Hi there, I'm wondering whether there has been development or ideas about something that you would call a "data application". I'm not sure TW is the right space for that, but I can envision some kind of integration between data input, formatting and display.
There is some tension in TW between giving everything its own tiddler and aggregating various entries into one bigger tiddler. Maybe this would be the reason that TW is not suited for incorporating an "application" for data display. A tiddler is meant to contain text and formatting, simple note-taking that receives its formatting on-the- fly. Where to store unstyled (yet structured) data? Let me give you an example of what I mean. Suppose you would want to use TW to maintain a list of bookmarks. You envision several categories of bookmarks. There are categories for "politics", "economics", "spirituality". You don't want to just add the bookmark, but you want to add some summary description about what the bookmark is about, perhaps it links to an article and you want to record your views about what was being said. A summary. You want to add a "topic" description that doesn't have to be unique and you want to add a "today" in some universal format (yyyy-mm-dd) that describes the day the bookmark was added. Perhaps you also want to include a "date" that pertains to the publication date of the article. In XML the data structure would look like this: <entry today="2008-06-23" topic="Elite education in USA" category="education"> <source>http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su08/elite- deresiewicz.html</source> <title>The Disadvantages of an elite education</title> <summary>People are being taught to conform but not to think independently</summary> </entry> You also imagine expanding this system to include scans you make of magazine articles that you store in whatever format (jpg, pdf..). So the <source> tag may refer to a local store "/documents/uwv- perspectief-column-nuttig.jpg". It becomes a bit of a problem to envision unique tiddler names for every entry you add. You decide to add a WikiWord name matching the topic "EliteEducation" and to add new bookmarks on the same topic to the same tiddler. You tag the tiddler both with "bookmark" and the category "education" and possibly "scannedDocument". Tagging it with "bookmark" makes the tiddler eligible for inclusion in your soon-to-be automated system. All the other tags become selectors in your application-tiddler that allow you to filter the list of bookmarks. Another filter would be "today" - the bookmark date (you would filter on year and/or month). Today would be the default sort criterium for the displaying application. Now the only problem is to imagine and develop a way for tiddlers to contain readable text /and/ to exhibit the data structure mentioned in the XML fragment. We would need a new action in the options panel called "new bookmark" that would make it easier to add the bookmark and the format needed on every new entry. Perhaps even a little dialog box that would faciliate importing a live bookmark on the internet, filling into a new (or existing) tiddler the title, today and source, as well as the tag "bookmark", and providing also a choice of existing categories (tags) in the system. The format could be as simple as a definition list ; today : 25 march 2010 ; topic : cultuurrelativisme ; title : Cultuurrelativisme; 2003; Wim van Rooy Or it could employ a new css class for easy parsing and recognition (and styling as well) {{bookmark{ |''today''|2006-12-14| |''topic''|cultuurrelativisme| |''category''|filosofie| |''title''|Cultuurrelativisme; 2003; Wim van Rooy| |''source''|http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2003-08-12-vanRooy- nl.html| |''summary''|blablabla| } It could even be a little javascript-based form application that wouldn't require editing the tiddler directly but rather would involve directly entering and selecting from the various form controls (edit fields, drop down lists), although the form would still need to save the data to the tiddler itself. I think a basic easy-to-parse format such as the table above would be very appropriate. All that would be required then is a way to specify a template or format for the data structure that can be used to generate the application (the macro?) that is going to do the actual displaying of the aggregate bookmark list. Perhaps all that is needed is to create a template that reflects not the data format but the actual html structure for displaying the bookmark list. <div application="bookmark" macro='view data list' selectors='today category scannedDocument'> .<table> ..<th><td>today</td><td>topic</td><td>category</td> etc </th> ..<tr> ...<td class="date" field="today" macro="view data field"/> ...<td class="selection" field="category" macro="view data field"/> ...<td class="text" field="topic" macro="view data field"/> ..</tr> .</table> </div> The basic macro (?) would simply list all of the tiddlers it finds that have the specified tag ('bookmark') and parse all the "{{bookmark{}}}" sections that it comes across, filling in the values it finds into the table. It can then hide the subsections of the table based on selections of tag and year/month. The table would also provide clickable links to both http sources and local files. The macro might even wikify the text it finds, such as the summary text. It might become a bit troublesome to include ALL the tags as possible selectors for the list. It is not necessary for the tiddlers to have tags beyond 'bookmark' and 'scannedDocument'; the category field in this case could use a multiple comma/space separated format ("spirituality economics"). On the other hand, all tags that are present in any of the matched tiddlers could be shown in a single drop- down list for single-selection, much like the 'category' field in this case would provide a selector populated with the values found in all the tiddlers. Perhaps the additional 'tag' selector would exclude the tags already in use in other selectors. The purpose of TiddlyWiki tags would be to cross the border between "data application" and the total wiki, enabling all of the tagging features normally found in TW. It would be very easy to customize this database system for other needs, as long as the records are simple. All you need to do is edit the template for the list-application, and also provide the basic template for the {{bookmark{}}} sections such that there can be a "new bookmark" button. So, this is then what I would have in mind when talking about database application of TiddlyWiki. Of course, it would be just as easy to fire up a PHP/MySQL/web server, write a single php script, write a single- table SQL definition, and be done. But it's probably really just as much work as doing this in TW for those that have the knowledge and you would be doing it in a much richer environment. What do you think? Does something like this already exist? Greetings, Xen. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TiddlyWiki" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tiddlywiki?hl=en.
