Vocabulary builder

[bobafruit]

Has anybody looked at the .db file that vocabulary builder uses?

I was very much put off by the vocabulary builder words being completely deleted when I changed the registration on my Kindle, but I did some digging and I want to share what I found.

After installing USBNetwork on my PW2 I noticed that I can access the Vocabulary builder files, and after opening the .db file in notepad I see it is "SQLite format 3"

... and so I download a nice little database browser http://sqlitebrowser.sourceforge.net/
and in no time at all I can export .CSV files and import them into ANKI, and so avoid the rather slow and feature limited Vocabulary builder but still have the benefits of automatically added words while I'm reading.

only problem is the Kindle doesn't seem to store the definition in the database (which makes sense given how the dictionary is implemented, but makes a little more work)

[zxczxc]

nice work so far

[bobafruit]

Hey guys!

I've been heavily using the dictionary to look up words while reading a chinese copy of Harry Potter.

The lookup has been gradually slowing down, and after I accumulated 1,550 entries in vocabulary bulder it started taking 20-30 seconds to look up each word, and it was killing the battery.

So I've gone and deleted the vocab.db file and suddenly it's back in tip-top shape.

Seems to me that Vocabulary builder may not be well optimized. The vocab.db file is only 1,125 KB, which seems small to be really messing up the Kindle.

Maybe there's some sort of problem related to the jailbreak or USBnetwork?
Any thoughts, has anyone else ran into slow down with too many vocabulary Builder entries?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by bobafruit

Hey guys!

I've been heavily using the dictionary to look up words while reading a chinese copy of Harry Potter.

The lookup has been gradually slowing down, and after I accumulated 1,550 entries in vocabulary bulder it started taking 20-30 seconds to look up each word, and it was killing the battery.

So I've gone and deleted the vocab.db file and suddenly it's back in tip-top shape.

Seems to me that Vocabulary builder may not be well optimized. The vocab.db file is only 1,125 KB, which seems small to be really messing up the Kindle.

Maybe there's some sort of problem related to the jailbreak or USBnetwork?
Any thoughts, has anyone else ran into slow down with too many vocabulary Builder entries?

Problem related to the Jailbreak :: Not possible.
Problem releated to the USBnetwork :: Chances are slim to none.

Neither of them have anything to do with directory look-up.

[bobafruit]

Originally Posted by knc1

Problem related to the Jailbreak :: Not possible.
Problem releated to the USBnetwork :: Chances are slim to none.

I will accept your assurances that the Kindle system is not a teetering house of cards that can be set reeling by a slight breeze.

or maybe the opposite is true, it is a teetering house of cards, but the jailbreak and USBnet hack cannot in anyway affect it, it is instead brought to its' knees by using a 1 MB database... In which case I owe a debt of gratitude to the developers here, because without their work I would be looking at the immense task of deleting thousands of words just so the Kindle would continue working well.


I find it incredible that I can't find lotsa people complaining about this... but maybe no one else has been looking up as many words as I have been.

[NiLuJe]

To be perfectly honest, I kinda disabled this on mine because I was pretty sure an issue like that would crop up over time, so I'm not terribly surprised .

[jagal]

Hey guys,

It looks like the experience has been improved in 5.4.2. Please download the file (if you're on Wifi, you would probably have the update already). Let us know how the feature works now.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by jagal

Hey guys,

It looks like the experience has been improved in 5.4.2. Please download the file (if you're on Wifi, you would probably have the update already). Let us know how the feature works now.

Assuming you don't find the Cloud Collections to be a nightmare... It's been a big problem for a lot of people.

[Akirainblack]

Oddly enough I've just had a look at my PW2 and for some reason it doesn't matter how many times I look up a word the vocabulary builder always remains blank.

[jagal]

Strange..
Are you trying looking up words on personal documents (e.g. pdf) or downloaded content from Amazon? I know VocabBuilder only works on content bought/downloaded from Amazon.
Also, try restarting the device and seeing if VocabBuilder shows words then.
Let us know what you find.

[YourFriendBen]

Originally Posted by jagal

Strange..
Are you trying looking up words on personal documents (e.g. pdf) or downloaded content from Amazon? I know VocabBuilder only works on content bought/downloaded from Amazon.
Also, try restarting the device and seeing if VocabBuilder shows words then.
Let us know what you find.

mine does the same, and you are correct, it was because i was in a PDF.
Is there any way to turn that on for all documents? I do have mine rooted.
pw2 current fw at this time.

Thanks
what a great community!

[Akirainblack]

Oops, I forgot to report back. Yes, it's due to the books I was reading not having come from Amazon.
How pants is that! Offer a wonderful feature that can only be used with books directly from Amazon.
Oh well.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by Akirainblack

Oops, I forgot to report back. Yes, it's due to the books I was reading not having come from Amazon.
How pants is that! Offer a wonderful feature that can only be used with books directly from Amazon.
Oh well.

AFAIK, the only way Amazon can tell books apart is by checking for the presence of an ASIN number, which all Amazon books have.

Can you please test whether adding or faking an ASIN number with an editor will make any difference:

1. Check whether the book is also available as a Kindle book on Amazon. If so, copy the ASIN number from the product page to a text file; if not, make up a number using the following format B000XXXXXX (X can be any number or upper case letter).

2. Download Java Mobi Metadata Editor and add an ASIN number to your non-Amazon book. (Click the plus sign and then select Type: 113.)

3. Delete the copy of your book on your Kindle and manually transfer the modifed .mobi file that Java Mobi Metadata Editor has saved to your Kindle via USB.

[Akirainblack]

Sadly that trick didn't work for me Doitsu but thanks for the idea.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by jagal

I know VocabBuilder only works on content bought/downloaded from Amazon.
Also, try restarting the device and seeing if VocabBuilder shows words then.
Let us know what you find.

I finally got a PW2 and did some tests. Apparently Vocabulary Builder only works with books that don't show up with a Personal tag in cover view.

AFAIK, there's a Calibre option to remove this tag, however, since I rarely use Calibre, I'm a bit fuzzy about the details.

But I've recently found out that KevinH has written a helpful Python script that will add the required ASIN and EBOK metadata entries. Books processed with this script no longer show up as personal docs and words looked up in them will be displayed in the Vocabulary Builder app.

The syntax of the python scripts is:

python dualmetafix_mmap.py ASIN old.mobi new.mobi

(If you don't know the actual ASIN or the book doesn't have one, you can also use a random UUID number.)