Tony and Joshua, I had been leaning toward the simpler JSON format that Tony is describing. But both of you are suggesting an approach that ends up with hundreds of tiddlers being generated from my database file during the import process...
Well, I admit that a big part of the attraction of the JSON idea, for me, was the hope that this trove of data (24 x ~10-15 paragraph-long items plus their associated record data) would be all tucked into one JSON tiddler, portions of which would get "served up" in slices as needed. (That would have kept my wiki from feeling littered with so many tiddlers that I need to extract data from, but not edit, and which don't ever need to be visible as individual tiddlers to students.) At this point (with substantive content-edits to complete in the next week, a few other TW5 upgrade glitches to fix, and little longterm payoff for embarking on the JSON learning curve) I think I should take "the low road" with this problem. That means settling on the DetailsWidget accordion-style markup I'll use, and getting my database to organize the 24 excerpt sets I expect to use, and bundle them up with the right syntax. Then I can drag each set-worth into the wiki and I'm good to go (just as it used to be with Eric's NestedSliders). I'll be locked into DetailsWidget syntax for now (rather than slider or reveal or appear), but of course the css will still be flexible. In case anyone's curious, I did a pretty thorough comparison of the slider options I could find for TW5, and DetailsWidget GUI won out because expansion gets triggered anywhere on the "summary" block, rather than needing the eye-hand coordination to target a little toggle-triangle at left (or some other small button) to do the work -- again, it's something that matters while multi-tasking with a classroom-projected screen, though probably not while working in ordinary desktop environments. (I'm still sad that DetailsWidget doesn't allow me to apply styles to the text within the summary/label area, though; for academic purposes, it's really best to be able to italicize titles and foreign-language terms, etc., wherever they appear.) Though I'm letting go of this JSON curiosity for now, I hope the discussion might prove useful to someone down the road, and I'm grateful for your input! -Springer On Saturday, January 11, 2020 at 8:49:30 PM UTC-5, TonyM wrote: > > Springer, > > My own approach to this kind of issue would be to build a JSON using the > multiple tiddler format you can see inside the $:/import temp tiddler, or > plugins, this is a very simple json format and does not use complex json > syntax. Each of these with be changed into a tiddler on import. > Treat the different items either as fields; > qID: > source: > page: > pageMod: > excerpt: > tagline: > session: > > Or make each tiddler a dictionary tiddler which you can overlay with a > view template. In which you would place all these "fields" in the text. > > I am sure there is some devil in the details but I am confident they can > be addressed. > > Regards > Tony > > On Tuesday, January 7, 2020 at 9:35:29 AM UTC+11, springer wrote: >> >> OK, all. I have mentioned that in the classroom my students see lots of >> TiddlyWiki; I freely navigate links, on the big screen, to pull up relevant >> bits during discussion. >> >> But I'm also a kind of database nerd. In my office I work out of >> FileMaker. FileMaker is the "back end" of what I do in TW (and elsewhere), >> for lots of reasons. >> >> In TW Classic, I used calculation functions in the database to "extrude" >> marked-up content to paste in TiddlyWiki. >> >> - Example 1: my database has hundreds of quiz question-answer sets >> accumulated over the years, and in TWC I used a calculation to "dress >> them >> up" with Eric's NestedSliders syntax. Paste the complex result in a >> tiddler >> and.. Instant fun quiz GUI! >> <http://ethics.tiddlyspot.com/#Autonomy...> >> - Example 2: my database has thousands of quoted excerpts from books >> and articles. I used a database calculation to build a nice slider around >> each quote (page number and teaser, plus details-style slider to show >> full >> quote). After using the find function in the database to bring up a >> particular subset of quotes, I could grab a tiddler-worth of >> neatly-formatted excerpts >> <http://ethics.tiddlyspot.com/#%5B%5BKing%20passages%5D%5D> ready to >> paste and go. >> >> Now, I face a decision: Do I (A) just rework the TW5 calc field in my >> database (updating so as to dress each quote/quiz element in TW5-specific >> reveal/details/slider macro syntax, options still under evaluation), or (B) >> do I figure out how to go all-in on data structure, and use TW5 data >> features to grab the bits I need from a massive "in-house" JSON tiddler >> (not thousands of quotes, but hundreds), and use templates to display >> aspects of the database as desired? The second *sounds* great... >> >> HOWEVER (!), I have no experience with manipulating JSON data yet, and >> grasp only the syntactic basics of how fields and values are paired (plus >> the fact that FileMaker does have some JSON-handling functions, so export >> should be possible). With JSON, there would be a learning curve, but I >> don't know how steep. (I tried mocking up some JSON-looking stuff and >> pasting it into TiddlyWiki and giving it JSON data "type" and my wiki just >> blinked back at me and said, OK, there's a buncha funny looking text...) >> >> If I understand correctly, it seems the advantage of the JSON approach >> (once I figure out how to import the data) is that I'd have great >> flexibility to re-filter things on the fly within TW, and *also* great >> flexibilty in GUI. So, if I suddenly discover some new display macro >> approach (in the reveal/details/accordion/slider world) or I realize I want >> to change which fields to display and how, I modify my template once, and >> all the tiddlers that rely on it are instantly updated. On my old system, >> when I became inspired to tweak how these things display, I would have to >> shuttle back and forth to my FileMaker database, and perform copy-paste >> operations for each tiddler with the new syntax. >> >> So, for those fluent in JSON (and yet not unsympathetic to JSON newbies), >> would you advise me toward (A), or toward (B)? Or, am I not grasping the >> choice well yet? >> >> By the way, I'm guessing that the path of importing JSON data, if I don't >> ever convert it into regular tiddlers, seems to place more importance on >> the possibility of freelinking, since my database of quoted passages uses >> many terms that are in my glossary, and I've love for them to link, but all >> the data will stay "under the hood" within the JSON tiddler, right? >> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tiddlywiki/a2f27277-eabe-4e7c-b726-614ad77f4753%40googlegroups.com.
