What is the purpose of source field in a tiddler?

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talha131

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Sep 6, 2020, 4:28:34 PM9/6/20
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As per the docs:

source is field is used by the core for

The source URL associated with a tiddler

Is there a practical example of it being used?

What I am looking for?

I want to add a field that can be used for links to the source of the tiddler. Say I copy the content from Wikipedia and I want to mention the link the Wikipedia article.

Can I use source field for it? Or should I add a new field like url?

I can then customize ViewTemplate to automatically show the source url in the body of the tiddler. But which field should I use?

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talha131

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Sep 6, 2020, 5:17:57 PM9/6/20
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Though I could not find official documentation, but it seems source field has special usage in TW.

For example, this edition uses source field for creating a hierarchy of tiddlers.

http://tw5.scholars.tiddlyspot.com/

It is also used for the source URL of a plugin.

(optional) Source URL of plugin

https://tiddlywiki.com/static/Plugin%2520Fields.html

My understanding is that it is better to avoid source and use some other custom field for my use case.

Do let me know if my understanding is incorrect.

​

TW Tones

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Sep 7, 2020, 1:51:10 AM9/7/20
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This answer lays with yourself.

Perhaps fine if your not editing the plugin Tiddler.

However can I suggest source-link

The reason is you could then write wiki text to turn the contents of any field name with -link into a link by the prefixes name

E.g. source is the title of a link stored in source-link

Perhaps a nice little defacto standard
Tony

PMario

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Sep 7, 2020, 3:38:07 AM9/7/20
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Hi,
There is only 1 field that you have to use to create a valid tiddler. The "title". That's it.

Every other field name is just a convention. https://tiddlywiki.com/#TiddlerFields shows all fields that are used by core tiddlers.

As far as I know, It's OK to use source. Especially as you want to use it in the exact way as it is described.

I'll have a closer look at the core code but I'm pretty sure there is no side effect.

-mario

TiddlyTweeter

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Sep 7, 2020, 4:10:16 AM9/7/20
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talha131 and PMario

"source" is fine to use as you need in most tiddlers. It has special meaning, I believe, in plugins only (PMario?)

The TW ADVICE is ... 

source = The source URL associated with a tiddler

You can interpret this liberally. For instance, I have used it not for URLs, but book title references with no link.

Best wishes
TT

talha131

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Sep 9, 2020, 1:32:31 PM9/9/20
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Thank you all.

The reason is you could then write wiki text to turn the contents of any field name with -link into a link by the prefixes name

Great tip.

I decided to use source-url, source-book, source-person, depending on from where I collected the note.

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