I have been a language learner for almost five years now. In all my time I used Anki to handle all my flashcards. What makes Anki so powerful in eyes is not just the UI and the well thought-out algorithm used to learn your cards, but also the possibility to use and thus write own addons for it. For my workflow I needed an addon with which I could easly handle my old cards and my leeches.
By old cards I mean cards, which got postponed so much into the future, that they became irrelevant, since the older the card the higher the possibility that you already know it. Leeches on the other hand are cards which were marked by the user multiple times as hard or again, which tells Anki, that the user could not memorize the new word over a number of occurences. In both cases the user wastes time on cards, which he either already knows or still do not knows the word from. If we then assume that the user is playing the long game and learning thousand if not 10'000 cards over his language learning journey, a considerable amount of time is consumed for said irrelevant cards.
This is the write-up to the project: For the full code click Github and to download the addon directly into Anki, have a look at AnkiWeb
The plugin was written in python using Anki's provided libraries. For some context I also recommend having a look at the references below this page.
Now in regads to the code itself it is pretty straight forward in what it does. We utilise the aqt package from Anki to access GUI-related capabilities. Using this it allows to draw a window with which the user can interact. In our case the window contains one input field, two dropdown menus and three buttons, which handle moving operations and the closure of the window respectively.
from aqt.utils import showInfo
from aqt.qt import qconnect
from aqt.qt import *
import re
"""
UserPrompt class for holding GUI window
utilise class for longer access to variables and functions
"""
class UserPrompt(QDialog):
"""
Logic used to filter cards and move into new deck
"""
def move_ivl(self) -> None:
# Fetch data from Textbox and Dropdown Menu
card_age = self.text_box.text()
prop_ivl = f"prop:ivl{card_age}" # e.g., "prop:ivl>365"
deck_name = self.ivl_deck_dropdown.currentText()
# Parse input and handle errors
if not validate(card_age):
showInfo("Invalid prop_ivl") # invalid character found
return # stop execution here if error
# return deck_id (no new deck is created)
deck_id = mw.col.decks.id(deck_name)
# Set filter for card search
card_ids = mw.col.find_cards(prop_ivl)
# Move cards to defined deck
ret = mw.col.set_deck(card_ids=card_ids, deck_id=deck_id)
# Get the count of successful operations
success_operations = ret.count
if success_operations:
showInfo("Cards moved: %d" % success_operations)
else:
showInfo("Nothing to move")
"""
Handle moving leeches into new deck
"""
def move_leech(self):
# Fetch data from Dropdown Menu
deck_name = self.leech_deck_dropdown.currentText()
# Get deck id
deck_id = mw.col.decks.id(deck_name)
# Filter cards by leech property
card_ids = mw.col.find_cards("tag:leech")
# Move cards to defined deck
ret = mw.col.set_deck(card_ids=card_ids, deck_id=deck_id)
# Get the count of successful operations
success_operations = ret.count
if success_operations:
showInfo("Cards moved: %d" % success_operations)
else:
showInfo("Nothing to move")
"""
Class initialisation
"""
def __init__(self, parent=None):
super().__init__(parent)
# Define Groupbox and VBoxLayout objects
self.group_box = QGroupBox("Retirement Settings")
self.resize(400, 200)
self.vbox = QVBoxLayout() # vertical box layout
## Ivl Card Handling
# Text Box
self.card_age_label= QLabel("Card Age")
self.vbox.addWidget(self.card_age_label)
self.ivl_subtitle_label = QLabel("Valid are positive numbers and combinations of arithmetic operators \"<, >, =\"")
self.ivl_subtitle_label.setStyleSheet("font-size: 10pt; color: gray;")
self.vbox.addWidget(self.ivl_subtitle_label)
self.text_box = QLineEdit()
self.text_box.setText(">365") # default value for text box
self.vbox.addWidget(self.text_box)
# Dropdown Menu
self.ivl_dropdown_label = QLabel("Retirement Deck")
self.vbox.addWidget(self.ivl_dropdown_label)
self.ivl_dropdown_subtitle_label = QLabel("Choose a deck to move old cards into.")
