TW As Portable Document Format: No Way, Huh?
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Digital Doctor
Dec 6, 2007, 2:41:32 PM12/6/07
to TiddlyWiki
Since my first days on the 'public Internet',
some thirteen years ago, there's always something
that I've bemoaned: no easy way of tracking/graphing
the path of a legitimate viral email (NOT spam).
One company (http://www.vitrium.com) created one
approach to the problem, by placing a protective sheath
(of sorts) on PDFs. The recipient has to enter in a few
fields of info (notably their email address), to gain access
to the actually PDF.
------------
Sure, we're drifting toward a near ubiquitos webOS(es) (Open Social,
Parakeet, AdobeAir) which will make this kind of thing easier; but
for now...
Has anyone every envisioned some way that Tiddlers might gain
emancipation from browsers; and become self-contained sorta speak.
TW Reader. TW extension that could be open by the forthcoming
Adobe Media Reader
Such a scheme, without being an .exe, would:
a) make Twikis shareable by email attachment
b) render Twikis readable upon double click (within their own reader,
or Adobe Air
or Adobe Media Reader)
-------------
Am I on to something here, or do I need to go take a walk for fresh
air to my
brain? LOL
RC The DD
some thirteen years ago, there's always something
that I've bemoaned: no easy way of tracking/graphing
the path of a legitimate viral email (NOT spam).
One company (http://www.vitrium.com) created one
approach to the problem, by placing a protective sheath
(of sorts) on PDFs. The recipient has to enter in a few
fields of info (notably their email address), to gain access
to the actually PDF.
------------
Sure, we're drifting toward a near ubiquitos webOS(es) (Open Social,
Parakeet, AdobeAir) which will make this kind of thing easier; but
for now...
Has anyone every envisioned some way that Tiddlers might gain
emancipation from browsers; and become self-contained sorta speak.
TW Reader. TW extension that could be open by the forthcoming
Adobe Media Reader
Such a scheme, without being an .exe, would:
a) make Twikis shareable by email attachment
b) render Twikis readable upon double click (within their own reader,
or Adobe Air
or Adobe Media Reader)
-------------
Am I on to something here, or do I need to go take a walk for fresh
air to my
brain? LOL
RC The DD
HansNL
Dec 6, 2007, 2:55:21 PM12/6/07
to TiddlyWiki
Well, I for one, wouldn't mind having a TiddlerToPDFPlugin
Cheers, HansNL
Cheers, HansNL
Eric Shulman
Dec 6, 2007, 4:11:40 PM12/6/07
to TiddlyWiki
> a) make Twikis shareable by email attachment
> b) render Twikis readable upon double click (within their own reader,
A reasonable abbreviation for "TiddlyWiki documents" would be
> b) render Twikis readable upon double click (within their own reader,
"TiddlyWikis" or even "TWs", but please don't use "TWikis", as it is
too easy to confuse it with "TWiki", which is the name of server-side
wiki system written in Perl/CGI (mostly by Peter Thoeny... hence, "T
Wiki"), and has been in use for MANY years.
re: breaking free from the browser... ummm... why? What makes some
other installed "reader" program a better choice. For TiddlyWiki, the
browser IS the reader... and you can already send a TW.html file as an
email attachment... all the receiving person has to do is open it in
whatever web browsing application they happen to have installed...
What you really want is a small-footprint, stripped down browser to
use as a stand-alone TiddlyWiki reader... if so, check out
MozillaLabs' "Prism" project (formerly called "WebRunner"):
http://wiki.mozilla.org/Prism
It provides a mozilla-compatible rendering engine in a simple
application frame, without all the extra menus, toolbars, bookmarks,
etc.... just a rendering window for a web page...
HTH,
-e
Eric Shulman
TiddlyTools / ELS Design Studios
Ken Girard
Dec 6, 2007, 10:12:04 PM12/6/07
to TiddlyWiki
Also take a look at "TiddlyWiki Pure Store Format".
http://tiddlywiki.abego-software.de/#%5B%5BIncluding%20even%20smaller%20TiddlyWiki%20Files%5D%5D
Some where back in time I wrote a description of an online newspaper
where you picked out the headlines you liked and then imported them
into your personal TW, so you could read them later. Once your done
with the article, you delete the tiddler. The imported tiddlers would
contain advertising, which is how the paper supported it's self. The
newspaper and advertiser would be able to count how many times the ad
was actually imported, which is much better then now where I often
only look at a small part of the paper. Sure, you could manually
remove the advertising, but that would be like cutting all the ads out
of a paper newspaper. Who waste that much time on something you are
going to get rid of once your done with it?
