2nd July 2023 Newsletter

Covers: June 18th 2023 thru July 2nd 2023

News

Announcing the release of TiddlyWiki v5.3.0

I’m delighted to announce the release of TiddlyWiki v5.3.0 at:

https://tiddlywiki.com/

The jump in version number is because the new parameterised transclusion and related features in this release are the culmination of thinking and experimenting that began around 7 years ago. These are far reaching improvements that allow authors to write clearer, more concise wikitext that is more powerful than ever before. They also fix some of the mistakes in the original design of TiddlyWiki 5. The real challenge has been to deliver these improvements without compromising on our commitment to backwards compatibility.

At its simplest, parameterised transclusion is the ability to pass parameters in a transclusion, separating them with a single vertical bar:

{{MyUtility|red|22px}}

Those parameters can be accessed within the tiddler “MyUtility” with the following declaration:

\parameters (colour:"green",size: "20px")
...

The work to implement parameterised transclusion also provides some other significant features:

• Custom widgets in wikitext

• Custom, parameterised named functions

• Procedures – these are essentially what macros should have been; they work in exactly the same way except that parameters are exposed as simple variables (without the double underscores) and no textual substitution takes place

The major features of the new release are:

• A new syntax for widget/html attributes that allows textual substitution of variable and filters

• Support for sending HTTP requests, opening up exciting possibilities to call web APIs and load content dynamically

• Updated Google Analytics plugin compatible with the new version

• New :then[...] filter run prefix

• New thisTiddler variable for transcluded tiddlers to access their own title

• More improvements to the browser storage plugin, making it more flexible and robust

• Many bug fixes

• Finally, CamelCase linking is now turned off by default

You can upgrade your existing single file wikis here:

https://tiddlywiki.com/upgrade.html

For Node.js users, the new version is available on npm at tiddlywiki - npm

As usual, please exercise caution when upgrading, and take care to keep backup copies of everything important.

My thanks to everyone who contributed to this release, from code contributions to feedback. We’re phenomenally lucky to have so many people willing to help, and it is much appreciated.

Any questions or comments are welcome here, or via GitHub.

Best wishes

Jeremy

Discussion here

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Plugins

Feather Icon Set for TiddlyWiki

Discussion here

Icons hosted here

Presenting: OverWrite - modify shadow tiddlers freely

As you know, you are normally advised against overwriting shadow tiddlers because if an update modifies the shadow, then the overwrite may no longer perform as expected - possibly even doing very nasty things.

The OverWrite plugin targets this problem by alerting you when overwritten shadows have been modified in plugin updates, so that you can investigate the overwrites and approve, modify or delete them.

This is a pretty big deal as you can now feel a lot freer to modify both plugins and the TW core!

- twMat

Discussion here

Plugin here

Re-presenting: list-rows ~ formatted data in draggable rows

list-rows ~ lists data from filtered tiddlers, formatted into rearrangable table rows.

This macro takes inspiration from the macros list-links, list-tagged-draggable and list-links-draggable. They’re neat but all too limited, basically listing titles in bullet lists. The list-rows macro is more useful:

• you set a filter for which tiddlers to list

• the output is a table, each row corresponding to a tiddler

• each row structuredly displays tiddler data via a template

- twMat

Discussion here

Plugin here

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Tips & Tricks

An alternative to reveal widgets and detail elements

Nothing revolutionary here. Just the result of some goofing around with CSS.

Give it a spin at TiddlyWiki.com.

<style>
.ch1 div {display:none;}
.ch1:hover {background-color:#F5F5F5;border:1px solid gray;}
.ch1:hover div {display:block;}
</style>

<$list filter="[tag[Articles]]">
<div class="ch1">
{{!!title}}<br>
<div style="max-height:100px;overflow:auto;">
<$transclude mode="block">
</div>
</div>
</$list>

- Charlie Venoit

Discussion here

Floating Images HowTo

Instructions and Discussion here

Macro here