Dictionary Management for AnkiDroid

Introduction

This guide addresses the issue of managing custom dictionaries within JetBrains IDE -Android Studio. Often, when adding a word to the dictionary within the IDE, it remains user-specific and doesn't propagate across a team. This README explores a workaround for better collaboration regarding custom dictionaries in the IDE.

Implementation Steps

1. Understanding Directory Structure

• The directory idea/dictionaries within the project root holds user-specific dictionary files.
• Each user's added words are stored in a file named after their OS login username (e.g., catio.xml for a user named "catio") and this file is shared within the project.
• anki.xml - Anki Desktop specific terminology: 'did'
• android.xml - Android and dependencies: 'miui.securitycenter'
• usernames.xml - Usernames in copyright declarations

2. Leveraging Shared Dictionary Files

• Create a dictionary file formatted as an XML (similar to the user-specific ones) containing shared project-specific words.
• Naming this file differently (not tied to a username) allows reuse across projects sharing the same terminology.

3. Managing Collaborative Editing

• When multiple developers commit their dictionary files, potential word duplications may occur.
• Manual editing of these XML files is necessary, as the IDE doesn't provide direct options to write to a shared dictionary.
• Syntax: Use the XML structure specified in the example below to manually craft or edit dictionary files.

Note: Restart the IDE after editing the file or adding the file for the changes to take place

Example Dictionary File Structure

<component name="ProjectDictionaryState">
    <dictionary name="project-dictionary">
        <words>
            <w>someword</w>
        </words>
    </dictionary>
</component>

Best Practice for VCS Integration

• Consider adding manually created shared dictionary files to the VCS, while ignoring the rest of idea/dictionaries.
• This prevents automatic addition of words from individual IDEs to the shared dictionary, minimizing unnecessary duplications.