Naming conventions for older versions of tiddlers

I’d like to know if docs, developer docs, or even this forum (I would’ve searched the forum before asking, but I have no clue what keywords to use) have any info about naming conventions for older versions of tiddlers.

I started to think about this by analogy with the convention used when editing tiddlers - the future version of the tiddler is called “Draft …”, then when saving the tiddler, the older version is deleted and the draft gets renamed.

What if I wanted to keep the old version instead of deleting it? In the context above, or when importing a tiddler, when one with same name already exists? What’s a good approach to rename the older version of the tiddler? Ideally, have multiple older versions, maybe tied to timestamps or/and content checksums etc.

1 Like

was thinking of exactly this sort of thing !

all i can add is
new copys/clones get a number appended to title

i guess in its simplest a solution might
(to enforce some history convention)
link ( feild / tag ) the new copy/clone with the old origin one

To me, the backup copies of tiddlers would have a lower “importance” than regular tiddlers in the wiki, which implies that regular tiddlers are “VIP” compared to backup ones. From this perspective, I would think twice before overloading regular tiddlers with info linking them to their backup copies. Not to mention that having multiple backups would cause that info to pile up in the regular tiddler. Yet an explicit link (something more than just similarity of titles - the thing that the original question is about) between tiddlers and their backups is clearly useful. To me the obvious conclusion is that regular tiddler should not contain any info about its backups. Yet backup tiddlers can (and should!) contain info about the regular tiddler.

You may have a closer look to this thread.

2 Likes

i think some mechanism to link between is desirable
where exactly that info resides less important

while reading you reply

it occurred to me
i read that (on node) a tag eg ‘.bk’ & filter in some system config tiddler
can be used to sort content into a subfolder and set the extension

perhaps something of the like might work for versioning

*ponders*

  • tagging things as ‘.git or .cvs’
  • & building tiddly-hub plugin :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

In a pinch, press random keys on your keyboard or keypad at the end or beginning of the title and save it:

New Tiddler jffy74fhudt

Export the tiddler for good measure. Later, when you have a moment, you can click on the ‘information’ icon and copy the ‘modified’ field: 20251020145719050 to obtain a unique time identifier. Paste that to the file name in place of the gibberish you appended with earlier.

New Tiddler 20251020145719050

Will look neater and you’ll know the order of the modifications and see the evolution of your self-expression. Never overwrite a tiddler again!

Handy if you’re using several devices and need to sync tiddlers later on. Yes, the automatic numbering in clones work so long as another TW isn’t doing the same thing. Also realise that this is what is done when your browser saves the same file. Using the modifier time stamp shows TW you mean business.

This post was created using said method.

P.S. Clone or export your tiddler prior to giving it the random time-stamp name. Otherwise, you’ll just be overwriting your tiddler. The whole point of this excercise.

Are you looking for version control of tiddlers?
The common approach is to use GitHub but I prefer in wiki and maintaining limited versions. I am usualy more concerned with a recent version not long superseeded ones.

If you look at Mohamads Trash plugin it illistrates a way to store tiddler off line in a sence, stored away in wiki. Something similar could be done to build an in wiki solution. including;

  • Copy tiddlers into a plugin
  • Copy them into a system tiddler eg $:/archive/tiddlername N
  • Bundle or Zip and export previous versions