Sample: Portal web site showing content from a TiddlyWiki instance

#1

I am not a fan of using TiddlyWiki for creating “portal” web sites (or, mostly, any other kind of web site).

  • (It does not suit me as the right tool for the job. If it suits you: cool. Please, let’s not discuss that here. Start a new topic of discussion elsewhere.)

Mostly because I like to create/maintain a portal with a WYSIWYG editor, and also because I like simple no-nonsense processes for creating/maintaining/publishing/sharing. Loads of tools out there that fit my needs much better than TiddlyWiki. Since I’m already deep in the Google ecosystem, Google Sites is a no-brainer.

But creating and maintaining (componentizing) complex information in a way that fits the “single source information” agile practice? Nothing touches TiddlyWiki. It is the best tool for the job.

That’s why I display TiddlyWiki content in my portal web site. Best of all worlds.

Example: Enhancements made to the version of wwwBASIC embedded in BASIC Anywhere Machine.

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#2

I’m not sure what you mean by “portal” here. The sample page seems to be, at least to the end-user, a single bit of content. I have looked at the implementation to realize that you have row-groups based on a list of tags, and rows within that group based on further refinements, but when I think of a “portal”, I think of it quite differently. This feels like the grouping and display of information from one source. A key part of a portal to me is that it would consolidate and display information from many.

This is not meant as a disparagement. It looks like a good usage, but I wonder why you call it a portal.

#3

By “portal”, I mean, as per this bit from Wikipedia:

A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources

I tend to think of a portal as one link that gives me access to everything, regardless of where it is actually stored and what it was created with. (access to everything from one place.)

Much of the content in that Google Site is created with other products and kept outside of the website.

  • Sole source for each little thing, each little thing created with the best tool for the job, stored (once) in the best related place, but all accessible via the one link.

So the website is the Google Site, and the diverse sources are:

  • A few TiddlyWiki instances hosted on Neocities (like the Programming Reference)
  • Videos coming from YouTube
  • “What’s New” coming from Blogger
  • Different source of info coming from several Google Groups
  • Contact page uses a Google Form
  • Links to, if not outright embedding, of published source code and running programs stored on Neocities (like “Bubble Universe”)

If one is so lucky, that means the portal is well done.

#4

Ok, then we have the same definition of portal. I’m curious how you see this fitting. To me it fees like you have one source of information: your TW with its tagging structure, and this is merely a view of that data.

But of course my view is probably colored by the bad old days of working with Java portlet containers. It would probably feel much more portal-like to me if the information you have grouped into collections of rows instead had separate cards of some sort.

But I think this is merely a quibble over terminology. Interesting stuff!

#5

The portal is the Google Site.

Much of what is displayed in the Google Site comes from elsewhere.

What you see in the Google Site’s “Enhancements” page comes from here: Charlie'sBasic Programming Language Reference — BASIC Anywhere Machine.

What you see in the Acknowledgements page also comes from the Programming Language Reference.

Same as the QB64 Compatibility page. From the Programming Language Reference.

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#6

That one Google Site page is showing a view of data from a specific TiddlyWiki.

That’s just that one page.

There are many different sources, appearing in different pages, throughout the Google Site. I listed a bunch of them a little bit before your reply.

#7

I was thinking about how this view didn’t look like a portal to me, and played around with that page to get something more like what I would expect. I thought you might be interested to see my result:

https://crosseye.github.io/TW5-demos/2023-01-08a/

It just lays the row-groups of your table into cards instead, and then formats the internal rows as an unordered list. I used Shiraz to define the cards, although that could be treated simply as scaffolding and quickly removed. I added one stylesheet to lay things out reasonably.

Somehow when you say Portal, I expect to see something like this.

I’m not expecting you to like it or want to use it for anything, but if you do, feel absolutely free. It was a good way for me to keep learning.

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#8

Calling that a “Portal” would be fine by me, but that would be a (strictly) “BAM Enhancements to TiddlyWiki” portal, although I think I’d prefer say “dashboard.” (Although “dashboard” usually means graphical things, it doesn’t have to be graphical at all.)

My Google Site is a “BASIC Anywhere Machine” portal to absolutely everything BASIC Anywhere Machine (not just “enhancements”). But it is organised as a navigable website, because setting up my portal as a one-page dashboard would be cognitively much too overwhelming.

#9

How is my “BASIC Anywhere Machine” portal website any different from these, and how is what you think of portal similar/different to these:

Or whatever other examples from this Google Search:

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#10

Another case of the portal web site showing content from somewhere else, created/maintained with what is for me the right tool for the job:

The “Some Sample Programs” portal page shows a Feather Wiki instance hosted on my Neocities site.

Feather Wiki an obvious choice for me because it is so light, so quick, perfect for putting together a directory of sample programs for publishing on Neocities.

Although I tried setting up this thing in Google Sites, I found that too much of a pain. And TiddlyWiki is to me too heavy and cumbersome for this purpose; there is no intertwingled complexity here that needs to submit to my will!!!

This approach allows me to just share the FeatherWiki instance when the focus is sample applications, while having it visible on the portal website gives the portal website some “life” without ever really needing to touch it at all.

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