Someone recently sent me a message asking how to install/use TiddlyTools/Search/Filters (AKA, “TiddlyTools PowerSearch”). I am re-posting my reply here in case it is useful to others.
It’s really easy to install… just go to TiddlyTools/Search/Filters and drag-and drop that tiddler’s title into your TiddlyWiki. It’s completely self-contained, and is tagged with $:/tags/AdvancedSearch so it is automatically added as a new tab in the $:/AdvancedSearch tiddler. It is also tagged with $:/tags/TopLeftBar so it appears as an icon with popup in the upper-left topbar of your TiddlyWiki window (it also works if you’ve installed the “Menu Bar” plugin).
Regarding “how to use it”… I haven’t (yet) written a proper description for all of the many features it supports, but most of them are fairly self-explanatory. As a general guide:
- Start by entering a filter or click on the “Filter V” heading to select an existing saved filter.
- Alternatively, click on the “FilterMaker” button (the hammer-and-screwdriver icon) to display the FilterMaker interface.
Once you’ve entered/selected a filter, the results of the filter are displayed, showing both the matching tiddler titles and their sizes (in bytes), along with a variety of additional interface elements, including:
- A “summary” indicating the number of matching tiddlers and the total byte count for those tiddlers. Clicking this summary gives you some additional details, itemizing the “last change”, “newest”, “oldest”, “smallest” and “largest” tiddlers in the list.
- You can select the sort order for the list of tiddlers using the “sort by” droplist. Choices include “title”, “created”, “modified”, or “size” in either ascending or descending order.
- Directly below the filter input field, is a “find matching items” input that operates as an second-level of filtering on the results from the primary filter. You can enter text or a regexp pattern and select which field(s) to search in. The list of fields is a “multi-select” droplist where you can use ctrl-click or shift-click to select more than one field.
Additional buttons also appear above the primary filter input:
- “edit filter” (pencil) edits the saved filter (if one has been selected)
- “save filter” (red checkmark-in-circle) lets you save the current filter to a tiddler for later re-use
- “reset filter” (curved arrow) lets you restore the filter input to it’s previously saved value (if you selected a saved filter) or blank if you entered a new (unsaved) filter.
- “clear all” (x-in-circle) clears all current interface inputs (reverts to initial display)
Also above the primary filter input, are several “utility” buttons to performs actions on the search results. Each utility button displays a modal dialog that lists all the matching tiddler titles with individual checkboxes. You can manually set/clear these checkboxes to limit the actions to only those tiddlers you select. There is also “all”/“none” buttons in the modal footer to quickly set/clear all the checkboxes with a single click.
The following “utiiity” buttons are provided:
- “tag” lets you add/remove tags from the selected tiddlers
- “clone” lets you create copies of the selected tiddlers. You can use “clone” to modify portions of matching tiddler titles (effectively a bulk “rename” action)
- “export” lets you create external JSON, CSV, HTML, or TID files (i.e., like the export button in the TWCore standard $:/AdvancedSeach>Filter tab). You can also drag-and-drop the “export” button directly onto your own TiddlyWiki to initiate a TWCore standard $:/Import process for all matching tiddlers.
- JSON, CSV, or HTML output creates a single file containing multiple tiddlers. TID output is always one tiddler per file. You can select “[x] one tiddler per file” to force JSON, CSV, or HTML output to create separate files for each tiddler.
- Exporting to files uses the TWCore “tm-download-file” handler. If you have your browser set to “always ask where to download a file”, you will receive multiple system-dialogs to select the location for each downloaded file.
- “delete” (trash can) deletes the matching tiddlers (with confirmation, of course!)
That should be enough to get you started… I will leave the description of the “FilterMaker” controls for another time.
enjoy,
-e