddlyWiki is large and heavily cross linked so it is inevitable that I will have to resist the temptation just to include all tiddlers connected to an initial selection, I do not wish to export everything it will be a matter of judgement calls all the way.

I might end up just doing it the long winded mechanical way - creating a text file with a list of tiddlers but I thought I would ask here first

Thanks for any pointers or suggestions

This should not be happening. Links should be preserved regardless of whether the target tiddler exists. How are these links created? Try dragging a single tiddler with links to https://tiddlywiki.com/empty.html, import it, and then inspect the resultant tiddler to see if the links are present.

Check the wikitext of the tiddler, and not just the display.

As @saqimtiaz says the links should be maintained, you may have links to missing tiddlers but they will resolve when you import the balance of tiddlers.

Never the less if you want to export everything in the current Story open all your tiddlers and Advanced Search filter tab, then use the filter

  • [list<tv-story-list>] -[[$:/AdvancedSearch]]

However do you have a way to construct a filter, to get all the desired tiddlers?

  • I am carful when building a wiki to have a way to “locate” tiddlers that belong to any kind of group.
  • What can you “Say about your wanted tiddlers”?

Thanks TW_Tones, I will recheck my previous ‘observation’ - it was a while ago - when I last had this need.

Yes unfortunately this is all tailored to another person’s needs, it will take quite a while of “eyes on” decision making to shape up the final set for export - it would not be possible to do this via tags or filters - I already have around 300 tags but non of these have been used with other people in mind and will not capture the set I want to export - indeed I will not know the final list myself until I have waded through links starting from the major “on topic” hub tiddlers. That’s why using the story river as my interactive “selection board” interests me - ideal for selection processes like this that do not lend themselves to filters or tags but require “eyes on”.

I will play around with the filter you gave - thanks for that.

Thanks Saqimtiaz, I will recheck my previous ‘observation’ - it was a while ago - when I last had this need.

[ Second reply ] Thanks TW_Tones, that worked very well for a test run on a populated story river.

For the first time I tried exporting a large batch as a single html file ( previously I had only exported single tiddlers to html )

I was very pleased to discover the following.

  • Ok this one will be obvious to Tiddly developers BUT because my TiddlyWiki is a single html file then all inter-tiddler links are anchor type ( href="#destination" ) and that works seamlessly when a load of such tiddlers are dumped into a single html export file. I know it’s obvious but I just wanted to shout this one out for others who have yet to experiment with multiple tiddler exports to one html export file. Wonderful - although this html will not be a fully fledged TiddlyWiki it is still functional enough to use as a quick method to communicate a number of tiddlers to someone else ad might be preferable in some situations.

Please note: Usually I would export to JSON but I had not previously tried to export multiple tiddlers to an html file and was very pleased with the result.

  • Again this will be obvious to TiddlyWiki Developers - on the Advanced search tab, when I entered your filter

Not only was the search kind enough to remember this filter in the pull down for future use but the pull down entry had ‘translated’ the filter to a more descriptive text which is a really nice touch

Screenshot from 2022-11-23 08-20-07

Apologies to those for whom this is “yawn - old news” but I was very impressed with both these aspects even if the first is perhaps fortuitous and just wanted to shout out two things about TiddlyWiki that made me smile and feel grateful today, I was impressed.

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Eric is possibly going to say something better than I can but the best way to export tiddlers for later import is the JSON format.

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Thanks TW_Tones, yes I already use JSON as my ‘default’ my interest on the HTML side was sparked as I had not previously tried HTML export with multiple tiddlers and was very pleased to see how well it functioned, indeed it looks to me like a very viable halfway house if you want to be able to share a subset of tiddlers with someone who does not want to go very far up the TiddlyWiki learning curve.

I am currently experimenting with a single file HTML export of around a hundred tiddlers, intended for a flash drive, I copied across my directory of video content and things work very well, I am toying with this as my first way of sharing with the view that if they say “great system can I see more” then I will introduce them to the next step of the ladder. Initially I am assuming my intended recipient will be more focused on content rather than the framework that houses it.

The HTML export is a very nice half way house, actually close to ideal for my purpose.

No edit buttons on the tiddlers - good for now
No save - read only - good for now
No side bar - good for now - inter tiddler navigation will suffice for the first introduction.

I realise that there are other ways of protecting the new and possibly non-tech user from too much too soon but actually the multiple tiddler HTML dump is so close to an ideal first intro (for my intended recipient) and it was so easy to produce.

