14 posts tagged with "Kanji"

The History tab is finally functional and will keep track of everything you've browsed. On top of that it is sync'ed with your other devices if you are signed in.

Everything you search, every pages you browse, are now saved in the search History tab: kanji, words, vocabulary lists, tag queries, etc. If this is too much information, you can filter it by category with the options located in the app bar. Note that if there are multiple identical items, only the most recent one will be displayed, therefore tapping one item will bring it to the top of the list.

Cloud Sync​

The History is saved to your device but if you are signed in it will also be sync'ed to the cloud and your other devices when the app restarts, you sign in, or your phone is reconnected to the internet. If needed you can force a sync with a pull-to-refresh gesture. Everything searched before signing in is preserved and will be sent to the cloud once you sign in.

Clean Up​

History is cleared on the device when you sign out (and of course restored when you sign in). If you need to clear it manually, it can be done from Account > Preferences > Danger Zone > CLEAR SEARCH HISTORY. This will also clear it on the cloud. If you only need to clear the cache on the device, choose CLEAR CACHES.

Other fixes and changes in v0.2.1​

Bug Fixes
- fixes missing kanji reading examples when the reading has a dash like "おに-", the dash is replaced by a * wildcard
- fixes missing quick search action for Kanji suggestion
- fixes Kanji card's size issue when dense settings is on
- fixes Kanji card's overflowing title during animation
- fixes Word card's text height jumping during animation
- fixes Japanese Word card's font (english and japanese text have their own font)
- fixes Sign Out status not being persisted when app restarts
- fixes kanji level tags (JLPT, kanken, grade) not being retrieved due to case sensitivity issue
- fixes kanji reference tags (RTK, etc.) not being suggested
- fixes My Lists pop over menu (when pressing the bookmark icon) hiding elements with a scrollable view
Enhancements
- Dashboard has a pull-to-refresh gesture to get new random kanji-of-the-day, etc.
- Dashboard's Vocabulary List Example returns a random public list that has at list 2 kanji and 2 words
- Dashboard's cards such as Kanji-of-the-day are disabled with better error messages if they couldn't fetch their data
- Dashboard refreshes itself when the phone comes back online
- Word and Kanji card has a highlight/splash effect corresponding to their frequency color
- missing pages, broken links or pages that returns server error will automatically pop back to the previous page and displays the error via the toaster
- My List tab displays a special message if phone is offline
- displays a nicer message with space invader icon when Search Results or History screen is empty
- vocabulary list loading animation displays the list's name instead "Loading..." and skeletons for the exact number of kanji and words
Other
- adds http metrics to firebase performance (response time and payload size)

*Kanjiverse *beta version 0.1.15 introduces shareable content. Tap the share button on any page or custom list to share it with the world!

Try it out​

Share links to any content (kanji, word, list) with your friends, students or blog readers. They will be taken straight to the right place in the app, or to the app store if they don't have Kanjiverse installed yet.

• You can share kanji, for instance 連: https://app.kanjiverse.com/GzirkYTqd245jS4SA
• Japanese word, such as "link": https://app.kanjiverse.com/vMuFqFrfeuKZenEL6
• Or even your own custom list, like some vocabulary from "Zelda: Link's Awakening" (see what I did ^^): https://app.kanjiverse.com/QVcipDXaCvXEwVfW6

Use cases​

Those dynamic links have many usages, for instance:

• Student: share a page with your friends or classmates to invite them to try out Kanjiverse. If they don't have the app installed yet, the link will take them to the app store first.
• Teacher: create a custom list with words and kanji from today's lesson and share it with your students.
• Blogger: add a link to individual vocabulary word and kanji in your post to let your readers see their details in Kanjiverse at the press of a button.
• Vlogger: create a custom list with the words used in your video and paste its link in the description to let your audience get all the vocabulary at once.

Under the hood​

Deep links, app links, universal links, dynamic links... they come in many names depending on which OS you are but they all do more or less the same:

• Deep Link: a URL that takes you directly to a specific content in the app. The user will be prompted to choose with which app they want to open the link.
• App Link: improved version of Deep Link on Android, it lets an app be the default handler of a specific URL scheme.
• Universal Link: iOS's version of Deep/App Link.
• Dynamic Link: Firebase's all-in-one link. The link behave like a deep/app link on Android, a universal link on iOS, a standard html link on your computer, and even opens the App/Play store if the app isn't installed yet. This is what Kanjiverse is using.

A new version is available to beta testers on the play store! This release fixes (all?) issues with the autocompletion's suggestion lists (it won't hide outside the screen anymore) and adds a bunch of new filters including the convenient Sort By filters.

Sort By filter autocompletion​

The Sort By filters can be autocompleted when you type "sort" or the name of what you want to sort:

• sort kanji by character, #strokes, frequency, grade/JLPT/kanken level, glyph composition, glyph formation, references (e.g. RTK index)
• sort words by Japanese variant, English definition, frequency, part-of-speech (aka grammar), field, dialect, misc
• sort results in ascending or descending order
• they can also be chained, in the order you typed them

Here are a few examples of what you can do with them (from left to right):

• sort joyo kanji by grade then frequency
• sort kanji in their RTK order
• sort all computer related nouns by frequency

All the other fixes in version 0.1.10:​

• adds autocomplete for more filters such as Katakana, Collection, Kanji Readings, References (i.e. RTK, dictionary indices, etc.)
• fixed search bottom sheet being hidden behind the navigation bar
• fixed suggestion list overflowing on the right of the screen
• fixed pressing filter in the search bar make the dialog move behind the navigation bar
• fixed crash when Kanji has no meanings and no keyword
• fixed some unrecognized radicals/subcomponents
• fixes parenthesis and comma issues in kanji meanings
• fixed * wildcard not working in english words
• fixed 'any' value not returning anything when searching by level (grade, jlpt, kanken) or references (RTK, wanikani, etc.)
• fixed suggestion list height overflowing on the top of the screen
• fixed radicals not being ordered correctly in the radical input method tab
• changes the font of radicals input to sans serif
• forces a update of all pages when user switch their level
  

Android users will finally be able to get their hands on the first Private Beta! Here is what you can expect.

