Forvo

[ospalh]

Forvo

[ELLIOTTCABLE]

I'd just like to point out that the $1/mo plan now literally mentions Anki now, as a motivation to purchase the plan.

IMHO, that's tacit endorsement of DA. Maybe e-mail them and double-check? But it sounds to me like this needs to be re-enabled!

[Zacharias030]

I just wanted to point out a rudimentary hack for anyone interested in this issue that enables access to the Forvo mp3 files by circumventing the official API entirely and no sign-up is required.

I modified the original ForvoDownloader class from the forvo-feature branch to look like this (and saved it in a file forvo_free.py in the downloaders module:

...

import re
import base64

from ..download_entry import DownloadEntry
from .downloader import AudioDownloader


class ForvoDownloader(AudioDownloader):
   """Download pronunciations from Forvo via accessing the website instead of their API."""
    def __init__(self):
        AudioDownloader.__init__(self)
        self.file_extension = u'.mp3'
        self.icon_url = 'http://www.forvo.com/'
        self.field_data = None

    def download_files(self, field_data):
        """
        Get pronunciations of a word from Forvo
        """
        self.downloads_list = []
        self.field_data = field_data
        if field_data.split:
            return
        if not field_data.word:
            return
        self.maybe_get_icon()

        assert (self.language)

        webPageUrl = "https://forvo.com/word/%s/#%s" % (self.field_data.word, self.language)
        webPageText = self.get_data_from_url(webPageUrl)

        PageTextList = re.findall("<em id=\"%s.*?</article>" % self.language, webPageText, re.DOTALL)
        if len(PageTextList) == 0:
            return '{"status":"error"}'
        PageText = PageTextList[0]
        pronunciations = re.findall("Play\(\d+,'(.*?)'", PageText)
        for l in range(len(pronunciations)):
            pronunciations[l] = "https://forvo.com/mp3/" + base64.b64decode(pronunciations[l]).decode()
        self.get_items(pronunciations)

    def get_items(self, items_list):
        for itm in items_list:
            extras = dict(Source='Forvo.com')
            if self.language:
                extras['Language'] = self.language
            try:
                file_path = self.get_tempfile_from_url(itm)
                # I guess the try is not really necessary. Anyway.
            except (ValueError, KeyError):
                continue
            entry = DownloadEntry(
                self.field_data, file_path, extras, self.site_icon)
            entry.file_extension = self.file_extension
            self.downloads_list.append(entry)

You also need to register this class in the __init__.py of the downloaders module:

...
from .forvo_free import ForvoDownloader

downloaders = [
    ...
    ForvoDownloader(),
]

[ospalh]

Looks like Forvo changed their policies. There is now a buck/month plan. They still say not encourage customers to get keys”, but when they *pay for the key, that doesn’t make too much sense.
What is not making sense, too, is that they say “no caching” and “creative commons” both.
Worth watching. Maybe there will be a general Forvo downloader some day.

[gabriel4649]

Is there still no interest on the forvo downloader? I am willing to pay the $1 month for the convenience and I am sure other users would be. Perhaps there could be a dialog where the user can input his or her API key and thus enable the forvo feature. If there is interest on this, I might be able to write it myself and submit a PR. Great job with the downloader!!! I use it almost everyday and it is an essential part of my Anki work-flow.

[ospalh]

Short answer: no.

Discussed at Google Groups.

On the other hand, i think giving another developer a hand is something else than encouraging end users to get a Forvo key. So, just look around at the branches of this repo. Or more specific, at the downloaders directory.

[sardeie]

Thank you.

[Schpeet]

I added the forvo downloader, and replaced the init.py file in my downloaders folder with the one here, as well as replacing the text XXXXXXXX with my forvo API key...but am having a lot of issues! Can anyone help me?

[ospalh]

Looks like you copied a saved web page to __init__.py. That won’t work. Even if the web page was showing an appropriate Python script.

And where is “here”? There is no link in your comment.

You should copy back the old __ini__.py, get it from here (see? a link!) or re-download the whole add-on. In cases one and three you should then edit the file.

[Schpeet]

Ah OK, thanks I just copied and pasted the text into the file and it works great now.

[ospalh]

The Forvo web page still says "You can't (…) encourage end users to get their own API keys. This is forbidden.”, so i will not encourage end users to get their own API keys.

[gabriel4649]

Ah I see, that is such a bizarre policy... Yet they ask for donations on their main website, as if it were a non-profit project. Thank you for your reply!

[ospalh]

No, their terms of use are largely unchanged, still contain

• It is not allowed to cache audio pronunciations.
• You can't […] encourage end users to get their own API keys.

[ospalh]

As this is free software, other people can do that, and risk the legal trouble, if they want to.
I am not too motivated to work on this any more.

[ospalh]

OK, nice.
At the moment i am not 100 % sure that i won’t use a variant of this idea.

Also:

1. This is just a comment, not a git commit in your repo.
2. The name ForvoDownloader is already taken for the API based version.
3. The code looks like Python 2, and so like an Anki 2.0 add-on, not an Anki 2.1 add-on.

[Zacharias030]

Would you like me to create a pull request with points 1.-3. fixed? I wasn't sure if you were interested so I didn't invest the time yet.

Re: 3. I thought the plugin is Anki 2.0 only?

[ospalh]

3: Yes. When i have come around to updating this add-on to 2.1, then i’ll have another look at this and i may – or may not – do Forvo this way.

[ospalh]

3: Yes. When i have come around to updating this add-on to 2.1, then i’ll have another look at this and i may – or may not – do Forvo this way.

See also https://ospalh.github.io/anki-addons/2017/10/26/Anki_21.html
(The motivation that went up to “a bit” has gone down again, to “maybe a tiny bit some time”.)