feat(fields): allow insertion of 'special fields' with preview #20041

david-allison · 2026-01-07T10:13:38Z

Purpose / Description

Anki has discoverability problems. One of the features which is unclear to users without reading the manual 'Special Fields': fields which relate to the metadata of the card.

{{Subdeck}} for example lists the current deck

This Pull Request updates the 'insert field' dialog to allows a user to select special fields. If the user came from 'manage note types' then the note type & card template have an example preview. If the user came from the note editor, then fields are populated based on the note ID, and the selected card template.

⚠️ This uses the selected TEMPLATE data to preview, rather than the edited card in the Reviewer. Question my decision
⚠️ I arbitrarily named 'non-special fields' as 'basic'

Approach

Move to a ViewModel for simplicity of testing
Extend InsertFieldDialog: firstly just listing the special fields in a list
Then extend the code to produce a live 'description' of the field when on the tab:

How Has This Been Tested?

Pixel 9 Pro

added template (no ord)

API 34 Tablet Emulator

Learning

Checklist

You have a descriptive commit message with a short title (first line, max 50 chars).
You have commented your code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
You have performed a self-review of your own code
UI changes: include screenshots of all affected screens (in particular showing any new or changed strings)
UI Changes: You have tested your change using the Google Accessibility Scanner
- No suggestions

github-actions · 2026-01-07T10:13:48Z

Important

Maintainers: This PR contains Strings changes

Sync Translations before merging this PR and wait for the action to complete
Review and merge the auto-generated PR in order to sync all user-submitted translations
Sync Translations again and merge the PR so the huge automated string changes caused by merging this PR are by themselves and easy to review

david-allison · 2026-01-07T10:24:41Z

AnkiDroid/src/main/java/com/ichi2/anki/dialogs/InsertFieldDialog.kt

+        val dialog =
+            AlertDialog.Builder(requireContext()).create {
+                title(R.string.card_template_editor_select_field)
+                negativeButton(R.string.dialog_cancel)


maybe remove this?

david-allison · 2026-01-07T10:39:23Z

AnkiDroid/src/main/res/values/03-dialogs.xml

+    <string name="basic_fields_tab_header" comment="Tab header for inserting non-special fields: {{Front}}">Basic</string>
+    <string name="special_fields_tab_header" comment="Tab header for inserting special fields: {{Deck}}">Special</string>
+    <string name="special_field_example_suffix"><![CDATA[: ‘<b>%1$s</b>’]]></string>
+    <string name="special_field_front_side_help">The front template content. Audio is not automatically played</string>


Please nitpick

david-allison · 2026-01-07T10:39:45Z

AnkiDroid/src/main/res/values/03-dialogs.xml

    <string name="import_error_resolution_select_file">Open the file using your device’s file browser app</string>
+
+    <!-- Special Fields -->
+    <string name="basic_fields_tab_header" comment="Tab header for inserting non-special fields: {{Front}}">Basic</string>


Especially this - I feel I'm naming a new concept

EDIT:

The following are all better than 'Basic': I think 'Fields' makes sense

Fields

Normal

Regular

Standard

ZornHadNoChoice · 2026-01-07T13:10:56Z

Look nice! I think the example tags should be something simpler like "Tag1 Tag2". I prefer "Normal" over "Basic".

david-allison · 2026-01-07T15:40:47Z

@ZornHadNoChoice The tags come from the note itself. I'd rather do this, over sending tag1 tag2 to our translators.

criticalAY

Cool and clean

criticalAY · 2026-01-14T19:27:01Z

AnkiDroid/src/main/java/com/ichi2/anki/model/SpecialField.kt

+    fun all(side: SingleCardSide) =
+        ALL.filter { field ->
+            when {
+                field == FrontSide && side == FRONT -> false
+                else -> true
+            }
+        }


Can we pre-compute these?

