[APP] Minipauker FlashCard program

[kiwiguy]

Flashcard Programs

I have been hunting for a couple of months for a good flashcard program that works on the A1200. Flashcards help you learn things by showing one "card" with the question and then "turning over" the card to show you the answer. They are ideal for a pda as it means you can use it while on a bus or waiting to get your hair cut! My requirements were:

• able to easily add/edit cards on the phone
• able to read a file of cards prepared on the PC (or downloaded from the web)
• remembers which cards you answered correctly so does not keep asking you the entire list over and over.

I have tried about 10 of them, but most do not work on the A1200. The ones that I found did work are:

• StudyMe - but that only allows you to download a card file from the web. You can not prepare lists on your PC, or change them on the phone.
• Tango - I actually purchased this one ($5) as it is easy-to-use and works very well on the A1200. The only downside is that you can not add/edit/save flashcards on your phone. You have to create them on your PC and then use a program like 7-zip to replace the dictionary.xml file in the tango's *.jar file. This means you have to reinstall the program on your phone every time you make a change to the cards.
  
• Minipauker - I had tried Minipauker before but did not think it worked on the A1200 - as could not open files. However just found that its permissions can be modified - and it now works very well. It is free and can be downloaded from http://pauker.sourceforge.net.

Minipauker has the following features

• It tests you and remembers where you are if you stop.
• It remembers what you have got right and wrong and stops asking you the ones that you get right
• Shows you statistics so you know where you are
• It allows you to add/edit flash cards directly on your phone or to import/export flashcard files from your PC

Below are the instructions on how to install it and get it working on the A1200 and then some brief instructions on how to use it - as there are some quirks as to how it works on the A1200.

Installing Minipauker

Once you have downloaded and installed it, you have to edit the app's registry.txt file in order to change the permissions so that it can import and export files correctly. Here are the steps:

1. Copy the jar file to your phone
2. Tap on the file to install it and install it on the SD card (important!)
3. Plug the phone into the PC
4. Using windows explorer (USB Storage mode) navigate to \.system\java\DownloadApps\MIDletXXXX on your SD card
   where MIDletXXXX is the last directory in DownloadApps in alphabetic ascending order.
5. Make a copy of the file registry.tx (optional - in case you need to recover original file)
6. Edit the file registry.txt with a editor compatible with unix (eg wordpad). Do not use MS Word or Notepad! (Be sure the file has a line saying: Jar-URL: Minipauker.jar - if not, you are in the wrong directory)
7. Change the values to these ones
   - DRM-Mode: Allowed
   - Is-Trusted: 1
   - Domain: Manufacturer
   so that it looks like the code below.
8. Save the file and disconnect from PC
9. Reboot the phone - the app should now be able to read and write files.

Jar-Path: /mmc/mmca1/.system/java/DownloadApps/MIDlet20006/Files/Minipauker.jar 
Jad-Path: /mmc/mmca1/.system/java/DownloadApps/MIDlet20006/Files/Minipauker.jad 
Perm-Path: /mmc/mmca1/.system/java/DownloadApps/MIDlet20006/permfile.txt 
Suite-Icon: /mmc/mmca1/.system/java/DownloadApps/MIDlet20006/Files/MIDlet-1.png 
DRM-Mode: Allowed 
Is-Trusted: 1 
Jar-URL: Minipauker.jar 
Description: 
Domain: Manufacturer 
Signer-Name: 
Mot-JavaVM-Heapsize: 0
Delete-Notify: 
Num-MIDlets: 1 
MIDlet-1: j2mesync, /mmc/mmca1/.system/java/DownloadApps/MIDlet20006/Files/MIDlet-1.png, de.ohli.Minipauker.Minipauker.

If any problems, go to the Minipauker icon and do a long tap until the menu pops up then select Manage->Permission. Make sure everything is set to "Never ask" . If it is not then the resistry.txt was not edited properly.

- Network : never ask
- Messaging : never ask
- Phone calls : never ask
- Application auto-start : never ask
- Connectivity : never ask
- User data read : never ask
- User data write : never ask
- Multimedia recording : never ask
- Location based services : never ask

How to Use Minipauker

There are full instructions on using the PC version of the full Pauker program here, but there are no instructions for using the mini version on a PDA. So here is a quick summary discovered through trial and error:

Adding a Card

1. Start the app and the menu in Fig 1 will be displayed.
2. Select "Add a card". The menu is not touch sensitive - you have to use the joystick to navigate and then press down on joystick to select the menu item you want. You will see the screen shown in Fig 2.
3. This screen is not touch sensitive!! To begin typing you have to click down on the joystick to cause the A1200 data entry screen to be displayed where you can enter your question.
4. Click on OK then touch "Side B" on the screen and enter the answer in the same way.
5. Click on Save
6. This takes you back to the main menu. Repeat to add another card.

