Getting data into iOS Pleco

[Lurks]

Hello!

I'm in the situation where I need to describe the best ways to get data (texts predominantly) into Pleco. When I used iOS Pleco (before I lost my iPod), I just use the built-in web server approach and I'm aware of the existance of the built-in browser and all that jazz but not particularly familiar with it.

My question is what would be the preferred way to get data into Pleco so that I can advise academics and students on the best way to do it, and support these mechanisms within coursework?

One thing I noticed was that my professor downloaded a bundle of Chinese texts in a file which unpacked nicely in Pleco, making quite a few texts available. This seems pretty handy since I can presumably do the same with all of the texts from a Chinese literature course.

I guess I'm coming at the problem a couple of ways. Students will be a bit more savvy in what they're happy to do. A straw poll revealed that Dropbox is quite popular to get stuff onto iOS but I'm not clear how or if that works in Pleco. Our course content tends to be locked up behind authentication in an arcane intranet with very long URLs so typing out long URLs on an iPhone/iPad keyboard isn't ideal. On the other hand if that's absolutely the easiest way then maybe we can set up an external site.

Any advice on this would be most welcome.

Hmm, I have an older gen iPod with a dead battery, maybe I should have a play with the iOS one to investigate. I've migrated my license and all but presumably I can still update the base Pleco app?

 

[mikelove]

My question is what would be the preferred way to get data into Pleco so that I can advise academics and students on the best way to do it, and support these mechanisms within coursework?

At the moment, the best way to do that in a mass distribution type scenario would be to put a .zip file containing all of the course documents on a student-accessible web page (preferably one with as little in the way of complicated login procedures as possible), then go to that page using the built-in web browser (Settings / Web Browser or Reader / Web Reader). The .zip file will download in one go, then they need simply tap on it in the document file browser to extract it to a folder.

A straw poll revealed that Dropbox is quite popular to get stuff onto iOS but I'm not clear how or if that works in Pleco. Our course content tends to be locked up behind authentication in an arcane intranet with very long URLs so typing out long URLs on an iPhone/iPad keyboard isn't ideal. On the other hand if that's absolutely the easiest way then maybe we can set up an external site.

Not supported in Pleco yet, but probably will be at least for file copying in a future release.

Hmm, I have an older gen iPod with a dead battery, maybe I should have a play with the iOS one to investigate. I've migrated my license and all but presumably I can still update the base Pleco app?

If you bought originally on iOS then yes, you can keep using it there even after transferring it to Android.

 

[Lurks]

Cheers Mike. That looks like the shot. I suppose there's nothing to stop us from using a URL shortner to link to some crazy URL.

Resurrecting my old iPod, it seems new versions of Pleco are out because it's stuck on 4.2.1. Hoorah for planned obsolescence. Still, should be fine to see how things are done on iOS unless any of this has changed lately?

Mat.

 

[mikelove]

Resurrecting my old iPod, it seems new versions of Pleco are out because it's stuck on 4.2.1. Hoorah for planned obsolescence. Still, should be fine to see how things are done on iOS unless any of this has changed lately?

Not too much, some minor tweaks but the big update is still awaiting our glorious new type design (and the glorious new Chinese font that's the center of it).