New plugin: Locator: Discover and search by context (tags)

[bimlas]

Dear fellows,

Recently, more and more people are drawing attention to the fact that TiddlyWiki is very versatile but not user-friendly; the beginners find it difficult to use. I hope my plugin makes it easier for users who are less familiar with technology and filters. Of course, veteran users can also benefit greatly.

But what exactly it is?

For those who use many tags or store many different topics in a common wiki the Locator plugin is a table of contents widget and an enhanced search engine that gives you the opportunity to filter results by related tags. Unlike table of contents, standard search and list of tags, this plugin offers these features in an organic, collaborative way.

https://gitlab.com/bimlas/tw5-locator (main repository)

https://github.com/bimlas/tw5-locator (mirror, just for getting GitHub stars to my resumé :) )

 

Benefits compared to built-in solutions 

• Shows related tags
  You can mark a tiddler with multiple tags, but in the ToC you don't see them while browsing. 
• Phone friendlier
  The width of the ToC is increasing and the size of the text is decrasing as we move down in the context, while Locator remains the same. 
• There is no need to include a table of contents in the main tiddler of each topic
  Just press the "locator sidebar" button and you can browse the topic right away. 
• Easy way to search for tags
  Find tags based on part of their name and find related tags by typing in to the standard search. 
• Limit the scope of search
  You don't have to store your recipes and family tree in a separate wiki just to make them easier to find: you can easily define the scope of your search.

[bimlas]

Great, I just forgot to add the link to the demo itself... (-_-')

https://bimlas.gitlab.io/tw5-locator

[@TiddlyTweeter]

bimlas

What I really like about that is its scope (range) ... it addresses several issues all in one package.

Great stuff!

Josiah

[Mark S.]

n.b. listed on toolmaps (https://dynalist.io/d/zUP-nIWu2FFoXH-oM7L7d9DM#q=search) under "Searching Tools"

[bimlas]

Thanks! By the way I think it fits to "Navigation - Tables of contents and outliners" and "Tags, tagging" as well.

[Brian Theado]

Bimlas,

Nice work and it looks very useful! Two thoughts I had while playing with the demo:

1. "Filter the list by the tag" - This button I kept trying to click on it as a toggle. IOW when it was faded, I click on it and it applies the tag as a filter and the icon turns dark and moves above the separator line. In that state, I kept wanting to click on the darkened icon in order to disable the tag filter and move it back down below the separator line. I found I could click the bottom item in the breadcrumb to get the same effect, but I think it would be helpful to be able to remove the tag filter both ways.
2. Clicking the tag pill navigates to that tiddler. This is different, more limited behavior compared to clicking a standard TW tag pill. The standard behavior of the tag pill is to display a popup list of tiddlers links with the tag itself as the first link and the tagged tiddlers as the remaining links. By keeping this standard behavior, the user can still get the same behavior you implemented by clicking the first link in the popup. In addition, it lets the user see all the tiddlers containing that tag. That helps the user see which of the items in the locator display have the tag and also see which items not in the locator display have the tag.

Brian

On Fri, Jan 18, 2019 at 8:04 AM bimlas <bimba....@gmail.com> wrote:

Great, I just forgot to add the link to the demo itself... (-_-')

https://bimlas.gitlab.io/tw5-locator

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[bimlas]

Brian Theado,

I agree with the first point and just implemented it, because it also fixes an issue that I didn't see: for example, if you select Beens, Beef, Top Secret Recipes direct tags from Larry's Cookbook -> Active list, then you think that you are only interested in the Top Secret Recipes from the Active list , you have to go back to the Active context and then select this tag. It is enough to delete the irrelevant labels (Beens, Beef) with the behaviour you describe.

I don't quite agree with the second point:

This is different, more limited behavior compared to clicking a standard TW tag pill

 Yes, it's different, but not necessarily more limited: When you open the tag, there is an icon in the tiddler toolbar, which shows the hierarchy of the tag in the sidebar, so you get more information about the tag than the "built-in" solution. The drawback of this is that the context you have seen so far disappears (reseting the Locator).

I could imagine a solution that, when opening the tag, opens the tag in the Locator (instead of its tiddler), and then, when closing the hierarchy of the tag, restores the previous context.

For example clicking on Soups & Chili:

Clicking on X near Soups & Chili:

 What do you think?