Learning a Card

1. Click on "Learn" to start learning.
2. It will show you the cards one by one with both the question and the answer displayed (Fig 3).
3. Then it will go through the cards again this time only showing the questions. You have to press Show to see the answers.
4. You select whether you knew the answer or not and proceed to the next card.
5. It will go through all cards then start again on the ones you got wrong.
6. As you learn cards it moves them into different "levels". The higher the level the less frequently it will test you on that card.

Importing a File

To import a list that you might have downloaded from the web or created on your PC do the following:

1. Make sure the file you want to use has been copied to a folder on your SD card
2. Select "Open & Import" from main menu
3. Select "Import from Pauker"
4. Navigate to the folder where the file is
5. It will ask you several times to grant permission. Just touch the "Yes" each time.

After selecting a file, it will take you back to the main menu. If you select "Statistics" it should show you the number of "cards" in the file you opened. You can then start to learn them.

Exporting a File

To save a list that you may have created/edited on your phone do the following:

1. Select "Export" from main menu
2. Select the directory
3. It will ask you to grant permission to write a file. Select "Yes" and it will save the file.
4. It will create a file called xxxx.pau which is readable by a text editor.

IMPORTANT - Saving Your Session

Whether you add "cards" manually or import them, this next step is very important - especially as it is not obvious.

1. At the bottom of the menu under "Export" is the item "Save Session". The problem is you can not see it, due to the A1200 soft keys being in the way (see Fig 4). But you can use the joystick to navigate down to that item (even if you can not see it) then press "Select".
2. It will display the "Save Session" screen which will ask you if you want to save the current session.
3. If you select "Yes" it will save the current cards and how many you have learnt into its database so you can pick up where you left off, next time you use the app.
   - If you do not do this you will have to import the file again - and it will not remember how many you have learnt.
4. Next time you start the app, you select "Open & Import" --> "Open from Session" to get back to where you were.

What is the Format of the Cards?

Minipauker creates and uses a xxx.pau file in the format shown in Fig 5. You can simply take a sample file from the web site and then edit it to have the questions and answers you want.

Much easier, however, is to download the PC version of Pauker program to your PC and install it and then use this to create your cards. Once you have your list created, save it to your pc. It creates a file called xxxx.pau.gz - which is a packed file. You have to use 7-zip to unpack the xxx.pau file before you can copy it to your phone.

Have fun!!

[import_tuner]

Minipauker looks pretty promising. Just wondering now if it supports the use of chinese/japanese characters and such. Guess there's no way to know until you try it.

Nice find!

[Dragon Ming]

Great post !
tks so much for thoses informations......


(Unfortuntely i want buy a 2Go memoy card for my Ming but it's not available in my country...)





.

[mingO]

Hi Kiwiguy,

Thanks for the nice research. I was planning to create a basic program like this but now no need of it..

You mentioned in the writeup that one can download pauker windows application for creating the memory file.Can you provide a download link for it as I couldn't locate it on that site?

Thanks in advance.

-Amit

[kiwiguy]

The windows Pauker program for creating your Flash cards can be download from the Pauker website ==> http://pauker.sourceforge.net/pauker...arget=download.

I have found it quite easy to use to create Flash card "sets" to copy to your phone. One of the nice things about minipauker is that if you later find mistakes with a card you can correct it directly on your phone.

[dark_knightvn]

Great post !
tks so much for thoses informations......


(Unfortuntely i want buy a 2Go memoy card for my Ming but it's not available in my country...)





.

hey bro. 2GB memory card avaiable in our country price 500.000VND (~30usd) 60 months warranty

[mingO]

Thanks Kiwiguy
I will try it right away ..

[ultima]

Hey kiwiguy, when I try to import the .pau file from the pauker by using the open & import command, i get blocked with a warning saying

java.lang.SecurityException:
Application not authorized to
access the restricted API

what should i do?

thanks

EDIT: ok, I've done the permissions part. sorry for not reading it carefully

[ultima]

is it possible to modify permissions further so that it doesn't ask if it can read/write every time I try to open a new flashcard pack?