Previous / next journal entry button

#1

Hello,
Running TiddliWiki 5.3.1 from Vivaldi browser using the Timimi extension to save. Default layout.

I use TiddlyWiki to keep my lab notebook. I am trying to create a button that lets me find the next or previous journal entry and open it. The tiddler where I have this code is tagged $:/tags/ViewToolbar. Here’s what I have:

<$set name="nextJournalTiddler" filter="[tag[Journal]sort[]after{!!title}]">
<$button message="Next journal tiddler" tooltip="Next journal tiddler" class=<<tv-config-toolbar-class>>>
<$action-navigate $to=<<nextJournalTiddler>> />
{{$:/core/images/chevron-right}}
</$button>
</$set>

The previous entry button is basically the same code.

Say that I have three journal tiddlers:

  • 2025-04-01
  • 2025-04-02
  • 2025-04-03 Experiments

If I have the first of these open and I press the button, it works as intended: the second tiddler on the list is opened. On the other hand, when the next tiddler in line is the third, instead of it being opened a new missing tiddler is created named [[2025-04-03 Experiments]]. I tried infinite fixes with the help of ChatGPT with no avail. I’m sure it’s something very stupid, please help!

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#2

The problem is due to the fact that “2025-04-03 Experiments” title contains a space, and the <$set name=... filter=...> widget automatically surrounds titles with spaces within doubled square brackets. This is done because the $set widget stores a list of all the tiddler titles returned by the filter.

However, for your use case, the filter you are using will always return just a single title, so the square brackets are not wanted. One way to avoid adding the square brackets is to add a select=0 parameter to the $set widget, like this:

<$set name="nextJournalTiddler" filter="[tag[Journal]sort[]after{!!title}]" select=0>

This causes the $set widget to keep only the first item from the filter result (counting from 0), and omit the square brackets.

BUT… there is a much more compact syntax that achieves the same result by using the $let widget with a “filtered transclusion” value, like this:

<$let nextJournalTiddler={{{ [tag[Journal]sort[]after{!!title}] }}}>

This works because when a “filtered transclusion” is used as a widget parameter value, it automatically returns ONLY the first item from the filter result.

enjoy,
-e

#3

Thanks, both options now work as intended. I’ll read the documentation for the let widget when I have time to understand better what is going on.

#4

This is great (I’ve just added it to my work TW5 knowledgebase/worklog) - but could it be wrapped to only apply when in a tiddler with the ‘journal’ tag?

#5

Yes, it can. Here’s two ways:

The first method is to just add

<$list filter="[<currentTiddler>tag[Journal]]">

as the first line in the toolbar tiddler that defines the “next journal” button. This ensures that it is only displayed when the current tiddler has a journal tag.

The second method is a bit more subtle, but also a bit more elegant.
Instead of adding the above line, change the $set (or $let) widget to:

<$list filter="[tag[Journal]sort[]after{!!title}]" variable="nextJournalTiddler">

This $list widget computes the nextJournalTiddler value AND, if there is no “next journal tiddler” the rest of the tiddler content is bypassed so no $button widget is rendered. Since the after{!!title} will only return a value if the current tiddler is also a journal, it achieves your desired goal, and also omits the button if there is only one existing journal tiddler or when you’ve reached the last journal in the list of journal tiddlers.

enjoy,
-e

1 Like