External Tiddler Tiddlywiki?

#1

So one of the builds of Tiddlywiki provided at Tiddlyhost.com is an external core, and due to my habit of how i regularly export old tiddlers from previous tiddlywiki into a folder, it made me start to consider something.

Would it be possible to have a database of sorts, where your tiddlers are stored on the cloud, like dropbox or github or whereever, and have a tiddlywiki access said storage location to read, write to, and add to this collection of external tiddlers?

I know there is a way to have external content like images appear in a tiddlywiki so long as the tiddlywiki is in the folder that contains the images or the folders that contain them, but I don’t know how the external core version of tiddlywiki functions.

Edit: I should add, I have tried using the external attachments plugin to try this sort of thing, but was unsuccessful, and intended for it to be done without the need for TiddlyDesktop.

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#2

There is a Github saver out of the box if you go to Control Panel > Saving > Github Saver. The general approach saves the wiki HTML file to a github account, but you can also refer to files on github pages. There are some links describing the setup at https://tiddlywiki.com/#GitHub%20Saver%20Tutorial%20by%20Mohammad

I’ve never set it up, but it seems like it ought to get you close.

#3

Huh, that actually works exactly like I was thinking.

Nice! (I’m a bit suprised I missed that when reading through tiddlywiki.com :sweat_smile:)

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#4

I thought I should revisit this, as I haven’t found a complete solution to what I had been looking for in full.

The Github saver version is a great backup incase tiddlyhost were to ever go to the wayside (knocking on metaphorical wood, because i like using it over github)

But I haven’t quite figured out a method or viewing tiddlers inside a tiddlywiki that aren’t saved into it.
I was looking into the Alice in Wonderland tiddler, and how it shows as a canonical uri, but I’m not sure how to reproduce that, and if it can be done with other files types like .txt or .json tiddlers.

the TLDR of it is, I’m trying to replicate to some degree what can be done with obsidian, where essentially it’s just a folder full of notes.

something along the lines of

tiddlywiki
tiddlers (folder)
   tiddlerA
   tiddlerB
   ...

It would be nice if there were a feature where you could give the list-links macro a canonical uri to generate a bulleted list from, and upon clicking one of them, the file would render. But that’s just a dream at the moment haha

#5

I think there are answer that already exist, but possibly from a different conceptual perspective.

  • What is the practical result you are after from a user/designer perspective excluding any TiddlyWIki Script or feature?

Have you considered for example a disabled plugin is a JSON full of tiddlers defined in JSON?, which you can build the code to access the tiddlers within, in fact I think recently I proved to myself even without enabling the plugin.

Also there is a way to import a JSON file, as a whole, without importing them as tiddlers, and use the same method to access them, using a subtiddler parameter.

  • I am not sure this can work behind an external link.
    Although I will try.

Post script: this is all quite different depending on if its a single file wiki or Node.

#6

Ah, it would just be a single file wiki.

As a practical result, I would want to be able to access all tiddlers I have exported and archived without the need to bulk import them, because I have quick a few that ive saved. I actually kept every tiddler and every tiddlywiki ive ever made since i first started using it, so theres quite a few of them.

I enjoy the ability to use the canonical uri for images and figured if it can be done for images, being done for other file types should be theoretically possible. And it appears like it is from the Alice in Wonderland tiddler found at tiddlywiki.com.

My tiddlers are all stored on an ssd of mine, and to be able to instead just have a tiddlywiki with only plugins and the system tiddlers in it would avoid being slowed down by the number of said tiddlers, and if possible, storing them in the cloud, such as github, would allow for version control from any tiddlywiki instance that can access it.

Basically, i enjoy the idea that i can use my tiddlywiki and tiddlers from any device and keep the changes synced via options like the github saver or tiddlyhost, but having the tiddlers stored externally would save on loading time and depending on the implementation, could allow for selective bulk viewing of them.

I don’t expect this to be fully possible, but the idea of being able to store my tiddlers online and use any tiddlywiki to access them would be nice.

#7

I am not a big user of github so I hope others can help. However when externalising content it depends on what you want to do with it once in your wiki, viewing content, even transcluding such tiddlers elsewhere is fine but what you can do with it is limited. For example searching, parsing etc…

If course a node tiddlywiki is a different story.

Implementations like noteself used a seperate database for tiddler s and is closer to what you ask.

#8

This is a bit different from what you have in mind, because it’s read-only – but the title of the thread may invite others looking for related ideas…

The capacity to load remote tiddlers as if they were part of the current wiki can be great for having a central “hub” of tiddlers that need to be available across a variety of other projects, but which don’t need to be edited from within those.

One example is demonstrated here: Springer's Load Remote Tiddlers — proof of concept

#9

Note that as of TW 5.3, TiddlyWiki natively supports http requests and the deserialize operator. @saqimtiaz’s code in that wiki can be replaced by the core functionality if you upgrade (some changes will be required).

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#10

I ended up finding use for this pattern and packaged the code for loading remote content tiddlers as a plugin. I will publish it when I get the chance.

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#11

Here is the packaged plugin for loading tiddlers from one wiki into another:
https://saqimtiaz.github.io/tw5-plugins-sandbox/#ExternalContent

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