Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

TiddlyWiki

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Development status
  
Active

Operating system
  
Cross-platform

TiddlyWiki

Developer(s)
  
Jeremy Ruston and community members

Initial release
  
30 September 2004; 12 years ago (2004-09-30)

Stable release
  
5.1.13 / 25 July 2016; 7 months ago (2016-07-25)

Repository
  
github.com/Jermolene/TiddlyWiki5/

TiddlyWiki is an open-source single page application wiki in the form of a single HTML file that includes CSS, JavaScript, and the content. It is designed to be easy to customize and re-shape depending on application. It facilitates re-use of content by dividing it into small pieces called Tiddlers.

Contents

Tiddlers

TiddlyWiki introduces the division of content into its "smallest, semantically meaningful, components", referred to as tiddlers. Each tiddler is stored inside an HTML division that contains the source text and meta data in wiki markup. The purpose with this division is to enable easy re-use of content for different narratives and in different contexts.

For example, the section you're currently reading ("Tiddlers") could be a tiddler. In the TiddlyWiki user interface it would appear as it appears here but as a separate "note" visually distinct from other tiddlers.

The underlying HTML source code (which is not what the user faces) would be something like:

This same "tiddler" could then be reused in other contexts in the wiki.

Plugins

In addition to containing text, a tiddler can be a plugin with additional JavaScript and CSS to extend TiddlyWiki. As a result, TiddlyWiki is used in a wide variety of adaptations and uses beyond that of a personal wiki. One example is for interactive graph visualization or mind-maps with the plugin TiddlyMap.

File saving

A TiddlyWiki opened from a file URI may save changes made back to the original file using one of the following techniques:

  • formerly the Mozilla File I/O under the control of the UniversalXPConnect per-file preferences for Mozilla Firefox. That functionality was removed from Firefox, and is now replaced with a plugin called TiddlyFox.
  • the Microsoft ActiveX FileSystemObject for Internet Explorer
  • TiddlySaver Java applet to extend Safari, Opera, Chrome/Chromium, and other browsers. Requires the Java runtime.

    • Applications

    TiddlyWiki is designed for customization and to be shaped according to users' specific needs, perhaps comparable to a high-end programming language. As such, it can be shaped into a wide and arbitrary range of special applications. Examples include niche note taking applications, to-do lists, presentations, collections, authoring tools, personal databases, recipe collections, etc.

    Although there are many TiddlyWiki documents on the Web, the majority of TiddlyWikis reside on personal computers or in the cloud, or are exchanged over email, in a manner similar to word processing documents and spreadsheets. It has been suggested that, as a single HTML file, or saved as an HTA file in Microsoft Windows (allowing corporate IE lockdown to be bypassed), TiddlyWiki is useful in corporate environments where red tape or IT resources might prevent the use of a wiki that requires a more complicated installation.

    TiddlyWiki has been used as a Software framework to build specialisations. SocialText uses TiddlyWiki as a part of their unplugged feature.

    History

  • The first version of TiddlyWiki was released by Jeremy Ruston in September 2004.
  • BT Group bought Osmosoft in 2007 appointing Ruston as BT's "Head of Open Source Innovation".
  • TiddlyWiki was selected as one of the Top 100 Tools for 2007 and 2008 by the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies.
  • In November 2011, Jeremy Ruston announced his departure from Osmosoft and commitment to continue development on TiddlyWiki.
  • In December 2013 TiddlyWiki5 was released. It is a total rebuild of the original TiddlyWiki, based on HTML5 and with many significant improvements from lessons learnt over the years with the original TiddlyWiki. The original TiddlyWiki has come to be called TiddlyWiki Classic.

    • License

    TiddlyWiki is free and open source software and is distributed under the terms of the BSD license. The copyright of TiddlyWiki is held in trust by UnaMesa, a Non-profit organization.

    References

    TiddlyWiki Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA