title: $:/plugins/welford/twexe/readme

! TWEXE

Tiddlywiki widget to run batch scripts/exes from either. 

* tiddlers/wiki entries directly 
* .bat/.exe files or on your local disk.

This is intended for an .hta flavoured TW, not suitable for anything online.

!Basics

Create a twexe tiddler, either :

!!containing script

```
tags: $:/tags/twexe
title: twexe_direct_example
twexe_tooltip: "click this to run test"
type: text/vnd.tiddlywiki

ECHO "HELLO WORLD"
```

!!linking to external batch file

```
tags: $:/tags/twexe
title: twexe_external_example
twexe_target: C:\somefolder\test.bat
type: text/vnd.tiddlywiki

sample test explaining the tool 
```

these can be used in the same way - it just depends on where you want to have the code you are making run.


!Usage

To have a button that simply runs either of the above you can use any of the below.

```
<$twexe tiddler="twexe_direct_example" name= "display name"/>
<$twexe tiddler="twexe_direct_example">display name</$twexe>
<$twexe tiddler="twexe_direct_example"/> 
```

All three will create a button with the text "display name" (the 3rd case will depend on the twexe_name field of the tiddler if supplied - if not it will default to the tiddler name)

''Clicking on the button will run the script referred to.''

''Right clicking on the button gives you a few  options:''

* Open Defining Tiddler
**in the example that would be be twexe_direct_example
* Open Arguments Tiddler
**in the example that would be be twexe_direct_example_args
** details below
* Open in Explorer
** for external scripts only, opens the containg folder in Windows Explorer
* Copy Path to clipboard
** for external scripts only, copies the target path to the cliboard


!Args / Fields

You can configure the batch using tiddler fields or marco attributes.


The order of precedence with args is [macro attribute > tiddler field > code default]


!!The tiddler fields available are:

*twexe_target
**if you are running an external batch file, this is the directly
*twexe_name
**display name of the button when transcluded in other files
*twexe_cwd
**current working directory when running script
*twexe_tooltip
**tool tip when hovering over button

if passed in using a macro the ``twexe_`` prefix is removed.

!!In a macro we have the additonal options
*tiddler
**the name of the tiddler to run (seen in the examples above)
*args 
**any args you wish to pass through. by default points to a tiddler with a name matching the twexe one with "_args" appended to the end. e.g. twexe_direct_example_args
*tmpdir 
**the location where the twexe batch files are created. defaults to the value in [[$:/plugins/welford/twexe/tmpdir]]

!Transclusion works

''With all fields/attributes except the "tiddler" attribute''

(It works recursively too!)

In the defining tiddler, the macro attributes or the tiddler fields you can use limited transclusion.

e.g. suppose we have the twexe tagged tiddler

```
tags: $:/tags/twexe
title: repeat_args
type: text/vnd.tiddlywiki

ECHO %1 %2
```

and a normal tidddler with the following values

```
title: Hello World Tiddler
type: text/vnd.tiddlywiki
field0:Hello
field1:World

Hello World
```

Then the below three 

```
<$twexe tiddler="repeat_args" args="Hello World"/>
<$twexe tiddler="repeat_args" args="{{Hello World Tiddler}}"/>
<$twexe tiddler="repeat_args" args="{{Hello World Tiddler!!field0}} {{Hello World Tiddler!!field1}}"/>
```

!!! You can transclude the view template too

```
{{twexe_example||$:/plugins/welford/twexe/viewtemplate}}
{{twexe_example||$:/plugins/welford/twexe/buttontemplate}}
```

!Tips

!!~EditTextWidget lets you edit args

e.g.  suppose we had these tiddlers

!!!copy.files.bat
```
title: copy.files.bat
type: text/vnd.tiddlywiki

copy %1 %2
pause
```

!!!~ExampleTiddler

```
title: ExampleTiddler
type: text/vnd.tiddlywiki
src:c:\source.txt
dest:d:\dest.txt

!! Source : <$edit-text tiddler="ExampleTiddler" field="src"/>
!! Destination : <$edit-text tiddler="ExampleTiddler" field="dst"/>

<$twexe tiddler="copy.files.bat" args="{{ExampleTiddler!!src}} {{ExampleTiddler!!dst}}" />
```

Example Tiddler contains two text boxes that let you edit the values that you pass to the copy.files.bat script.

By default it would copy c:\source.txt to d:\dest.txt, but you can now edit that to be anything you want.

''The fields / args you use don't need to be limited to the currently used one.''

```
<$twexe tiddler="copy.files.bat" args="{{copy.files.bat_args}}" />
<$twexe tiddler="copy.files.bat" args="c:\foo.txt c:\bar.txt" />
<$twexe tiddler="copy.files.bat" args="c:\foo.txt {{another tiddler containing a file name}}" />
```

all of the above are potentially correct.