[TW5] Can I create a bunch of tiddlers based on list?

[Mark S.]

I would like to create a bunch of new tiddlers (preferably not in draft mode) from a list contained in a separate tiddler (it could be an existing data tiddler if necessary).

In other words, can I iterate through a list, generating new tiddlers?

I could do this sort of thing with the <javascript> tag in TWC.

The List widget allows me to do things the other way -- iterate over a list of existing tiddlers, but there doesn't seem to be any tools for generating a bunch of tiddlrs based on a list. I'm hoping there's some widget or technique that can help with this.

Thanks!
Mark

[Eric Shulman]

Actually, the <$list> widget WILL do what you want:

1) First, create a tiddler, ListOfTitles, containing tiddler titles using a whitespace-separate list with doubled-brackets around titles with spaces in them.  For example:

ListOfTitles

-------------------

[[foo bar]]

baz

[[mumble frotz]]

gronk

snork

---------------------

2) Then, use this button definition:

<$button>
make new tiddlers from list
<$list filter={{ListOfTitles}}>
<$action-setfield $tiddler={{!!title}} text=""/>
</$list>
</$button>

Note: using <$list> inside <$button> requires TW v5.1.8 or above.

enjoy,

-e

Eric Shulman

ELS Design Studios

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[Måns]

Hi Eric

GREAT :-)

Thank you very much for showing this simple solution for creating a lot of tiddlers from a simple list!

I can't help thinking that this sort of magic might allow for a little more complex things like converting a csv list of tiddler names, tags, standard and custom fields into tiddlers, simply by writing a simple macro with variables for each field in an action-setfield widget call...

I guess I'm just having a little daydream here - however It would be very, very nice to drag a csv file to a TW - click a button and kazaam - (example)  answers to your google docs forms are magically turned into tagged tiddlers with content... 

Cheers Måns Mårtensson

[Eric Shulman]

On Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 1:12:31 PM UTC-7, Måns wrote:

I can't help thinking that this sort of magic might allow for a little more complex things like converting a csv list of tiddler names, tags, standard and custom fields into tiddlers, simply by writing a simple macro with variables for each field in an action-setfield widget call...

This technique only works because ListOfTitles is essentially a hand-written filter containing literal tiddler titles.  If that tiddler also contained other data (i.e., CSV-formatted content on each line), then it would not be a valid filter and the <$list> widget would not work as intended.

sorry.

-e

[Måns]

It's still great :-)

[RichardWilliamSmith]

Hi Mans,

If you would like to create a lot of tiddlers from a spreadsheet, there's a simple method - put 'dummy' columns between your actual columns and fill them with the right json delimiters, paste the whole sheet as text into a file and save it and then drag it into TW. I can show you an example if you're interested.

Regards,

Richard

[Måns]

Hi Richard

If you would like to create a lot of tiddlers from a spreadsheet, there's a simple method - put 'dummy' columns between your actual columns and fill them with the right json delimiters, paste the whole sheet as text into a file and save it and then drag it into TW. I can show you an example if you're interested.

Yes please :-)

Cheers Måns Mårtensson 

[Richard Smith]

Hi Mans,

Starting with a spreadsheet - data in colums, no headers - put a blank column inbetween each, starting at the beginning and, in the top cell, add little snippets like this...

 {  "text": "

so that, as a whole, a single line of the spreadsheet reads as a valid json entry, with a comma at the end, and 'fill' down the sheet, so it looks like this...

Then copy and paste the columns into a friendly text editor (not a word-processor). When I do it I get some kind of 'tab' character that I need to globally remove (search and replace all). I've highlighted it in the top left of this screenshot.

Then I add opening and closing square brackets and save it as .json

Drag it into TW and it appears like a regular import.

NB: if there's anything wrong with your json, you get a big red warning but nothing breaks - but use a backup, obviously.

Regards,

Richard

[Måns]

Hi Richard

Thank you very much for taking your time to show how you do it :-)

Very helpfull!

Now I will need to do some experiments.

Is it also possible to create a "master" JSON tiddler/file which will be imported as a single tiddler where all defined tiddlers will exist/behave like shadow tiddlers?

I guess what I'm asking is how to turn the resulting JSON file into a plugin...

When I look at the $:/core tiddler it seems that all there is needed is one extra top layer: 

"{

    "tiddlers": {

"TiddlerTitle": {

            "title": "TiddlerTitle",

            "type": "text/vnd.tiddlywiki",

            "text": "Tiddler text with \n linebreaks"

        },

"NewTiddlerTitle": { ... etc...

If my assumption is correct it should be fairly easy to create a spredsheet like your's and make  the resulting JSON file create shadow tiddlers.

If this is possible I will maintain/update these shadow tiddlers with Andreas' Tinka plugin - and be able to import all these tiddlers into other TWs as if they were part of a plugin..

Am I on the right track?

Cheers Måns Mårtensson

[Danielo Rodríguez]

Mans, if you are interested and you are using Google spreadsheet it is not difficulttto write an script to export the data of a sheet as Json or tiddler format.

[Richard Smith]

Sounds good to me :)

I hope you'll share if you get it working - very interesting

Regards,

Richard

[Måns]

Hi Danielo

Of course I'm interested :-)

However I'm totally blank when it comes to writing a script to use with a Google spreadsheet.

I was thinking of having two seperate scripts one for creating a JSON file to import/create a lot of tiddlers at once - as Richard proposed - and another script which does almost the same except it creates "the extra layer" needed for it to be a standalone JSON tiddler which provides tiddlers as shadows....

Is this possible?

A naming convention for different tiddler fields might be set in the spreadsheet "header" columns like in a csv. like: title, tags(space or comma separated values), text, type,customfield1, customfield2, etc...?

Am I on the right track?

Cheers Måns Mårtensson

[Danielo Rodríguez]

Hello Mans,

Yes, it is possible to have a script that reads the sheet and creates a Json output. I don't know the best way to "export" that data: giving you the option to copy it? As a file in your drive folder? As am extra cell in some other sheet?

The easiest way to process the shet would be to represent a tiddler per row and make each colum be a field.

> it creates "the extra layer" needed for it to be a standalone JSON tiddler which provides tiddlers as shadows....

Sorry, I don't understand this requirement. For me a Json tiddler is a Json tiddler,the result is the same. The only thing that determines if it is a plugin or not are the field's the tiddler has.

[RichardWilliamSmith]

Hi Danielo,

My experience with trying to do that was that google sheets couldn't cope with exporting given the number of rows in my sheets and would keep falling over half-way through, which forced me to use apple-Numbers instead.

Regards,

Richard

[Danielo Rodríguez]

How many rows are we talking about? If there are so many I don't think TW can handle it neither.

[RichardWilliamSmith]

From what I remember it was around n=1200 rows - some sort of bug I suppose, perhaps it is fixed now? - batches of less than n worked fine. The original file had around 27,000 tiddlers - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83055414/kjv.html

Regards,

Richard

[stevesuny]

Hello all,

Reviving an old thread: 

Has anyone been able to import a google sheet as tiddlers, one tiddler per row, with columns for title, text, tags, etc? (essentially, replicating the functionality of  Eric Shulman's http://www.tiddlytools.com/#CreateTiddlersFromCSV for TW5?)? This thread contemplates a google sript to generate JSON, but export to CSV also makes sense to me...but still can import CSV one-tiddler-per-row...

Thanks, 

//steve.