Collections and Dictionaries​

Kanjiverse currently supports two types of collection: Kanji and Japanese (words and expressions). Each page of a collection is a series of customizable cards. New cards will added in the future, here is what's available now.

Kanji Collection​

The Kanji Collection contains 13,108 kanji with the following cards:

• Glyph Graph: everyone's favorite, decomposes a kanji into its components and sub-components, tap one of them to zoom in.
• Formula: a flat version of the Glyph Graph, shows Heisig's Remembering The Kanji (RTK) keyword for each component.
• Meanings & Tags: various informations about the kanji such as JLPT level, is it a pictogram, is it a joyo, etc. All those tags can be used as filters when doing a search.
• Readings: each possible reading of the kanji, sorted and colored by frequency of usage, lists all words that use this reading.

Japanese Collection​

The Japanese Words and Expressions Collection contains* 180,429 entries* with the following cards:

• JMdict Variants: some Japanese words can be written with different kanji, kana or have different pronunciations, this card shows them all, courtesy of JMdict/Edict.
• Kanji List: links to Kanji Collection pages for each kanji present in the word/expression.
• JMdict Senses: list of definitions with tags that can also be used as search filters.
• Compounds and Affixes: Japanese is an agglutinative language, words can often be part of other longer words.
• Tatoeba Corpus Sentences: sample sentences with English translations from the Tateoba Corpus.

User Level and Preferences​

Kanjiverse comes with 5 recommended profiles based on the user's level. You choose the one that matches your level and the interface and content displayed will be adapted to fit your needs.

Things that change based on the selected profile: types of card displayed, tag details, furigana, romaji or kana, English or Japanese labels, hiding rare kanji/words, etc.

Example of the same page displayed for Novice, Intermediate, and Expert levels: The same page displayed for Novice, Intermediate, and Expert levels. All the settings used in these default profiles can also be fine tuned individually: Some of the Preference screens.

Smart Search Bar​

The search bar helps you query all collections at once with different input methods:

• Keyboard Input: provides suggestions as you type, converts romaji to hiragana and autocompletes all filter tags.
• Kanji Component Input: search by radical, phonetic component or any part of a character.
• Filter Tag Input: every tag present on kanji/word pages can be used as filter. More than a hundred are available such as kanji composition, grammar element, frequency of usage, JLPT levels, etc. Search with different Input Methods.

Vocabulary Lists and Catalog​

You can create your own lists of kanji/words and share them with others. You can also browse the catalog and bookmark any list that others have shared!

To create your own list:​

1. Go to My Lists (tab in the bottom navigation).
2. Sign In is required (only email sign in is available for now, careful not to forget your password, account reset isn't implemented yet!).
3. Tap CREATE NEW LIST.
4. Enter at least a title, description is optional, and check Share List if you want to let other users search and bookmark this list (of course they won't be able to modify its content).
5. To add a kanji/words to this list, press the bookmark icon on any page, then select the list. Steps to create a custom list and bookmark pages.

To find shared lists:​

Instead of creating a list from scratch, you can search if someone has already shared a list for your textbook or favorite anime:

1. Go to My Lists tab.
2. Press the Search button (on this tab it is an icon of a magnifying glass hovering bookmarks).
3. Type the title you are looking for and press SEARCH.
4. Tap on one of the results to open the list's details.
5. Press the bookmarks icon to add it to My Lists. Steps to search the catalog of vocabulary lists.

Is that all?​

You might have noticed that not all features announced on the landing page are present in this first beta version, notably:

• Kanjiverse Corpus (sentences from the real world extracted from anime, drama, etc.): development will continue when the app is stable, for now only Tatoeba Corpus is available.
• Mnemonic Card: writing and sharing mnemonics to remember kanji will be added soon, meanwhile you can use the Formula Card to see Heisig's Remembering the Kanji (RTK) keywords for each component of a kanji.
• Share translation and votes: community features are currently limited to creating and sharing vocabulary lists, there is no feature to add content, vote or report either.
• Handwriting Input: the recommended workaround is to install Gboard.
• Web app: the quality of the web version isn't good enough yet to provide a satisfying user experience so it will be delayed until it stabilizes.
• **iPhone version: **the iOS version is ready to meet its beta testers, I am now at the mercy of Apple to allow its distribution... this might take weeks.

Don't be disappointed if a feature you were looking forward to isn't there yet, the development of Kanjiverse is far from over. In order not to delay the access to the private beta any further, I've decided to release a first version with only the features presented on this page. It should already provide beta testers with a usable experience. Further developments will then be prioritized based on the feedback from the community.

If you haven't register yet, go there and enter your email address to receive your invite link. Looking forward to seeing you in the private beta :)