TW5 SERVER

A minimal web server in Ruby that allows editing and saving of TiddlyWiki in a browser. Based on https://gist.github.com/jimfoltz/ee791c1bdd30ce137bc23cce826096da by Jim Foltz.

Installing / Getting started

First, download TiddlyWiki from https://tiddlywiki.com/empty.html and save it in a subfolder of this script but NOT as index.html. You can do this from the command line (e.g. Terminal on Mac) like so:

curl https://tiddlywiki.com/empty.html >> folder/empty.html

Then, to start the server, run the following:

ruby tw5-server.rb folder/empty.html

If you want to host multiple TiddlyWikis, you can serve the whole subfolder, and then pick the desired file from a folder listing that will be automatically generated:

ruby tw5-server.rb folder

Example systemd service

On Linux, you can automate your TiddlyWiki server with a systemd service:

[Unit]
Description=TiddlyWiki
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/home/$USER/twiki
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ruby tw5-server.rb folder/empty.html
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Serving and securing your site

We suggest running this with a local firewall and/or proxy to secure external connections. The following is a working proxy configuration for NGINX with optional password protection:

upstream tiddlywiki.example.com {
        server 127.0.0.1:8000;
}

server {
        server_name tiddlywiki.example.com;
        client_max_body_size 20M;

        location / {
                #uncomment these lines to enable password protection after you have set up your user and password
                #as per https://docs.nginx.com/nginx/admin-guide/security-controls/configuring-http-basic-authentication/
                #
                #auth_basic "Restricted";
                #auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/htpasswd;

                proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
                proxy_set_header     X-Real-IP       $remote_addr;
                proxy_set_header     X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        }
}

Contributors

Jim Foltz

• Original author

Brian Emery

• Added a bind address in the server definition - this will prevent the WEBrick server from accepting connections from remote hosts, and exposing your file system to the internet.

Prehistoric Dog

• Fixed a trailing slash bug when serving a single TW file directly instead of a directory.
• Expanded and reformatted the instructions, adding example code for a systemd service and an example NGINX reverse proxy configuration.