How to Quickly upgrade your single file wikis in Browser

Tips & Tricks
#1

Quick upgrade workflow for file wiki’s

Important Note

As a rule, before upgrading make sure to have backup of your wikis saved in a separate and safe folder! Don’t upgrade before making a backup!

Preparations

  • Pin Upgrade wiki in your browser
  • Refresh if Upgrade was used previously
  • Make sure you have saved and backed up the wiki you want to upgrade

Workflow

  • The wiki you want to upgrade needs to be saved on your device.
  • Open this wiki in a browser tab
  • Copy the location of the wiki (file address) from the browser’s location bar
  • Click “upgrade” on the upgrade page
  • Paste the file address into file name Open
  • Wait for it to load, click upgrade
  • Click Save Upgraded TiddlyWiki file
  • Paste the file address into file name Save, OverwriteYES
  • Return to the original tab where you have your wiki and reload.

Notes

  • Once you do it a couple of times it is very fast per wiki.

Editors: @TW_Tones @mario @saqimtiaz

Questions

  • The title says “on Windows”. Is any of this OS specific?
  • Can we add a screencast of the process? Any volunteers?
1 Like
Just a general comment. There are many threads sequestered from poverty
Issues upgrading to 5.22 from 5.1.2
Discussion on improving single file upgrades
What strategie to handle overwritten shadow and core tiddlers is recommended and practicable?
Announcing the release of TiddlyWiki v5.2.2
#2

A post was split to a new topic: What strategie to handle overwritten shadow and core tiddlers is recommended and practicable?

#3

EDIT:
After Tonys feedback here below, I reposted my post to here: Upgrading TW quickly

1 Like
#4

@twMat I think this is a good tip, but suspect it would be best in its own thread on upgrading tiddlyhost wikis and cover the complete process (with a link to/from here). Given my lead post, the only download that occurs is after upgrade, and the download is over the original file. So I don’t think your tip integrates with mine too smoothly.

Not withstanding this above suggestion.

I too find using the chrome bottom bar of download’s, or the FireFox downloads dialogue very useful for dragging files from one place to another or to open a wiki, even across different browsers.

  • One simple example is download empty, place it in a folder and give it a new name eg mywiki.html then click on the wiki in the bottom bar to open it in the browser and bookmark it. If you have Timimi installed you can go ahead and use the new wiki. Download, Open, Use - too easy.
#5

On my linux, with Chrome, there is no place to paste an address in the file search box.

#6

@Mark_S I would love to make this a generic OS independant instruction if it is possible. I cant see in the top post any mention of;

Perhaps you can clarify?

However perhaps the answer is the Browsers address bar.

The above upgrade approach once the original wiki is open in the browser tab and you confirm you have backups (All of which should be true as a result of everyday use) all operations remain inside the browser so hopefully this makes it valid on all platforms.

The key trick is to use a copy of the full path in the address bar in the clipboard to both provide the;

  • upgrade file
  • and save it back to the same path and file after upgrade
  • Reload the original tab before use to avoid saving the old version.

Of note:

  • Windows at least allows you to paste a full path and filename into the file open and file save dialogues files name, with ctrl-v or ctrl-insert file. As a result you do not need to look for the file.
#7

Hopefully this reply and others can eventually be deleted so this “How to” is a stand alone and reliable instruction.

Discussion on improving this how to;

#8

This line demands that we …

But, as you can see, no file name is allowed here:

image

The world of Linux is so diverse, it’s possible that someone else somehow has a default file picker that does show a file name box. But mine doesn’t. So it’s not universal on Linux.

In general, these instructions are slowly shaping up to be almost identical to the instructions that are already on TiddlyWiki.com.

Perhaps rather than re-inventing the wheel, developers could make a shell script that uses tiddlywiki on node.js to perform the update. Then you could run it on an entire tree and update all your files at once.

#9

I plan to do a demo video for use in windows.

Keep in mind

  • the copy of the path/filename is from the browser address bar
  • the paste of the path/filename is into the Browsers download dialogue, triggered using the “Upgraders” button Save Upgraded TiddlyWiki file.

With respect I think the above is demonstrably false, one could come across the same method following those instructions, but this method can be much quicker and safer to use.

Given the problem with different dialogues on different Operating systems I think I may have found an even simpler method.

The approach:

  • A Bookmarklet that drops a tiddler on the original wiki that provides an iframe to the upgrader
  • Which can access the current path to the wiki (or drop it).
  • and save the upgraded wiki back to the original filename
  • This may bypass the need to paste the path into the dialogue.
  • This does avoid a separate upgrader tab, and forces the upgrader to refresh after use.

@Mark_S I think I see the problem here.

The File open and save dialogues are often provided by the Operating system, and less commonly the browser.

Personally I expected linux distributions to be at least as feature rich as Windows.

Perhaps search to see if there is a way to;

Paste a path or filename, into file open and save dialogues in “your OS”.

I would not be surprised if some improved file open and save dialogues are available somewhere in your OS.

I will endeavour to do a video demonstrating this method on windows and it may help you discover a variation for your OS.

#10

@Mark_S does your browser have the setting

Ask where to save each file before downloading?

this may be related.

#11

Compare these instructions

with these from tiddlywiki.com:

The original instructions work everywhere, have only 6 steps, warn you to check your tiddlers, and deal with special case of an encrypted TW. They also give you the address where the upgrade tiddler lives.

The main thing is, with a process this simple, there’s only so many ways of expressing it. You can move around various parts, make other word choices, maybe change one or two things slightly. But it won’t make that much difference.

#12

@Mark_S If you actually follow the tiddlywiki instructions you will find the following;

  • A range of steps are implied in those instruction’s not given any detail, thats OK you can still do it.
  • Saving does not address replacement and reload of the file which can result in mistakes.
  • The upgrade is left un-reloaded in the browser

However my instructions are designed to have the minimum number of steps, and be quickly repeatable, so as to do many upgrades one after the other reliably.

I know it works and is easier than the tiddlywiki.com instructions and reduces risks of possible mistakes because I used it to do a large number of wikis in a matter of minutes.

I love constructive criticism, but please be constructive.