Tinka + Plugin Library

[Matthew Lauber]

Has anyone come up with a simple way to use Tinka to create/edit/update plugins and have them automatically update in a plugin library?  I do most of my plugin development in the browser, and Tinka makes it very simple to iterate quickly.  But I've also got a bunch of wikis that use my plugins, and it's a pain whenever I open each one, to go find another wiki that has the most recent version and import it.  Plugin libraries are nice for making sure everything knows where to get the latest plugins from, but there's no easy way to generate one from tinka that I've found.  

[Mat]

Matthew Lauber wrote:

Has anyone come up with a simple way to use Tinka to create/edit/update plugins and have them automatically update in a plugin library? 

Sorry, no. I believe a reload is required and that this is a TW matter, not a Tinka matter.

If anyone is going to take a stab at reworking Tinka, I have some input.

<:-)

[Jed Carty]

The tiddlywiki plugin libraries are not made in a way that is easy to update in place. Even if I am wrong there I don't think that there is a way to update a library from within the browser without modifications to the library setup and some server-side components. The libraries currently work with static file servers and I am continuously impressed by how much they are able to do, but I don't think that updates like this are possible.

If you want to run a Bob server than I have been considering updating the plugin library it uses to allow people to send plugins to it to then be served, but I need more involvement from other people before that is a worthwhile use of time.

[TonyM]

Mathew,

Just share my current workflow in case it help you. It is not automation exactly but once established it is so easy to use it may as well be.

I currently build a number of multi-tiddler solutions and use the bundle plugin to export them as json files. I place these in the same folder every time. I now include the bundle tiddler in the bundle, a tiddler in which I also has set a wiki-owner field and version that names the owning wiki. So I always make changes in the owning wiki, or update the tiddlers in the owner wiki and end any activity by exporting the bundle. My Share location thus always contains the latest version. I can always get the latest from the sharefolder or reinstall it if I need a newer feature. I am sure you could do this with plugins as well. All my third party plugins are stored in a single plugins tiddlywiki (most plugins are disabled there) but I drag them to the wikis that require them, if an update occurs I update only the "plugins wiki" unless I have a specific need. If I had a very common plugin used in many wikis and or it was updated I would export it to my central folder ready for import when required.

I have also bundled mu7ltiple bundles and plugins for common combinations, ensuring I always commit the latest version of all components to my share folder if a change takes place.

I am using a more sophisticated system that registers wikis, and provides a lookup to wiki-names that fill the wiki-owner field, this is undergoing continuous improvement and is another story. The Registration process uses a wiki-instance bundle in each registered wiki each wiki I want to register, generates a unique tiddler describing this wiki and I drag and Drop it on my core distribution wiki (In an iframe within a tiddler - I am using bob for Key wikis). When ever needed I can find any wiki in the core (including its filename and url), or export all registered wiki-tiddlers and import (or Drop) it on a directory wiki (or any other), ie all my wikis can know about all my other wikis. I could do this with plugins if I wanted.

The Registered tiddlywiki tiddlers include a list of all installed plugins and bundles, overwritten shadows, registered macros (another story) in each registered wiki. This is ready for me to automate or support plugin distribution if needed.

Regards

Tony