Save Your TiddlyWikis Without A Saver Or Plugin

It was fun reading you ChatGTP post, Coda. Thank you for doing that. Was very humbled.

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Thanks for the report, Mark.
I’d be interested to know how you use your phone for TiddlyWikiing.

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So, there’s a little problem with this approach.

On my test on two different chromium-based browsers, the minute part did not update. It appears to only update when the file is reloaded.

Does anyone know if there is a trick to force the $:/config/SaveWikiButton/Filename tiddler to update it’s internal value?

There are so many hassles on the phone, that I almost never use TW for note-taking there. I do use it for note-reading (like literature), and for checklist apps (travel lists). But use something else if I want to write a note, since browsers on phones/tablets will use any excuse to reload or clear your page, which leads to work loss. You can use it for notes, but you need to be hyper-vigilant about saving before leaving the page.

Mark, I have the same reloading issues with phones. At first I thought it may have been an old, cheap Android thing. But still happens with my new high-spec Android.
So… like you, I use the phone TiddlyWiki to take notes, but not to manage the TW. I export as .TID files immediately after drawing them up.

2 posts were split to a new topic: Idea - Using Time Based One Time Passwords (TOTP) on the Browser

@Mark_S : I ran into the same issue with the <<now>> macro not updating very regularly … however trying @Mohammad 's syntax up a few posts, {{{[<now ...>]}}} , seems to work better. I think the filtered transclusion forces a refresh when anything has changed but just a plain macro does not.

{{$:/SiteTitle}} - {{{[<now "YYYY-0MM-0DD-0hh0mm">]}}}

Works well for me.

/Mike

This is a problem with the core TW save-button. The action widget is evaluated inside the button-widget body. To solve that problem we will need to use <$button actions= parameter instead.

I’ll have a closer look at the code and will create a PR when I do have time.


Edit: I did create a PR at GitHub. Once that’s merged, it should be fixed in the next version

Will this be a solution that bypasses a need to have an extension (like Timimi) for local saves using a browser as editor?

IF so, will further progress be added to this thread? And if not, how can I receive a notification for this?

The OP uses the default browser save mechanism, which is activated by the green [Download] button at GettingStarted.

TiddlyWiki uses browser extensions like TiddlyFox (now obsolete) and Timimi since a very long time already, so we (the TW users) are used to use “single click” save options. We are not used to use the browser default saver, which needs several clicks instead of one.

I am trying to get this workingm and it will not work for me. Every time it saves, it uses the old filename and append a (1) to the end of it. The minutes never seem to update, even when I use @Mohammad solutrion

Yes. I don’t see how @Mohammad 's solution could work. The default download behaviour is to append (#) to each download filename that matches an existing filename. So unless there’s a setting to override this behaviour, or unless you bring up the save dialog every time, you’re going to get the (#) numbered files.

If you use @mwiktowy 's solution above, and don’t save more often than once a minute, then you can avoid the (#) numbering. But this whole solution will fill your download directory with files that have to be cleaned out.

I was using the Native Saver plugin, but 2 days ago it threw an error and told me it could not save the file and I ended up with a file that was 0 KB in size. Lost everything. But I was still in “experiment” mode, so I think I only lost one note.

I was trying to find a way to save, and have it create a backup before it saves to prevent this from happening again. This looked like a possible solution.

Well, the minutes updated, but you may have to use save as, once your browser detect a duplicate.

I’ve been using the Native Saver plugin for Timimi notes. So that is worrisome.

Remember if the saver doesn’t work, you can go the advanced search and select the “Tiddlers modified since last reload” and then save your recent work as a JSON file. Of course this assumes you have a backup before the last reload. You could probably just download all your tiddlers separately and load them into an empty TW file later.

So apparently people in firefox can turn off auto-numbering ( file (1).txt, file (2).txt) but people in Chrome can’t.

I forgot that there are extensions that can fix that. Here’s one that seems to be getting good reviews (from a tiny fan base):

You can not deactivate auto-numbering in FireFox. You have to use the native Save As dialogue, that lets you overwrite existing names.

If you keep your wiki files in the download directory or any download/subdirectories you can use my file-backups add-on for FireFox only

I personally use the F: drive as my browser default downloads drive. So I can save my wikis in any directory on drive F.

Sadly, I can’t install Chrome plugins on my work computer. Locked down environment.

My original post should have read: now YYYY0MM-0DD0hh0mm or anything you like…

Back in the day, I used to have this format: 200203112228 SCHEDULE FOR APRIL.txt No hyphens; I found it difficult to read. Not to mention the loud All-Caps.

My personal file naming system is: 202503-112228-202503-112228-AlfieA-TiddlyWiki.html The second instance of the time stamp is so you can have “threads” as it were. In the case of a schedule item, it could denote a start and end time.

In an update, your file might look something like: 202503-112235-202503-112228-AlfieA-TiddlyWiki.html To make this work, I would have: now YYYY0MM-0DD0hh0mm followed by the suffix: 202503-112228-AlfieA-TiddlyWiki.html

I share your disdain for the …(1).html, …(2).html What do can you do? I wouldn’t worry about them so much. But, yes they do look sloppy, I admit.

Sometimes I download a new release of TW and when I save it, I get something like: empty(14).html or empty(14) (2).html Even worse, I’ll get empty.html when I’ve got one with the same file name somewhere else. What do you do? Make a “version” folder. That folder could be named 202503-112247 Tiddlers (or New Tiddlers 25-03-11), for example. Anyway, do what you think you need to do.

Now, this might be a new hack for you. It might be a familiar one, so please forgive me, seasoned computerists. When you go into a file folder and you have tens or hundreds of file names such as empty(1), empty(2), etc. you can rename all of them in one go:

1 Select All files. (SHIFT Down Arrow / CTRL A)
2 Press F2 (to name)
3 Type something like 25-03-11 Archived TIddlers
4 Hit Enter

Now, if things don’t turn out right, you can still do a CTRL-Z and the file names will be reverted.

One more variation to the file naming technique is:
1 Select 1 file
2 Press F2
3 Name the file according to your preferences using the CTRL Back and Fourth Arrow keys
4 DON’T hit Enter - Instead hit the TAB key. It will take you to the next file in Rename Mode
5 If you want to go go BACKWARDS, hit the SHIFT and TAB keys together

Always save your precious Tiddlers! Once you hit the checkmark, export them individually. Having a …(1) and a …(2) simply lets you know which one is the latest. Could be JSON. I prefer .TID because as an indivdual Tiddler, there’s no need to have them in JSON formal. .TIDs are much more readable.

Well, that’s my take. Thank you for reading.

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Yes. And if there aren’t too many modified Tiddlers, you could open up another TW in another Tab and just drag them over to there. I often use the TiddlyWiki website just to use it as a holding area and later drag them back to my own Tiddler later. Fun stuff. But addictive.