Can external *.txt files be used as editable tiddlers without importing?

[Shiyin]

Hello. I've been considering using DokuWiki rather than TiddlyWiki
because it saves pages as plain text files, which enables me to use
them in other apps for various purposes, without the need to import &
export (or automating the import & export). I suspect it may be
possible in TW using plugins however, and I'd rather not have to
abandon TW for the job.

I would like to be able to open a plain text file in TW as a tiddler
(with tags stored somewhere in the text file, recognised in TW as
tags), edit the tiddler &/or tags, list titles of all such external
*.txt files with ForEachTiddlerPlugin / other, and save these changes
to the original *.txt file (or replace the original *.txt file with
its edited version).

Is this possible? If not, what's the closest thing to doing this?

[Yakov]

I'll join the question. My reason of interest is the fact that
a) Java is somewhat that is not "easy and clear" to install on a
handheld and
b) it is very usefull when some previously written files (.txt in
handheld) can be joined together and organized as hypertext within TW.

[Dave Parker]

I've used ArchivePlugin to store tiddlers as text files. All you
have to do is find in the plugin where it writes the filename and
change "html" to "txt". Then, for text files you already have you'd
need FileDropPlugin. You should be able to find them by searching
this group, or at tiddlyvault.tiddlyspot.com.

Tags would be stored in the TW only, not in the text files themselves.

Hope that helps

[Dave Parker]

P.S. I've often dreamed of a plugin that would just monitor a certain
folder for changes and automatically include any new ones that show up
without having to "go get them" manually, but I don't have the ability
to make that, and no else with ability has thought it useful enough (I
guess) to do it up to now (as far as I know)

[Måns]

Hi Dave

> P.S. I've often dreamed of a plugin that would just monitor a certain
> folder for changes and automatically include any new ones that show up
> without having to "go get them" manually,

Erics ShowLocalFolderPlugin does that: http://tiddlytools.com/#ShowLocalDirectory
You need to use it locally - and I'm not sure if Google Chrome accepts
local browsing...

Cheers Måns Mårtensson

[Dave Parker]

Thanks for that Mans, but I'm pretty sure that just allows you to
browse a directory from TW. What I was talking about would be the
following scenario:

I am out on the road somewhere. I have an idea! I write it down in
the form of a text file on my phone and somewhere in the text file I
use something that signifies a tag to be used in TW. I get to the
office where I connect the phone to the computer. A RealtimeSync
folder watching program sees that there's a new file in folder "A" and
it automatically puts a copy in folder "B". I open my TW and look at
the timeline, (or better yet, I look at the tag I indicated in the
text file), and there is a tiddler with the contents of the text file
that I wrote on my phone, that I can open and edit in my TW.

Basically I'm super lazy and don't want to be bothered with going to
the folder, looking for any new files and dragging them into the TW
manually.

I am curious now though if you use that ShowLocalDirectory if you
could drag a file from there into the TW. That at least would be a
step less than having to go open the directory in nautilus or windows
explorer... You could have it set up in DefaultTiddlers. I'll try it
out.

Thanks again,
Dave

[Dave Parker]

Hey, dragging from there does work with FiledropPlugin!

Eric, if you're listening (lighting up the bat signal), would it be
possible to specify listing filenames by "date modified" and limiting
it to a specified number of files (for those of us who keep all our
text files in one ginormous folder)?

Thanks

[Tobias Beer]

I have been watching this thread with some interest.

> I am out on the road somewhere.  I have an idea!  I write it down in
> the form of a text file on my phone and somewhere in the text file I
> use something that signifies a tag to be used in TW.  I get to the
> office where I connect the phone to the computer.  A RealtimeSync
> folder watching program sees that there's a new file in folder "A" and
> it automatically puts a copy in folder "B".  I open my TW and look at
> the timeline, (or better yet, I look at the tag I indicated in the
> text file), and there is a tiddler with the contents of the text file
> that I wrote on my phone, that I can open and edit in my TW.

This is a really neat idea and I would say it perfectly fits in the TW
spirit. So, I guess some automagic "oberserve-my-local-folder-plugin"
were quite appreciated ...which would import any not yet existing
tiddlers based on the files (or contents of a single log-file) found
in that folder. Dunno how difficult, or even if possible, it is to
delete such a text-note once it has been successfully imported into
your TW ...but as a first impression this sounds rather doable...
please note that I am *leaning myself quite a bit out of my own lil'
window*.

Cheers, Tobias.

[Dave Parker]

> in that folder. Dunno how difficult, or even if possible, it is to
> delete such a text-note once it has been successfully imported into
> your TW ..

I don't know if you'd necessarily want to delete the text file once
imported, esp if you were going to access it from your phone again
later (via the magic of sync'd files)

The time you might want it deleted would be if you decided to delete
the tiddler from the TW.