Requirements

Right now it depends on the AnkiConnect Anki addon and anki-templates-tester that I put inside this project to keep things simple.

Sync templates with Anki

First, while Anki is running, we need to export models templates with AnkiConnect:

ateto sync

If we change some files in models_export, we can import them in Anki with:

ateto sync -i

Compile test templates

We need to get some sample data from Anki and then compile templates. But first, open Anki and tag some notes with template_test_data:

ateto populate
ateto compile

Images and CSS or JS assets

If there is missing images run:

ateto link

All files under the models_export/_medias directory will be linked in html_output with compile -m:

ateto compile -m

But you have to create them first.

Supertemplates

models_export contains template export of Anki notes templates. It’s basic HTML. There is “supertemplates” : it’s Jinja2 templates that we can use to generate the models, they are in supertemplates folder.

To build the supertemplates use -s option with compile:

ateto compile -s

HTML and CSS files in supertemplates are processed, then models_export are converted to html_output.

Watcher

It’s my favorite part. When I’m working on some templates, I want modifications to be automatically compiled in templates and output HTML some I use watch command:

ateto watch

And I want it all, supertemplates, medias and images. I want them to be imported in Anki too. Images are only linked when starting, not watched

ateto watch -ai

Debug mode

watch and compile commands can be run with debug mode (-d option). This will run supertemplates with a context where is_debug=True. It’s useful to debug AnkiDroid with something like this in templates files

{% if is_debug %}
  <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/eruda"></script>
  <script>eruda.init();</script>
{% endif %}

File tree

So at the end, in $XDG_DATA_HOME, we have 4 main folders

* /supertemplates

• ModelName/ directories

  • .jinja files

  • .html files

  • style.css file

• _medias/ directory (optional)

  • .css files

  • .js files

• /models_export

  • ModelName/ directories

    • CardName.html files

    • style.css file

  • _medias/ directory (optional)

    • .css files

    • .js files

• /data

  • ModelName.yaml files

  • ModelName_override.yaml optional files

• /html_output

  • ModelName.html files

  • ModelName.css files

  • .css files linked from models_export/_medias

  • .js files linked from models_export/_medias

  • .png, .jpg, etc. files linked from anki_collection

The content of supertemplates is only created by hand and compiled into models_export.

All the content of models_export is synced with Anki (Ankiconnect). _medias are treated with a special procedure.

The content of data is populated from Anki. _override.yaml files are created by hand if necessary.

html_output is the result of different actions :

• ModelName.html and ModelName.css files are the result of models_export and data files

• others CSS or JS are linked to models_export/_medias

• images are linked to the Anki collection