Not worth it IMO. More code for nanoseconds of performance (and that's if the JIT doesn't convert it to a constant lookup)

criticalAY · 2026-01-14T19:34:38Z

AnkiDroid/src/main/java/com/ichi2/anki/dialogs/InsertFieldDialogViewModel.kt

 class InsertFieldDialogViewModel(
    savedStateHandle: SavedStateHandle,
 ) : ViewModel() {
+    var currentTab: Tab = Tab.BASIC


Are there chances it will be killed if the system kills the process to save memory, just want to be sure

Moved to a flow

criticalAY · 2026-01-14T19:38:09Z

common/src/main/java/com/ichi2/anki/common/utils/StringUtils.kt

+fun String.ellipsize(maxLength: Int): String {
+    require(maxLength > 1) { "invalid length: $maxLength" }
+    if (this.length <= maxLength) return this
+    return this.take(maxLength - 1) + "…"
+}


Not a big concern but what if there is a emoji at max limit as last char, it will be split into 2

Added tests and a BreakIterator, ChatGPT for the APIs, myself for the implementation

I will be extending this class to handle field filters and special fields * rendering the output is now the responsibility of `renderToTemplateTag()` rather than done in the CardTemplateEditor

This introduces Anki's 'Special Fields' in the ViewModel and adds a 'side' argument, so `{{FrontSide}}` can optionally be displayed This does not implement the user interface See: https://docs.ankiweb.net/templates/fields.html#special-fields

Improves discoverability of this feature vs needing to go through the manual Assisted-by: GPT-5.2: ViewPager2.updateHeight

This provides an explanation of all Special Fields to the user in the 'Insert field' dialog This also produces contextual help for all fields based on the context of the selected card/note (if any) Assisted-by: GPT-5.2 - learning about BreakIterator

github-actions bot added the Needs Review label Jan 7, 2026

github-actions bot added the Strings label Jan 7, 2026

david-allison commented Jan 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

david-allison force-pushed the better-add-field branch 2 times, most recently from 3a6e9e3 to e9cd55b Compare January 7, 2026 10:29

david-allison commented Jan 7, 2026

View reviewed changes

david-allison force-pushed the better-add-field branch from e9cd55b to 33f7e3b Compare January 7, 2026 15:21

david-allison force-pushed the better-add-field branch from 33f7e3b to 29902aa Compare January 7, 2026 17:00

david-allison mentioned this pull request Jan 8, 2026

refactor: add CardTemplateEditor.getIntent & introduce CardOrdinal #20056

Merged

5 tasks

github-actions bot added the Has Conflicts label Jan 9, 2026

david-allison force-pushed the better-add-field branch from 29902aa to 6502dd1 Compare January 12, 2026 07:05

david-allison removed the Has Conflicts label Jan 12, 2026

github-actions bot added the Has Conflicts label Jan 12, 2026

david-allison force-pushed the better-add-field branch from 6502dd1 to e434d3f Compare January 13, 2026 04:17

david-allison added Review High Priority Request for high priority review and removed Has Conflicts labels Jan 13, 2026

david-allison added this to the 2.24 release milestone Jan 14, 2026

criticalAY requested changes Jan 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

david-allison added 5 commits January 15, 2026 15:11

refactor: add InsertFieldDialogViewModel

da0f316

I will be extending this class to handle field filters and special fields * rendering the output is now the responsibility of `renderToTemplateTag()` rather than done in the CardTemplateEditor

feat(insert-field): insert special fields

c1439dc

Improves discoverability of this feature vs needing to go through the manual Assisted-by: GPT-5.2: ViewPager2.updateHeight

refactor(template-editor): add 'ord' helper

5103e91

david-allison force-pushed the better-add-field branch from e434d3f to 5ae31c3 Compare January 15, 2026 16:01

david-allison requested a review from criticalAY January 15, 2026 16:02

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Purpose / Description

Approach

How Has This Been Tested?

Learning

Checklist

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