I make copious use of the “details” folded content method so most of my tiddlers only have a few lines of intro text immediately visible a hundred or so highly interlinked tiddlers in one continuous html webpage will not be too much of a problem I think. Ok they are lacking search, active tags and so on but still an ideal first pass I feel.

The filter entries shown in the pull down list are not added automatically. The filter you referenced – “Tiddlers in the story river, excluding $:/AdvancedSearch” – is actually a pre-defined shadow: $:/core/Filters/StoryList that just happened to resemble the filter you entered (and achieved the same results).

You can see all the pre-defined filters by using the $:/AdvancedSearch Filters tab, and enter “[all[shadows]prefix[$:/core/Filters]]” into the search input control.

To add your own custom filter to the list, you need to create a tiddler, tagged with “$:/tags/Filter”, that has two custom fields: filter, which holds the actual filter syntax, and description which holds the text that is to be displayed in the pull down list.

enjoy,
-e

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Thanks for the explanation Eric

Here’s a bit of kit that makes it easier to save new custom filters:

https://tiddlytools.com/#TiddlyTools%2FSearch%2FSaveFilter

To install, just visit the link above, and then drag that tiddler’s title into your TiddlyWiki.

It adds a “save filter” button/popup to the $:/AdvancedSearch Filter controls.

  • The button is only displayed when the $:/AdvancedSearch filter input control is not blank.
  • The popup has input controls for “title”, “filter”, and “description”
  • “filter” and “description” inputs default to the current text in $:/AdvancedSearch filter input control
  • if “description” is blank, it uses the “filter” input text
  • "title and “filter” inputs are required in order to save a new custom filter

enjoy,
-e

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Many thanks Eric, I’ll take a look

The export to HTML exports tiddlers as static. If you want to have a fresh fully functional TiddlyWiki but with only what you choose then I suggest you export as JSON, open an empty TiddlyWiki, then import the exported JSON.

You can also drag a full TW HTML onto an Empty one and then selectively choose what to import and what to ignore.

I would create a list of all tiddlers with a checkbox. Clicking a checkbox would either tag or notate in a field. The story river might get very unwieldy for 300 tiddlers – it would certainly involve a lot of scrolling. Later you could export by whatever criteria you set with the checkboxes.

Hi - thanks yes I am aware and mentioned that exporting tiddlers to an HTML file does not lead to a fully functional TiddlyWiki but I also mentioned that I found on experimentation that it offers a great half way house with greater simplicity in return for reduced functionality - ideal for giving in the first instance to someone who is interested only in the content but is perhaps non-tech and reluctant to dive straight into a full TiddlyWiki.

Later if the person feels that they are getting more interested in what TiddlyWiki can really do then they can be given a true TiddlyWiki and take the imports.

I really like the static reduced function html export as an initial stepping stone for the newbie who is not very technical. I have previously tried to ‘share’ with people sharing my research interest but who are not very interested or knowledgeable in software, CSS, HTML, markup and so on.

I am more confident now that a story river run of tiddlers (without sidebar and only non-active tags) but one that can still be navigated by means of mutual links still offers a very attractive presentation especially since I use the details-fold so much which reduces initial visual overload.

It’s still a big advance on the kinds of single file presentation of so much content that they would otherwise have to deal with if they wanted to avoid installing apps and so on.

From where I am standing now having looked in more detail at what is achievable in a multi-tiddler, single file html export - if there were a discussion on cut-down tiddlywiki’s to attact newcomers I would advocate at least one configuration that was pretty much stripped down to the bone - not much more than what I am exporting now, I certainly feel I know people who would be more likely to take an interest if their first encounter was this simple - introduce creating, editing, writing, searching and navigation by tags later when initial interest has been generated. Of course this would be too basic to attract other people.

What I love about this option is that it already offers a two tier option for my attempts to introduce others sharing the same interest - step one offer the very useful and neat export static HTML with a few hundred tiddlers - step 2 when they are interested - offer the same content but this time properly (json) imported into an empty TiddlyWIki - the extra work my end = just change the export setting and repeat a second time - very nice, consistency and not much work for me.

I can even mention to them - “look here there would be a sidebar - you could search and save, click on tag pills, and the tiddlers would be editable - but for now lets work with this simpler version and get used to it like this”

Thanks Mark, certainly a worthwhile enhancement.

There is another approach, that is radically transforming tiddlywiki into a minimalist edition, focused on a set of tiddlers as content, which is quite easy, the thing is, different needs may make it hard to pin down a single standard.

  • Often making a tiddlywiki look like a common website may be enough
  • Making it look like a book or PDF
  • Making custom HTML template sides.

What do we think is needed for a minimalist presentation of tiddler content?