Gatha itself is a plugin to make Tiddlywiki plugins in browser as simple as possible. So it is a plugin maker. But Gatha can also be used as content manager and allows you to create new Tiddlywiki based on the empty.html and publish with it a tailored set of tiddlers from a production wiki.
New Terminology
Production wiki: a Tiddlywiki contains tools including Gatha to create content, plugins, ebooks, course notes, themes, other standard plugins, content plugins, etc…
User wiki: a final product, an app, or a simple Tiddlywiki used by anybody who can open an html file in a browser
Gatha allows you
create and export a clean Tiddlywiki + tailored set of tiddlers (content)
create and export a clean Tiddlywiki + tailored set of tiddlers (content) + selected tools (themes, languages, plugins)
create and export a clean Tiddlywiki + content plugin (tailored set of tiddlers packaged in form of a plugin)
Engineering the Perfect Baby
Gatha is a wonderful tool to generate a Tiddlywiki from itself (a baby) in a simple way, as simple as pressing a button, the baby can be engineered by adding tools, content, etc…
NOTE: The whole process is like breeding, in your production wiki, adjust some parameters like publishFilter, and then press a button to create the new Tiddlywiki!
Gatha can convert standard Tiddlywiki to a real production studio
create a full static site from production wiki (no node.js required, no command window, no hassles). this can easily compete with static site generator like Hugo, Jekyll.
I will start writing documentation for Gatha! I am busy with development, still there are issues to be resolved. By that time please use the screencasts I have shared!
Well, in the first phase, Gatha can export tiddlers in the form of plugins, and ordinary tiddlers (supported), in the next phase static webpages are planned. After that the next step will be exporting to other format. My plan is to go with PDF, but e-pubs would be great if I could manage the JS part (I am not sure I can as I don’t know JS )
One thing I want is to make sure you don’t burn out especially in the support phase but also adding features, perhaps you could see how to allow others to build compatible solutions by providing the documentation for such additions and/or expose some of its features eg variables, config or fields. Call on me if I can help (eg Plugin inspector)
The best time to do this is now with it fresh in your mind.
Perhaps make some room so the community can submit workflows or ways to use Gatha eg community submissions. When I start publishing through Gatha I will do some.
One way I navigate and understand a plugin is to list the tags (as pills) on plugin shadow tiddlers. It allows the macros, view template sidebar etc… to stand out. This could be added to the Gatha tree and/or we could develop a “Plugin Inspector” that helps people navigate plugin content.
I would like to see “data plugins” having some prominence. I would like to see the community publishing data plugins containing tiddlers of test date or useful resources from a list of fruits, to collected bookmarks, geological epochs etc… The ability to generate these, but also add and edit items in such a plugin and “republish” is something Gatha can do.
Perhaps we could add a drafts tab to the plugins tab to allow us to see “Draft Plugins”?
Upgrade support
At least when plugins are delivered via a library it is possible to check if a given plugin requires an update. Just before one goes to generate a “custom wiki” it would be nice if any plugins needing update in the source wiki was flagged. I have a wiki of collected plugins Gatha will help me package bundles of.
Perhaps you could build a library dedicated to Gatha for future curation/collection of generator solutions?
Questions
Is a key value of this solution producing a reference wiki to document a plugin and/or create a demo wiki?
Is there a reason you are not saying it can generate editions?
When we “load a plugin” (A feature I adore) do we really need to save and reload?
Future dreams - wiki to library
The same techniques and a zip output could be used to generate plugin libraries (collection of files containing plugins as a library) for unzipping on a host and/or Plugin wiki. This would be a good companion to Gatha and along with what Gatha provides it would assist somewhat time poor people start publishing more to the community.
It’s the old do it once and reuse, the more we help each other by smoothing the steps from A-B the more of us that can go from A-B,C etc… such that we are more likely to reach the stars.
Thanks for your acknowledgement of me (Anthony Muscio), you are very welcome.
It is my pleasure! You always review and comment published work and I like your useful comments and approach.
No, but if you save and reload you wont see the message: this is a shadow tiddler part of … plugin ,…
I add edition! Actually Gatha can create edition. The reason was, Gatha works through creating plugin.
This makes the workflow simple! In previous solution you have to drag and drop produced plugin into a Tiddlywiki, here by pressing a button you have a clean demo.
Gatha itself can be used as plugin inspector! but I welcome any suggestion here!
Regarding documentation, I will add both user docs and developer docs. I need to find some free time after stable release.
You can do this! I myself use Commander and add a Working Tag. It only used for the purpose you proposed.
The current version of Gatha can do this easily!
I think we cannot have both the plugin and its draft! There is no difference between a tiddler in plugin and the same plugin in draft! So, we cannot have both at the same time. That will be very confusing!
I prefer to keep production wiki separate from user wiki!
This is out of scope of Gatha! But I think @saqimtiaz had some nice idea here! I know there is some efforts on installing, updating plugins. @linonetwo has also some thoughts here.
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