Ultimate Flash Cards   for Windows Phone - CSV/Excel Import and Export

CSV Import

If you don't want to enter all vocables manually on the phone you can prepare a CSV file for import. CSV means "comma separated values" and is usually a text file where data is organized in rows.

CSV Import is available as of Version 1.1.0.

File Location and File Types

The app can import vocables from CSV files on OneDrive. To import from a CSV file you have to put it into the folder Ultimate Flash Cards in the OneDrive root folder. (This is the same folder used for app database backup.)

Import files must have the file extension .txt or .csv.

Make sure the files are saved in UTF-8 encoding to prevent problems with foreign characters.

Sample File Content

Full Sample

FirstLanguage,FirstExample,FirstLanguageName,FirstLanguageGender,SecondLanguage,SecondExample,SecondLanguageGender,SecondLanguageName,Category,UniqueId,VocableSetNames
Добро пожаловать,,ru-RU,0,Willkommen,,0,de-DE,0,e641ab6e-ea39-4007-afe0-115086f0d4fe,Phrases
поле́зный,,ru-RU,0,nützlich,,0,de-DE,2,8fb888b5-56cd-4024-8f75-e9fa8428922d,From Twitter|Adjectives
заме́тить,,ru-RU,0,bemerken,,0,de-DE,1,243d06e6-0750-4859-943f-d35348cb72a4,From Twitter|Verbs

Minimum Sample

FirstLanguage,SecondLanguage,FirstLanguageName,SecondLanguageName
Добро пожаловать,Willkommen,ru-RU,de-DE
поле́зный,nützlich,ru-RU,de-DE
заме́тить,bemerken,ru-RU,de-DE

Data format

Data is organized in columns and rows:

  • the first row is the header (must be present)
  • each following row is one vocable
  • vocable properties on one row are separated by a delimiter

Columns:

  • FirstLanguage (the first language; that's the one presented first when doing quizzes)
  • FirstLanguageName ( culture name of the first language - see section "Vocable Languages")
  • FirstExample (example phrase illustrating the use of the vocable in first language; currently not used in the app)
  • FirstLanguageGender (gender of the first language: 0=not set, 1=masculine, 2=feminine, 3=neuter)
  • SecondLanguage (the second language; that's the one presented second when doing quizzes)
  • SecondLanguageName ( culture name of the second language - see section "Vocable Languages")
  • SecondExample (example phrase illustrating the use of the vocable in second language; currently not used in the app)
  • SecondLanguageGender (gender of the second language: 0=not set, 1=masculine, 2=feminine, 3=neuter)
  • Category (vocable category; 0=white, 1=green, 2=yellow, 3=red, 4=blue)
  • UniqueId (vocable identifier; set by the app when exporting vocables - DO NOT MODIFY OR SET YOURSELF)
  • VocableSetNames (one or multiple vocable set names - the vocable will be added to those; sets will be created as needed; multiple set names have to be separated by the pipe symbol "|" (without quotes))
Columns marked bold must be present. All other columns are optional.

The order of columns doesn't matter.

Vocable Languages

Which languages a vocable contains is determined by FirstLanguageName and SecondLanguageName. You find valid values in the list of culture names.

Important note: Windows Phone does not support every existing language. The app supports the following language names: sq-AL, ar-SA, Az-Latn-AZ, be-BY, bg-BG, ca-ES, zh-CN, zh-TW, hr-HR, cs-CZ, da-DK, nl-NL, en-US, et-EE, fil-PH, fi-FI, fr-FR, de-DE, el-GR, he-IL, hi-IN, hu-HU, id-ID, it-IT, ja-JP, kk-KZ, ko-KR, lv-LV, lt-LT, mk-MK, ms-MY, nb-NO, fa-IR, pl-PL, pt-BR, pt-PT, ro-RO, ru-RU, sr-Latn-CS, sk-SK, es-ES, es-MX, sv-SE, th-TH, tr-TR, uk-UA, uz-Latn-UZ, vi-VN. (Some names like en-GB and sl-SL have been skipped for technical reasons.)  If you use other language names you won't be able to see your vocables after importing them.

A CSV file can contain vocables from different languages. That's why each vocable contains information about its languages.

Delimiters

Although CSV means " comma separated values" you can use one of the following delimiters:

  • colon (comma)
  • semicolon
  • tabulator
The app will inspect the header row for above delimiter characters. The first one found will be used.

Stress Marks / Accent

Stress marks can be set to indicate where to put emphasis when speaking a word.

You can set stress marks in the CSV file for FirstLanguage and SecondLanguage values. Use the character ^ or ?? (two question marks) to mark the previous character with a stress mark. The conversion will be done by the app when importing.

Sample: пол е??зный -> пол е́зный

Internally stress marks are represented by the unicode codepoint U+301 (combining acute accent). If you like you can also use this codepoint. Exported files will contain it and it will be handled properly during import.

Sanity Checks

When importing the app does some basic sanity checks:

  • vocables where both FirstLanguage and SecondLanguage are not set will be skipped
  • vocables where either FirstLanguageName or SecondLanguageName is not set will be skipped

Repeated Imports and Duplicate Detection

You can import the same CSV file multiple times. The app detects and handles duplicates as follows:

  • the imported vocable has a UniqueId set and a vocable with this UniqueId already exists in the app's database: the vocable in the app's database will be overwritten with the imported one without asking the user
  • the FirstLanguage value of the imported vocable is already present in the app's database in another vocable: the vocable in the app's database will be overwritten with the imported one after asking the user for consent
When overwriting an existing vocable in its database the app tries to preserve stress marks if the imported vocable doesn't have any.

Editing CSV Files

Use your favourite text editor and save the file in UTF-8 encoding. Beware of Microsoft Excel (even 2013) - it can save CSV files but only in ANSI encoding. This will trash any non-ANSI characters. It's better to use Excel Import instead of CSV Import in this case.

Excel Import

Excel is a very convenient tool for preparing your vocables for import.

Excel Import is available as of Version 1.4.0.

File Location and File Types

The app can import vocables from Excel files on OneDrive. To import from a Excel file you have to put it into the folder Ultimate Flash Cards in the OneDrive root folder. (This is the same folder used for app database backup.)

Only the newer XLSX format is supported which is available as of Excel 2007. Import files must have the file extension .xlsx.

Data format

The data format basically is the same as for CSV files, only the delimiters are not necessary. Internally the app converts your Excel file to CSV and then runs the CSV import.

The following requirements must be met by your Excel file:

  • the first row is the header (must be present)
  • valid header names are documented above in the CSV import section
  • each following row is one vocable
  • empty rows are not supported (empty columns are)
  • only one worksheet is supported

Sample Files

CSV Export

Use the backup section of the app to export vocables to a CSV file to OneDrive.

You can edit the exported file and import it again (see above section about CSV import). Vocables in the CSV file are marked with a unique ID (UniqueId) - don't modify these IDs. It allows the app to recognize vocables when you import from the file again.