self.ivl_dropdown_subtitle_label.setStyleSheet("font-size: 10pt; color: gray;")
self.vbox.addWidget(self.ivl_dropdown_subtitle_label)
self.ivl_deck_dropdown = QComboBox()
ivl_deck_list = mw.col.decks.all_names_and_ids()
for deck in ivl_deck_list:
self.ivl_deck_dropdown.addItem(deck.name, userData=deck.id)
self.vbox.addWidget(self.ivl_deck_dropdown)
# Buttons
self.hbox = QHBoxLayout() # horizontal box layout
self.hbox.addStretch() # left spacer
self.ivl_move_button= QPushButton("Move Old Cards") # move ivl button
self.ivl_move_button.clicked.connect(self.move_ivl)
self.hbox.addWidget(self.ivl_move_button)
## Leech Card Handling
# Dropdown Menu
self.leech_dropdown_label = QLabel("Leeches Deck") #2do: add info about tagging of leeches
self.vbox.addWidget(self.leech_dropdown_label)
self.leech_dropdown_subtitle_label = QLabel("Choose a deck to move leeches into.")
self.leech_dropdown_subtitle_label.setStyleSheet("font-size: 10pt; color: gray;")
self.vbox.addWidget(self.leech_dropdown_subtitle_label)
self.leech_deck_dropdown = QComboBox()
leech_deck_list = mw.col.decks.all_names_and_ids()
for deck in leech_deck_list:
self.leech_deck_dropdown.addItem(deck.name, userData=deck.id)
self.vbox.addWidget(self.leech_deck_dropdown)
# Buttons
#self.hbox = QHBoxLayout() # horizontal box layout --> use from before
#self.hbox.addStretch() # left spacer
self.leech_move_button= QPushButton("Move Leeches") # move leeches button
self.leech_move_button.clicked.connect(self.move_leech)
self.hbox.addWidget(self.leech_move_button)
## Universal button to close user prompt
self.close_button= QPushButton("Close")
self.close_button.clicked.connect(self.reject)
self.hbox.addWidget(self.close_button)
self.hbox.addStretch() # right spacer
## Finalise Layout
self.vbox.addLayout(self.hbox) # add horizontal layout to vertical
self.group_box.setLayout(self.vbox)
# Set default coloring of Buttons and tabbing interaction
self.ivl_move_button.setAutoDefault(False)
self.leech_move_button.setAutoDefault(False)
self.close_button.setDefault(True)
self.close_button.setAutoDefault(False)
# Create and set main layout
self.main_layout = QVBoxLayout()
self.main_layout.addWidget(self.group_box)
self.setLayout(self.main_layout)
"""
Validate ivl Input
"""
def validate(s):
return re.match(r'^([<>]|=)\d+(\.\d+)?$', s.strip()) is not None
"""
Callback function when user runs "Anki Oldies Plugin" from the dropdown menu
"""
def show_prompt():
if not hasattr(mw, "user_prompt") or not mw.user_prompt.isVisible():
mw.user_prompt = UserPrompt(mw)
mw.user_prompt.show()
else:
# Bring to front if already open
mw.user_prompt.raise_()
mw.user_prompt.activateWindow()
"""
Main function called when addon is initiated
"""
def main():
# Create new entry in anki menu for the plugin
action = QAction("Anki Oldies Plugin", mw)
qconnect(action.triggered, show_prompt) # only pass callback function, no direct call
mw.form.menuTools.addAction(action)
main()
Old Cards: Define the time range of the cards you want to move. This is done via the text field (input a positive number and the given operator) and by choosing the target deck you wish to move the cards into.
Leeches: Define a deck you wish to move the leeches into.
The following list contains some features I might want to implement in the future.