how to programmatically import text file into anki?

Question

I'm trying to make an Addon that converts text from a website into an Anki deck, so now I have a text file that is formatted correctly and I can't figure out how to import it into an existing deck, I checked the official manual but it offers very little explanation, this may be sounding very newbie but this is my first time working on an Addon, so if someone with more experience can give me more thorough explanation, thanks in advance!

This is the code snippet from the website that I'm trying to understand:

from anki.importing import TextImporter
file = u"/path/to/text.txt"
# select deck
did = mw.col.decks.id("ImportDeck")
mw.col.decks.select(did)
# anki defaults to the last note type used in the selected deck
m = mw.col.models.byName("Basic")
deck = mw.col.decks.get(did)
deck['mid'] = m['id']
mw.col.decks.save(deck)
# and puts cards in the last deck used by the note type
m['did'] = did
# import into the collection
ti = TextImporter(mw.col, file)
ti.initMapping()
ti.run()

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 20 '18 at 16:28

I take it that you're trying to make an Anki 2.0 add-on. I would strongly recommend that you make an Anki 2.1 add-on instead, since it is cleaner, has more development features and uses Python 3.

That aside, here's an explanation of the code:

```
from anki.importing import TextImporter
```
This imports the TextImporter class into the add-on's module's namespace.
```
file = u"/path/to/text.txt"
```
This is pretty self-explanatory. It's assigning a Unicode file path to the variable file. In Anki 2.1 this could just be file = "/path/to/text.txt" because strings represent text, not a byte array, in Python 3.
```
# select deck
did = mw.col.decks.id("ImportDeck")
mw.col.decks.select(did)
```
This selects the deck with identifier "ImportDeck". You'll need mw, which you can get with from aqt import mw.

# anki defaults to the last note type used in the selected deck
m = mw.col.models.byName("Basic")
deck = mw.col.decks.get(did)
deck['mid'] = m['id']
mw.col.decks.save(deck)

This changes the note type of (the deck that's currently selected) to the "Basic" type. Note types are called "models" inside the code. 'mid' is the model identifier.

```
# and puts cards in the last deck used by the note type
m['did'] = did
```
Well, that's the first time I realised that Anki did that. For some reason, you also need to set the model( card type)'s deck identifier to the current deck's. I suppose that's because of how TextImporter works.

# import into the collection
ti = TextImporter(mw.col, file)
ti.initMapping()
ti.run()

Create a TextImporter, initialise its mapping and run it.

It's important to understand that cards won't necessarily be placed in the selected deck. There's a confguration settings that affects this: "place cards in the current deck" (use this) or "place the cards according to note type" (the model referenced above). I've lost many hours as I find it totally misleading. — Alessandro Dentella, Jun 04 '20 at 10:34
@AlessandroDentella Could you elaborate on this, please? Where is this config set? I too have lost a lot of time on this :/ — re-za, May 02 '22 at 13:57
@AlessandroDentella, Thanks :) for me by default it's on "When adding, default to current deck" but the addon I'm working on seems to still place the cards in the last deck where an import had taken place :/ — re-za, May 04 '22 at 18:53

how to programmatically import text file into anki?

1 Answers1