tinkaplugin / tinka

Tinka is an easy plugin packer for TiddlyWiki5.

This is a plugin for the brilliant wiki system TiddlyWiki5, located at http://www.tiddlywiki.com

This is a Control Panel extension that aims to simplify the plugin creation and editing process. After installing, you will find a new tab in your control panel that makes creating and modifying plugins a little bit easier.

Project Homepage on tinkaplugin.github.io

How to install Tinka

There are a few ways you could install Tinka into your own wiki:

• Go to tinkaplugin.github.io and Drag&Drop from there.
• Clone this repository and import the output/tinka.tid file into your wiki.
• Save the file located here and import it into your wiki.

Version History

2020-08-03 Release of version 0.5.0

I managed to update Tinka to work more nicely with newer versions of TiddlyWiki:

Changelog

• Fixed graphical glitches with newer versions of TW5
• Reworked the interface for modifying plugins
• Added the ability to select and unselect all search results when adding tiddlers to plugins
• name and description field are now used for both plugins and themes
• Added default filter to the search
• You can now attach notes to backups
• Renamed control panel tabs
• The version will correctly be set when creating a new plugin

2017-05-13 Release of version 0.4.0

This release fixes the following bugs:

Changelog

• Themes will now get the correct prefix $:/themes/ when packaging
• Fixed search results not linking properly
• Added description field when creating a new theme

2017-03-01 Release of version 0.3.0

After more than a year, Tinka is now on github and also released under the MIT license.

Changelog

• Packaging success now produces a modal that actively reminds the user to refresh the wiki.
• The search tab state is now kept in a temporary system tiddler.
• Added warning when repackaging themes that are not active.
• The 'Help Tab' functionality is now also available for plugins that do not follow the $:/plugins/... naming convention. In particular this applies to themes and core plugins.
• Fixed wrong headings for some modal dialogs.
• Older action widgets remodeled to use the (new) CommonAction widget as a base.
• Fixed error check that prevented users to enter a minimal core version dependency when creating a new plugin.

2015-09-20 Release of version 0.2.0-beta

Changelog

• Added Help-Tab capabilities to quickly navigate between plugin tiddlers.
• Moved Create-Plugin wizard to its own tab.
• Redid Create-Plugin UI to be easier and more accessible.
• Backups can now also be downloaded/exported.
• Added more documentation.

2015-05-18 Release of version 0.1.0

Changelog

• The metadata section now include edit fields for the name and source fields.
• The //default search// box now only searches for title matches.
• Backups can now be exported/downloaded.
• Backups can now be restored and made active again. If another version of the plugin is already active, the option is given to back it up,before restoring the backup.

Warning: For this mechanism to work, there has to be an 'original-title' field present in the backup tiddler. This is automatically added by Tinka, however earlier versions of Tinka did not add this field. If you want to restore a backup from an earlier version of Tinka, you will have to add the 'original-title' field manually and populate it with the former title of the plugin tiddler, in order for the restore function to work.

2015-04-30 Release of version 0.0.2

Changelog

• The list of plugin tiddlers is now hidden by default, since some lists can get very long.
• Added a different search option (default/filter)
• Improved Documentation slightly
• Added a backup option, so a plugin can be backed up before repackaging.

2015-04-29 Release of version 0.0.1

tinka's Issues

Add more visible link to github repository

Just a friendly proposal to include a link to this repository in the default tiddler
I propose https://tinkaplugin.github.io/#Intro

Currently the link there only points to the site the visitor is already standing at.

Add ability to check entire list of items to be included in plugin

Currently you can specify a filter and then see a list of items to be included in the plugin. Great! But what if there are hundreds or thousands of items to be included (vocabulary items, book chapters, catalog entrees, etc.) ? It would be helpful if there was a way to say "mark all checkboxes" or to have the checkboxes marked by default. Thanks!

Packing shadows

Unsurprisingly, it is not possible to pack shadow tiddlers from already existing plugins.