Nowadays, with import and include, this could actually be done. Just
put the article in the store area of a web page.
Picture the same thing for a dating service. 'She seems interesting
enough to import'. (OK, I've just invented the term "I'd import
that!".) Of course some folks are going to play Pokemon. Got to get
them all.
Ken Girard
http://tiddlywiki.abego-software.de/#%5B%5BIncluding%20even%20smaller%20TiddlyWiki%20Files%5D%5D
Some where back in time I wrote a description of an online newspaper
where you picked out the headlines you liked and then imported them
into your personal TW, so you could read them later. Once your done
with the article, you delete the tiddler. The imported tiddlers would
contain advertising, which is how the paper supported it's self. The
newspaper and advertiser would be able to count how many times the ad
was actually imported, which is much better then now where I often
only look at a small part of the paper. Sure, you could manually
remove the advertising, but that would be like cutting all the ads out
of a paper newspaper. Who waste that much time on something you are
going to get rid of once your done with it?
Nowadays, with import and include, this could actually be done. Just
put the article in the store area of a web page.
Picture the same thing for a dating service. 'She seems interesting
enough to import'. (OK, I've just invented the term "I'd import
that!".) Of course some folks are going to play Pokemon. Got to get
them all.
Ken Girard
Eric Shulman
Dec 7, 2007, 12:45:30 AM12/7/07
to TiddlyWiki
> Also take a look at "TiddlyWiki Pure Store Format".http://tiddlywiki.abego-software.de/#%5B%5BIncluding%20even%20smaller...
Udo's description of "Pure Store" format is actually a bit out of date
with the current TW file "store area" layout and use of <pre>...</pre>
encoding of tiddler content... and he didn't appear to offer a simple
method for creating such a file, other than by modifying a copy of a
full TW document with a text editor to carefully remove the unwanted
parts of the file.
Fortunately, there's:
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#ExportTiddlersPlugin
The ExportTiddlersPlugin's interface offers a highly-interactive
"control panel" with a multi-select listbox of tiddlers, plus
filtering functions to make selection of a set of tiddlers really fast
and easy.
Then, with one click on the "export" button, it can generate what I've
simply referred to as an "export file", which is essentially the same
concept as the "Pure Store" format: the file format of a TiddlyWiki
document, but without the core code, static data, CSS, shadow
tiddlers, etc.... just the tiddler data, surrounded by the minimum
syntax needed for them to be recognized later.
Because ExportTiddlersPlugin uses the TW core's "externalize()"
functions to format its output, it will always encode the tiddler data
in exactly the same manner as the core, including any new storage
format or field definitions that might be introduced in a future
release. As a result, files generated by ExportTiddlersPlugin can be
read by the core's built-in "backstage importer", as well as any of
the following tools:
* an interactive control panel provided by
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#ImportTiddlersPlugin
* automatic "one click" import/sync using
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#LoadTiddlersPlugin
* "on demand" retrieval and rendering of tiddlers with
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#ExternalTiddlersPlugin
In addition, you can also use Udo's IncludePlugin:
http://tiddlywiki.abego-software.de/#IncludePlugin
to read from export files produced by ExportTiddlersPlugin.
... lastly, (in case all that isn't enough ;-), ExportTiddlersPlugin
can also generate an RSS-compatible XML file format or a full "stand-
alone" TW file format, that enables you to easily create custom
subsets of tiddlers and then share them by publishing an RSS news feed
or simply sending the resulting output file to other people via email,
web posting, etc.
enjoy,
Udo's description of "Pure Store" format is actually a bit out of date
with the current TW file "store area" layout and use of <pre>...</pre>
encoding of tiddler content... and he didn't appear to offer a simple
method for creating such a file, other than by modifying a copy of a
full TW document with a text editor to carefully remove the unwanted
parts of the file.
Fortunately, there's:
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#ExportTiddlersPlugin
The ExportTiddlersPlugin's interface offers a highly-interactive
"control panel" with a multi-select listbox of tiddlers, plus
filtering functions to make selection of a set of tiddlers really fast
and easy.
Then, with one click on the "export" button, it can generate what I've
simply referred to as an "export file", which is essentially the same
concept as the "Pure Store" format: the file format of a TiddlyWiki
document, but without the core code, static data, CSS, shadow
tiddlers, etc.... just the tiddler data, surrounded by the minimum
syntax needed for them to be recognized later.