[Brian Theado]

Bimlas,

On Sun, Jan 20, 2019 at 8:07 AM bimlas <bimba....@gmail.com> wrote:

I agree with the first point and just implemented it,

[...]

Thanks, looks good.

I don't quite agree with the second point:

This is different, more limited behavior compared to clicking a standard TW tag pill

 Yes, it's different, but not necessarily more limited: When you open the tag, there is an icon in the tiddler toolbar, which shows the hierarchy of the tag in the sidebar, so you get more information about the tag than the "built-in" solution. The drawback of this is that the context you have seen so far disappears (reseting the Locator).

I spent a long time reading the above and play with your demo and I still can't find the extra functionality your tag clicking functionality gives. From what I can see, clicking the tag in your demo opens the tiddler for that tag. The standard tag macros does the same (albeit with two clicks instead of one). No matter how I open the tiddler for the tag, I still see the icon in the tiddler toolbar.

For example, open the "Henry Ford" tiddler. Then in that tiddler, click on the President tag and a popup will appear. Click on the President link from that popup and it will open the President tiddler. The icon you mention is there in the toolbar of the President tiddler. Is there some difference I'm still missing?

Brian

[bimlas]

Brian,

I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear. Yes, the current behaviour is really what you described. What I said above (and illustrated with pictures) would be a new behavior. Please read it again and tell me if you think it would be useful.

In a nutshell: currently clicking on the tag (1) opens the tiddler (2), in its toolbar by clicking on the button (3) lists the tagged tiddlers in the sidebar (4).
Only 1 and 4 would be in the new behavior.

The advantage over the built-in drop-down is that you see the related tags.

[Brian Theado]

Ok, I think I get it now. The new behavior you describe would show all the tiddlers which are tagged with the tag you click, which would serve the same purpose as my request of displaying those same tiddlers in the tag pill popup.  It seems reasonable to me if you implement it that way.

One other suggestion I thought of while looking at it. The tags which are part of the tag hierarchy are initially displayed with a right arrow and as gray links. Then when you click on them and they become a "breadcrumb" of the tag hierarchy, they are displayed as tag pills. I think it would be better if there is some visual consistency in order to give the user extra clues about the breadcrumbs being the same "thing" before and after they are clicked.  You already have the tag icon to help differentiate between the tags in the tag hierarchy and the tags which are just extra filters. This is good, but I think also keeping the tag hierarchy items visually consistent would help that much more.

If you hadn't included the picture of the Ford Family tree along with the example, I don't think I would have been able to really understand the functionality. Maybe my suggestion would have helped, but I'm not sure.

Brian

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[bimlas]

Brian,

Sorry for late reply, I agree what you said so I attaching the updated plugin. If you find it okay, I'll make it public.

[bimlas]

Mark,

Can you please add it to these categories as well: "Navigation - Tables of contents and outliners" and "Tags, tagging"?

[bimlas]

What's changed:

* Use the same "style" for breadcrumb- and list items

* Use real tags instead of tag pills (note that `title` of the tag is shown instead of `caption`)

* Turn off filter of direct tag in the breadcrumbs by its tag icon

* Ancestor tags in breadcrumbs of search are operating like direct tags, they can be removed one by one

[Brian Theado]

Bimlas,

On Wed, Jan 30, 2019 at 8:10 AM bimlas <bimba....@gmail.com> wrote:

Sorry for late reply, I agree what you said so I attaching the updated plugin. If you find it okay, I'll make it public.

I find all your changes to be improvements. Nice work. I think the visual consistency part is a big help.

Brian 

[bimlas]

New release of the plugin: v1.1.0

Thanks to Brian Theado, the plugin became clearer, more useful. Try it if you haven't done it yet and please add a star on GitHub if you like the plugin!

• I realized that most functions work without the kin filter
  

• Use the same "style" for breadcrumb- and list items 
  

• Show real tags instead of tag pills 
  

• Turn off filter of direct tag in the breadcrumbs by its tag icon 
  

• Ancestor tags in breadcrumbs of search are operating like direct labels, they can be removed one by one
  

[bimlas]

Again: I just forgot to add the link to the demo itself... (-_-') Maybe I need Cavinton...?

https://bimlas.gitlab.io/tw5-locator