Point a newbie in the right direction? Tiddlywiki as a file database...

[Alex Olsen]

I'm very new to the Tiddlywiki community. To learn the platform as completely as possible, I'm doing a project for work. Smart, right?

I'm in the training department. We have a bunch of stuff we need regular access to. Other stuff we need less frequent access to. Some stuff we need desperately once in a blue moon. Due to the nature of the previous file management system (lets make a folder) it's impossible to find what you need. My intent is to use the wiki framework to help tag documents and give instructions for their use.

The difficult part is how many files are on the shared server (drive? I don't know a lot about networking). Is there a handy way to automate any part of this process? To break it down, each file we need is in a maze of folders. I'd like to set this up with as much automation as possible. I have a few ideas, but don't know if Tiddlywiki has the ability to look through the files around it. That's a feature most of my automation ideas would require.

First step is going to be making a list of the files that need sorting. All I'd really need are name, file type, and location. Then we'd set up some sort of database with that info and call on that database for partial Tiddler Population. Something like a transcluded bit of code that prints the info from the database above a description text the user enters.

Is my rough plan feasible? If so, what resources would you point me towards?

[TonyM]

Alex,

This is a very good idea, I have done this in the past but not with tiddlywiki.

I have done things like this professionally such as migrating file shares to sharepoint,  and its actually quite complex. The Question here is not what tiddlywiki can do but what do you need to do to make the data available to put into tiddlywiki or anywhere that will satisfy the business requirements. I can be engaged professionally but a few incomplete tips;

• TiddlyWIki may not have access to local content if accessed in the browser, but it does in TiddlyDesktop
• Does it need local access? not necessarily, you just need to import the required data
• The name, file type, and location can be easily listed into a file using your operating system, you would have to do this again to capture updates. I don't think this would help that much because you can only search based on filename and folder names.
• Perhaps what you see on the shared server is not what others see, consider discussing this with the server administrator, perhaps start with the requirements rather than mentioning tiddlywiki as a possible solution.
• There are dedicated indexing tools that look inside documents as well to improve search, some may already exist in your environment.
• An informal index of folders with search keywords according to in house practices that determine where to place documents may be a quick win, but it needs to become part of the process in the organisation to maintain it. Although maintenance can be automated.

Large volumes of documents belong in a Document management system rather than on such shared drives and folders. However In my own research I see tiddlywiki may one day be a smart document that travels with its own document management system.

Best of luck

Tony