Because ExportTiddlersPlugin uses the TW core's "externalize()"
functions to format its output, it will always encode the tiddler data
in exactly the same manner as the core, including any new storage
format or field definitions that might be introduced in a future
release. As a result, files generated by ExportTiddlersPlugin can be
read by the core's built-in "backstage importer", as well as any of
the following tools:
* an interactive control panel provided by
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#ImportTiddlersPlugin
* automatic "one click" import/sync using
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#LoadTiddlersPlugin
* "on demand" retrieval and rendering of tiddlers with
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#ExternalTiddlersPlugin
In addition, you can also use Udo's IncludePlugin:
http://tiddlywiki.abego-software.de/#IncludePlugin
to read from export files produced by ExportTiddlersPlugin.
... lastly, (in case all that isn't enough ;-), ExportTiddlersPlugin
can also generate an RSS-compatible XML file format or a full "stand-
alone" TW file format, that enables you to easily create custom
subsets of tiddlers and then share them by publishing an RSS news feed
or simply sending the resulting output file to other people via email,
web posting, etc.
enjoy,
Digital Doctor
Dec 7, 2007, 1:11:26 AM12/7/07
to TiddlyWiki
OK, that was a healty serving of TW 'protein'.
So, let me bite off a wee bit; so as to do some
quality digestion.
"...sending the resulting output file to other people via email,
web posting, etc."
----------
So, do I hear you say: ETP out puts a stripped down
TW/tiddler in an actual HTML format (which is the ONLY
format TW content is ever exported to)?
If within a tiddler, I had code the message area to be
a certain hexi-decimal color, and maybe even gradient,
will the ETP export carry that formatting?
RC The DD
So, let me bite off a wee bit; so as to do some
quality digestion.
"...sending the resulting output file to other people via email,
web posting, etc."
----------
So, do I hear you say: ETP out puts a stripped down
TW/tiddler in an actual HTML format (which is the ONLY
format TW content is ever exported to)?
If within a tiddler, I had code the message area to be
a certain hexi-decimal color, and maybe even gradient,
will the ETP export carry that formatting?
RC The DD
Eric Shulman
Dec 7, 2007, 1:57:14 AM12/7/07
to TiddlyWiki
> So, do I hear you say: ETP out puts a stripped down
> TW/tiddler in an actual HTML format (which is the ONLY
> format TW content is ever exported to)?
umm... no. That's not quite right...
> TW/tiddler in an actual HTML format (which is the ONLY
> format TW content is ever exported to)?
The purpose of the ExportTiddlersPlugin (and the"export file" format)
is to make it easier to *store*, *share* or *transport* a set of
tiddlers from one TW document to another, and does not provide
functionality for *converting* your tiddler content into some other
format for use outside of TW.
Although TW files are usually named with an ".html" extension, a
regular TW document (or an "export file") is actually a simple "plain
text" file containing a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
The content that you view as rendered tiddlers when you've loaded the
document into the browser is NOT stored in the file in "HTML
format"... it is stored as unparsed wiki-syntax *source* text,
(contained in "hidden DIVs" in the file), which are only read-in and
rendered as viewable content once the TW javascript "engine" is loaded
and running in your browser.
Note: it IS possible to convert and save selected tiddler content to a
file as "pure HTML" by using the "snapshot" feature from
http://www.TiddlyTools.com/#NewDocumentPlugin
> If within a tiddler, I had code the message area to be
> a certain hexi-decimal color, and maybe even gradient,
> will the ETP export carry that formatting?
*source* definition. Again, it's all saved as plain text... there is
no *conversion* to any special file format, which is a big help when/
if you manage to "paint yourself into a corner" where your latest
change to the document breaks things so badly that you can't edit
those changes to fix them.
Fortunately, because the TW file stored on disk is plain text, you can
always open it in a text editor (*not* a word processor), then scroll/
search for the "broken" content, and edit/save the file to correct the
problem, so that it can once again be successfully loaded by your
browser.
HTH,
Jack
Dec 7, 2007, 8:33:40 AM12/7/07
to TiddlyWiki
> So, do I hear you say: ETP out puts a stripped down
> TW/tiddler in an actual HTML format (which is the ONLY
> format TW content is ever exported to)?
>
> If within a tiddler, I had code the message area to be
> a certain hexi-decimal color, and maybe even gradient,
> will the ETP export carry that formatting?
Have you looked at the PublishMacro (http://jackparke.googlepages.com/
> TW/tiddler in an actual HTML format (which is the ONLY
> format TW content is ever exported to)?
>
> If within a tiddler, I had code the message area to be
> a certain hexi-decimal color, and maybe even gradient,
> will the ETP export carry that formatting?
jtw.html#PublishMacro)? This allows you to export individual tiddlers,
or groups of tiddlers (by tag) to an external HTML file or files? It's
whatyouseeiswhatyouget because it takes your stylesheet and uses this
as-is. Thus your colours and formats would be retained.
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