Shortkeys

One of the main conepts of the qankiadd is shortkeys. By pressing the shortkeys you can perform some actions. In qankiadd shortkey consists of up to 4 Modifiers ("ctrl", "alt", "win", "shift") and 1 Key (any key of the keyboards). Shortkeys can be defined in the "config.xml" with the following syntax:

<Modifier>SomeModifier</Modifier>
<Key>SomeKeyboardKey</Key>

For example:

<Modifier>ctrl</Modifier>
<Modifier>shift</Modifier>
<Key>o</Key>

The above code defines the shortkey (('ctrl', 'shift'), 'o') which means that if you press Ctrl+Shift+O some action will be performed (e.g. copying selected text into the field).

Defining common shortkeys

At the beginning of the configuration file you have to define the shortkeys which will be available for all configurations. If you do not define them, the default shortkeys will be used.

<SaveAll>
  <Modifier>SomeModifier</Modifier>
  <Key>SomeKeyboardKey</Key>
</SaveAll>

<ClearAll>
  <Modifier>SomeModifier</Modifier>
  <Key>SomeKeyboardKey</Key>
</ClearAll>

<Quit>
  <Modifier>SomeModifier</Modifier>
  <Key>SomeKeyboardKey</Key>
</Quit>

<ShowStatus>
  <Modifier>SomeModifier</Modifier>
  <Key>SomeKeyboardKey</Key>
</ShowStatus>

Defining study configurations

At the startup of program you will be asked to select the configuration which you would like to use. Each <Configuration> consists of attrbute name and child elements <Field>. Any amount of <Configuration> elements can be defined within one config.xml file. Each <Configuration> can have any amount of the <Field> elements.

<Configuration name="Foreign Language">
  <Field name="Question" addmode="Ignore" required="True">
      (elements related to the field)
  </Field>
</Configuration>

Each field can be filled with the text which can be then exported to the Anki. To define field the <Field> XML element has to be used. This element can have the following attributes:

• name - mandatory attribute which stands for the name of the field
• addmode - not mandatory attribute which stands for the way of setting the text to the fields and can accpet the following options:
  • Ignore - if the field already contains some text do not update field with the new text. The default option.
  • Write - the text of the field will be rewritten with new text
  • Append - new text will be appended to the already existing field's text
• required - not mandatory attribute and can have the value True or False (the default option). True means the fields will not be exported to the file until this field does not contain the text.

The field can be filled with the text by pressing user defined shortkey. One shortkey can be assigned to the field by using the following XML defintion:

<Configuration name="Foreign Language">
  <Field name="Question">
      <Modifier>SomeModifier</Modifier>
      <Key>SomeKey</Key>
  </Field>
</Configuration>

After the shortkey assigned to the field is pressed, the data retreived from the data provider is set to the field. By defult Clipboard data provider is used. To assign another data provider to the field the <DataProvider> element has to be used. The following data providers currently available:

• Clipboard - if you select some text, and press the shortkey of the field which has Clipboard data provider, the selected text will be added to this field. This data provider do the following:

  1. Simulates press of the Ctrl+C key, so that the selected data is copied into the clipboard buffer
  2. Retreives the data from the clipboard buffer.

• GoogleTranslate - the data provider which returns the translation of the passed text. This data provider has attribute arg which contains the information about the destinition language (to which language the text has to be translated). Currently this attribute accepts the following options:

  • RU - translate to russian language

  • EN - translate to english language

  • DE - translate to german language

    <Field name="Answer" addmode="Write" required="True">
        <DataProvider arg="RU">GoogleTranslate</DataProvider>
    </Field>
    

It is also possible to make so, that after pressing the shortkey of the Field1, the updated text of the Field1 is sent to the obeservers, e.g. Field2. After Field2 receives the text it passes this text to the assigned data provider and updates its own text with the text returned by the data provider. For defining obersvers add element <ObservableField> to the field you want to make observable. Inside this element put the name of the field to observe. E.g. let's take an example:

<Field name="Question" addmode="Ignore" required="True">
    <Modifier>ctrl</Modifier>
    <Key>d</Key>
    <DataProvider>Clipboard</DataProvider>
</Field>
<Field name="Answer" addmode="Write" required="True">
    <ObservableField>Question</ObservableField>
    <DataProvider arg="RU">GoogleTranslate</DataProvider>
</Field>

The following steps will be executed with the above defined configuration if a user presses Ctrl+D key:

1. the field Question is updated with the selected text (because Clipboard data provider is used).
2. the selected text is sent to the field Answer, because this field is an observer of the field Question (see element <ObservableField> which contains the name Question).

3. the field Answer receives the text and:

   1. passes it to the GoogleTranslate data provider
   2. GoogleTranslate translates the passed text and returns the result back to the field Answer
   3. Answer receives the text from GoogleTranslate and updates its own text with the received one.

This concept allows you very quickly create flash cards by only pressing the user defined shortkeys - qankiadd will automatically update all observer fields by using defined data providers.