1. This should be mentioned where the filter area is

2. More seriously, this causes a lot of extra work when making an update because all the tiddlers must be manually made into non-shadow tids by opening them one-by-one and saving again. Very tedious and truly annoying when doing several updates because you realized you needed to tweak something.

Themes have to be active/loaded when repackaging

There even is a warning about this:

When one wants to repackage a theme, the theme either has to be the the active theme or somehow loaded by the current active theme as a dependant. Ideally this would not be required, especially since work-in-progress themes might not be usable at all stages.

Search results are not linkified correctly

As seen, the titles are not linkified correctly. I guess there are some quotes or brackets missing.

Option to add path prefix on to-be shadow tids

It would be convenient with an option to add the $:/plugins/<name>/<pluginname> prefix to tiddlers selected for inclusion.

(This is just a drawn image. No implementation.)

In the meta-data table, remove superfluous "Name" field

In the meta-data, before selecting "plugin" or "theme", which is mandatory to do, there is a name field (next to the Description field) which does not contribute anything. It disappears as soon an one selects plugin or theme. Actually, the Description field is apparently transformed into the "Plugin title" field.

Considering how it is useful with a description, I propose to keep both fields also after the plugin/theme selection is done.

When the plugin is packaged, those two fields are merged into <name> - <descrition> to get e.g "Tinka - an easy plugin packer"

Themes will not use $:/themes/ as prefix when packaging

When setting the plugin type from plugin to theme, the prefix stays at $:/plugins/. Ideally this would change so packaging themes also follows the proper naming convention.

See discussion here: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/Tiddlywiki/-UbX20O_DDg/Eo0bN7pNAwAJ

Additional Note: Also check 'Help Tab' filter string when fixing this to come up with a more sensible tab title in this case too.

Merge tab Installed into tab Create New

Updated: In my original proposal I had missed noting that one should use the listing under the Tinka "Installed" tab to re-make plugins. IMO this is easily missed and the following would be a superior and more streamlined UI:

I propose skipping the "Installed" tab all together and instead merge the re-make functionalities into into the "Create a new plugin" tab so this tab is really "Create or edit a plugin". The "Installed" tab is confusingly similar to the regular Controlpanel "Plugins" tab and it is IMO overall not quite clear what the "Installed" is for. Thus:

Instead of the current

I propose a preliminary step like so

...i.e you select what you intend to do and depending on selection you get the empty Create New form or the prepopulated form for existing tiddlers.

[deleted]

Unable adding a 'Description' when creating a new plugin/theme

When creating a new plugin/theme there is no 'Description' field.
Only when repackaging you are able to fill in a 'Description'.

Naming of entries unclear

When creating a new plugin/theme you have to fill in a 'Plugin/Theme Title'.
When repackaging, these 'Plugin/Theme Title' cannot be found anymore as such.
In case of a theme, 'Name' (mandatory for a theme) contains 'Theme Title' while in case of a plugin 'Name' is empty.

Lighten up placeholder color

The placeholders make it look like fields are already filled in. When doing several revisions it's easy to not look so carefully and forget something... which means messy post-tweaking. Not a big problem but in deed an annoyance. (If#7 is implemented, then this would be yet smaller).

Proposal
This CSS simply makes the placeholder color lighter which makes it clear it is not text that the user has entered:

(Much room for minification ;-)

.tinka-meta-table ::-webkit-input-placeholder { /* WebKit, Blink, Edge */
    color:    lightgray;
}
.tinka-meta-table :-moz-placeholder { /* Mozilla Firefox 4 to 18 */
   color:    lightgray;
   opacity:  1;
}
.tinka-meta-table ::-moz-placeholder { /* Mozilla Firefox 19+ */
   color:    lightgray;
   opacity:  1;
}
.tinka-meta-table :-ms-input-placeholder { /* Internet Explorer 10-11 */
   color:    lightgray;
}
.tinka-meta-table ::-ms-input-placeholder { /* Microsoft Edge */
   color:    lightgray;
}