genanki-rs: A Rust Crate for Generating Anki Decks

With genanki-rs you can easily generate decks for the popular open source flashcard platform Anki.

The code of this library is based on the code of genanki, a python library to generate Anki decks.

This library and its author(s) are not affiliated/associated with the main Anki project in any way.

How to use (Use the documentation for further information)

Add

[dependencies]
genanki-rs = "0.1.0"

to your Cargo.toml or find another version on crates.io

Notes

The basic unit in Anki is the Note, which contains a fact to memorize. Notes correspond to one or more Cards.

Here's how you create a Note:

use genanki_rs::{Note, Error};

fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    // let my_model = ...
    let my_note = Note::new(my_model, vec!["Capital of Argentina", "Buenos Aires"])?;
    Ok(())
}

You pass in a Model, discussed below, and a set of fields (encoded as HTML).

Models

A Model defines the fields and cards for a type of Note. For example:

use genanki_rs::{Field, Model, Template, Error};

fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    let my_model = Model::new(
        1607392319,
        "Simple Model",
        vec![Field::new("Question"), Field::new("Answer")],
        vec![Template::new("Card 1")
            .qfmt("{{Question}}")
            .afmt(r#"{{FrontSide}}<hr id="answer">{{Answer}}"#)],
    );
    // let my_note = ...
    Ok(())
}

This note-type has two fields and one card. The card displays the Question field on the front and the Question and Answer fields on the back, separated by a <hr>. You can also pass custom css by calling Model::new_with_options() to supply custom CSS.

let custom_css = ".card {\n font-family: arial;\n font-size: 20px;\n text-align: center;\n color: black;\n}\n";
let my_model_with_css = Model::new_with_options(
    1607392319,
    "Simple Model",
    vec![Field::new("Question"), Field::new("Answer")],
    vec![Template::new("Card 1")
        .qfmt("{{Question}}")
        .afmt(r#"{{FrontSide}}<hr id="answer">{{Answer}}"#)],
    Some(custom_css),
    None,
    None,
    None,
    None,
);

You need to pass a model id and a model name so that Anki can keep track of your model. It's important that you use a unique model id for each Model you define.

Generating a Deck/Package

To import your notes into Anki, you need to add them to a Deck:

use genanki_rs::{Deck, Error};

fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    // let my_note = ...
    let mut my_deck = Deck::new(
        2059400110,
        "Country Capitals",
        "Deck for studying country capitals",
    );
    my_deck.add_note(my_note);
    Ok(())
}

Once again, you need a unique deck id, a deck name and a deck description.

Then, create a Package for your Deck and write it to a file:

my_deck.write_to_file("output.apkg")?;

You can then load output.apkg into Anki using File -> Import...

Media Files

To add sounds or images, create a Package and pass the decks and media_files you want to include:

use genanki_rs::{Deck, Error, Package};

fn main() -> Result<(), Error> {
    // ...
    // my_deck.add(my_note)
    let mut my_package = Package::new(vec![my_deck], vec!["sound.mp3", "images/image.jpg"])?;
    my_package.write_to_file("output.apkg")?;
    Ok(())
}

media_files should have the path (relative or absolute) to each file. To use them in notes, first add a field to your model, and reference that field in your template:

let my_model = Model::new(
    1607392319,
    "Simple Model",
    vec![
        Field::new("Question"),
        Field::new("Answer"),
        Field::new("MyMedia"),                           // ADD THIS
    ],
    vec![Template::new("Card 1")
        .qfmt("{{Question}}{{Question}}<br>{{MyMedia}}") // AND THIS
        .afmt(r#"{{FrontSide}}<hr id="answer">{{Answer}}"#)],
);

Then, set the MyMedia field on your Note to [sound:sound.mp3] for audio and <img src="image.jpg"> for images (e.g):

let my_note = Note::new(my_model, vec!["Capital of Argentina", "Buenos Aires", "[sound:sound.mp3]"])?;
// or
let my_note = Note::new(my_model, vec!["Capital of Argentina", "Buenos Aires", r#"<img src="image.jpg">"#])?;

You cannot put <img src="{MyMedia}"> in the template and image.jpg in the field. See these sections in the Anki manual for more information: Importing Media and Media & LaTeX.

You should only put the filename (aka basename) and not the full path in the field; <img src="images/image.jpg"> will not work. Media files should have unique filenames.

sort_field

Anki has a value for each Note called the sort_field. Anki uses this value to sort the cards in the Browse interface. Anki also is happier if you avoid having two notes with the same sort_field, although this isn't strictly necessary. By default, the sort_field is the first field, but you can change it by calling Note::new_with_options().

You can also call Model::new_with_options(), passing the sort_field_index to change the sort field. 0 means the first field in the Note, 1 means the second, etc.

FAQ

My field data is getting garbled

If fields in your notes contain literal <, >, or & characters, you need to HTML-encode them: field data is HTML, not plain text.

For example, you should write

let fields = vec!["AT&T was originally called", "Bell Telephone Company"]

This applies even if the content is LaTeX; for example, you should write

let fields = vec!["Piketty calls this the \"central contradiction of capitalism\".", "[latex]r > g[/latex]"]