[Sharing] Local desktop server to LAN server TiddlyServer, Node or Bob (Windows?)

[TonyM]

Folks,

I thought I would share a little discovery. that may help others who do a lot of TiddlyWiki serving.

It is nice to set up one or more servers on your own PC for tiddlywiki but the use of multiple servers on one computer means setting the port each uses.

You may want vanila Node, TiddlyServer, Bob and If work out how TiddlyDesktop to Share Wikis. In addition I have apache serving tiddlyWikis (using tw-receiver) and WordPress etc (AMPPS) 

• This means all your links must include this port
• Other applications may want to use the same ports
• If you move it to another device you may have to change the port
• Ports can not be added to your Domain name system

What I have discovered at least on Windows, but I expect there is away on all platforms, is it is trivial to add additional IP addresses. 

• I simply reduced the range of addresses my home router issues to DHCP 2-79 freeing 80-99 ie 192.168.1.80 - 192.168.1.99 to be used as static IP Addresses
• For those interested I use the range 100-254 for Fixed static IP addresses of all devices I know. The Router issues the static addresses through DHCP
• Rather than activate your server on on Local Host or using 0.0.0.0 specify one of these additional IP Addresses, and leave the port set to 80
• For example My Desktop is at http://192.168.1.109 but TiddlyServer on my desktop is at http://192.168.1.81/ and wikis found in folders below there.
• From your own computer or on the LAN just specify the IP Address to access TiddlyServer. 
• If you want to move TiddlyServer to another computer just decommission the additional IP Address on the Source Computer and Add it to the Destination computer

Take it further with DNS

• I have activated DNS on my Synology Diskstation, created a .local domain
• Then assigned the ts.local to my TiddlyServer at http://192.168.1.81/ 
• So now I can also access the tiddly server as ts.local
• With this not only can I move the IP Address I can change it if I need to, if all my links contain http://ts.local
• It is so nice to use a phone or another desktop on my lan and type in ts.local or bob.local to access these servers (where ever they may be hosted.
• I have hosted node within a Synology NAS docker package and under an Apache server as well

Key advantages

• Able to stick to port 80 - the default for http, so not need to provide the port number in links
• Portability of the Additional IP Addresses to other hosts in your network
• Use DNS for further IP Address changes if needed (Eg move to another network)
• Frees your computers own IP Address and Ports for other applications

Learn by teaching, share what you learn and learn from what others share. We call this a "virtuose circle".

Regards

Tony

[Arlen Beiler]

Just thought I would mention (since it appears that you're using TiddlyServer) that TiddlyServer was created to do away with this exact scenario. Specifically, data folders may be arranged in folders, and TiddlyServer is then configured to serve the entire folder. When a data folder is loaded, TiddlyServer automatically mounts it and starts serving the data folder alongside all the other data folders according to the URL it is located at. 

I hope that makes sense. 

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[TonyM]

Arlen,

Thanks for the reminder. Here is how I use TiddlyServer

I suppose I forgot to mention this other level of abstraction that can be done with TiddlyServer. I already lean on this heavily, as when I go to the Tiddly Server address there is a list of Wikis listed like a table of contents and even folders (inc Virtual folders) and subfolders that I can browse to find anyone of a number of Wikis. Eg My Development folder opens to list multiple wikis under hostname:/development/ I also like the ability to have any singleFile Wiki backed up to a single folder with all other wikis. I just noted I need to clean this folder up because despite compression its now 10GB+ in size

Browser address ts.local

Until recently I had to present TiddlyServer at myIPaddress:8081/ to address the other servers competing to appear at myIPaddress:

Since TiddlyServer now uses its own dedicated and movable IP Address and setting it to port 80 there is no need to provide the port number at all.

The point with the tips in my original post is I can now refer to the wikis as at the IP address 192.168.1.81 or the domain name ts.local and the location such as http://ts.local/Development/EditFields.html at this location even on my desktop with all the other servers the same there, is no need for an alternate port number and not only could I host the example EditFields.html Development/EditFields.html from a totally different folder and use the same address (The advantage of TiddlyServer) but I could lift and shift the whole server to another computer without changing any links, weather I used 192.168.1.81/Development/EditFields.html or ts.local/Development/EditFields.html with a Domain Name server.

• This way of using TiddlyServer means I do not have to edit settings.json to simply add another wiki to be served by TiddlyServer, just add it to a folder already listed on tiddlyserver (or one of its children)
• Inspired by your point Arlen I created and added to settings.json the full path file name to home, a single file wiki

Given my Current Focus on TiddlyServer can I suggest these improvements?

• Add a automatic method to minimise the number of backups retained.
• Perhaps allow browsing the TiddlyServer tree at addresses such as 
  http://ts.local/Instances/
  or 
  http://ts.local/Instances
  However in this second case, look to see if the folder contains index.html and load that if it exists, if not do the same as the first.
  Currently if the address points to http://ts.local/WikiFolder
  Then it loads the folder wiki
  
• I wonder if we could somehow configure redirects, to other urls under TiddlyServer, such as Node.js redirects, perhaps even allow them to be added to settings.json
  Thus TiddlyServer could also act as directory to many resources (a Useful product on its own even)

Thanks for reminding us all of the power of TiddlyServer.

Is there something more to TiddlyDesktop I am not yet aware of?

Regards

Tony

On Monday, June 3, 2019 at 12:58:43 PM UTC+10, Arlen Beiler wrote:

Just thought I would mention (since it appears that you're using TiddlyServer) that TiddlyServer was created to do away with this exact scenario. Specifically, data folders may be arranged in folders, and TiddlyServer is then configured to serve the entire folder. When a data folder is loaded, TiddlyServer automatically mounts it and starts serving the data folder alongside all the other data folders according to the URL it is located at. 

I hope that makes sense. 

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[@TiddlyTweeter]

Ciao Arlen & TonyM

Small footnote on this ...

Given my Current Focus on TiddlyServer can I suggest these improvements?

• Add a automatic method to minimise the number of backups retained.

Just FYI, both Riz'sTimimi & PMario's saver have successfully implemented variants of the "Towers Of Hanoi" schema that maximises coverage whilst minimising the proliferation of unneeded copies. In practice this removes the need for additional manual management of redundant saves.

Best wishes

Josiah