Is there way to "Open in Pleco" in iOS?

[JD]

I'm a relatively new user of Pleco (2 months), and just started looking through the User Dictionary/Flashcard Exchange portion of the site.

I know there is Dropbox support and wireless access support, but the later involves using a 2nd computer, and the former involves having a Dropbox account. I don't have a Dropbox account and don't want one...I have about 50 accounts in my life and am looking to eliminate some, not add more! And my iPad has pretty much removed my need for a home computer, so I don't find using it to be appealing.

My home network has a network drive, where I store my docs, and this lets me access them from all my wireless devices regardless of what computer is on or off on the network. Ideally, I'd just like to be able to connect to my network drive and import the files. (Connection is just an SMB drive connection, supported by apps like GoodReader or various remote file apps).

I think it would be great to consider other simpler way to import items into Pleco other than than "back-end loading" of the files.

EDIT: I just had this thought, that even having a place to enter a Web link into the Pleco File Manager, would be a great possibility.....I just copy from Safari and then paste the link into a special place in Pleco, and then it would download that file and begin the import process.

EDIT: I just realized that for the database files, one can try to open them via Safari, and then select "Open in Pleco". This works for these files, but NOT for the flashcard .txt files.

Thoughts?

JD

 

[mikelove]

If you've got the document reader add-on you can also download files through the web reader function. Another option would be to use a separate file manager app like GoodReader to download the text file from a link and then share that file with Pleco - "Open In" won't work for text files in Safari but it'll work in most other apps.

 

[JD]

Both those ideas would be great to add to the help files documentation on the file management. I read through it, but didn't see those mentioned as alternative paths, and they look like they may meet my use cases well.

I have the full Pleco package (the $100 one), but haven't investigated items like the OCR or the Document reader yet. The regular dictionary is still a flood of info for my newbie brain!

Thanks for the pointers.
JD

 

[mikelove]

Fair enough, though there's always a tradeoff in manual-writing between too much information and too little.

 

[denmitch]

Can a searchable help manual ever have too much info?

 

[mikelove]

Yes, if a particular section lists so many extraneous details that you can't get a handle on how that particular feature works.

 

[denmitch]

What if the detailed info were hidden by a short description link and the user chose to open whatever interested him? The best user manuals I have worked with give overviews, basis steps, and then more links to progressively challenging concepts and tricks.

 

[JD]

The main objective of my original question was that the help manual, as it currently exists, did not tell me what the other options were for importing content.

If you read the detail on importing user dictionaries and managing files, it does not mention the Open In Pleco option (which is a free base Pleco option), nor the ability of the web/reader component to directly import the files (which is a paid option).

The Open In Pleco option doesn't work for text files in Safari, but does from other apps....who would have known that without being told? Also, knowing that the option of the web import is there could be a major impetus for someone to purchase the web/reader component.

I've had that functionality for a month, but never looked at it until after this conversation...and it has fantastic functionality I didn't know was there. IMO, telling users what additional functionality exist in the tool based on USE CASE rather than on functional breakdown (which is how the manual is now) is very helpful.

 

[mikelove]

Sorry, but we actually do mention "Open In" in the user dictionary section of the manual:

To install a previously backed-up user dictionary (copied to Pleco’s storage directory through the File Manager or an “Open In” command from another app), tap on that same “Add User” button at the bottom of the Manage Dicts screen, then tap on “Load Existing” and select your dictionary database file from the file list.

As for the web downloading option, to be honest that's not really something we're encouraging people to use anymore - it's a holdover from 2.x, which pre-dated the introduction of "Open In" to iOS by almost a year, and actually had a free (non-reader) Web Browser option in Settings specifically to enable those sorts of downloads. In the equivalent section in the 2.x instruction manual we did indeed mention it.

We've continued to support downloading in the web browser in 3.x for the sake of people who were already using it for that in the old app, but we don't talk it up in the manual because we'd rather not have too many more people get accustomed to using it in place of the other options like Open In; we may remove it altogether in the future if we decide to overhaul that part of Pleco for other reasons, or if Apple changes things in a future update to make it difficult to keep that feature working without a major rewrite. Basically, supporting all of that old code for web browser downloads is really a needlessly complicated solution and we'd rather not be committed to it for any longer than we have to.

It would make sense to say something about "Open In" from apps other than Safari, though, so I'll make a note to do something about that the next time we update the manual.

 

[JD]

Interesting. I didn't read the section entitled "installing an old user dictionary" because as a new user, I don't have any "old" dictionaries ( I.e. Thinking the context of the word was meaning "previous"). Something I download seems to me to be a "new" user dictionary. Regardless, yes, it is in there, so I retract the assertion that it was not....it just wasn't where I expected it to be.

I understand the need to deprecate features, so if the web downloading is eventually going away, my only requirement would be a simple replacement workflow for that use case. The "Open In" does seem to work, but the need to go through a second program makes it hard for the Flashcard .txt files.

For example, if as a new user, I were to download Pleco and had no other user-loaded apps on my iOS device, is there some default program in iOS that could save the text file so that the "Open In" feature can work? Safari doesn't even give me an option to interact with those files via another app (Apple's fault, at least based on what I see on my IPad Safari popup when I click on a txt)

I appreciate the detailed response. It's interesting to hear some of the background thinking behind why Pleco does what it does. Thank you very much!

JD

 

[kiraven]

I have a related question. I just skimmed the posts in this thread, several time it mentions that text files can not be opened in Pleco from Safari.
When I read a Chinese article, I normally first have it opened in Safari or Pocket, as I just stumbled over it somewhere. When the article is quite long or there are many words I don't know, I open it in Pleco's web reader. The only way I found is to manually copy the URL and then paste it in Pleco, which isn't the mist convenient workflow. On Android it was possible to directly share a link with Pleco.
Would a similar option be possible on iOS, or does it already exist and I'm overlooking it?

 

[mikelove]

That's not possible yet because (oddly enough) Apple specifically disallows share extensions from opening their parent apps; in other words, the only way we could support a share command in Safari would be to embed the entire Pleco Reader UI in that extension, which we consider problematic since that it's transient (can't keep using Safari until you dismiss it) - mostly intended for uploading something to a third-party web service or performing a quick manipulation like a photo filter.

We are considering a share extension for specific words - something that would pop up to define the currently highlighted word in Safari and probably also let you add it to flashcards - but Extensions as defined in iOS 8 at least won't let us do a whole lot more than that. (we're hopeful that this situation will improve in iOS 9 though)

The only other thing we could do with URLs would be to have an "add to Pleco reading list" share command, as with other reading list apps - that's certainly doable but we're not quite sure whether there'd be enough interest to justify doing it.

 

[KRMORTON]

I would love an "Open in Pleco" option in Safari. If that isn't possible, the "add to Pleco reading list" alternative would be a good alternative.

I also just want to add that I love Pleco, it's definitely one of my favourite apps

 

[mikelove]

Coming in the not too distant future after a massive internal rewrite to finally make Pleco Extension-friendly.