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Known Issues and Limitations

Kevin Hahn edited this page Jul 3, 2024 · 25 revisions

As with any piece of software, Language Forge has some known issues and limitations. We work hard to improve functionality and usability, but are unable to immediately address all known issues and limitations. For your reference, here are the known issues and limitations. Known issues and limitations may be addressed in the future. Some of the items below are labeled as anticipated to be addressed, or considered for being addressed.

Internet required

Language Forge requires a stable internet connection. If your internet connection is unstable and drops out frequently, the application may not behave. You may need to refresh the page/application in order to regain functionality. New entries or edits can be lost if the connection goes down.

Team Editing

When a team is simultaneously editing a dictionary on Language Forge, users are discouraged from working on the same entry at the same time. If they do, careful editing is required to avoid losing work or overwriting the other person's edits. Within an entry, two users can theoretically edit different fields within the same entry and not lose work, however this applies only to text fields. Because of limitations in the underlying technology, edits to list fields may be overwritten if users are simultaneously editing the same entry. The only conflict resolution / merge algorithm is "last one in wins". Updates are propagated to all connected users within 1 minute, usually less. If two users edit the same field at the same time, only one person's data will survive the edit.

FLEx Fields and Features Not Presently Available in LF

For all of the following, the easiest workaround will likely be to view and edit them in FLEx. This information will be saved in your project, even though it is not presently visible in Language Forge. If a header is in italics, it means that only the named fields in its section are unavailable. If it is not italicized, the entire section is unavailable.

  • Main Entry
    • Is Abstract Form
    • Morph Type
    • Environments
    • Stem Name
    • Dialect Labels (Entry)
    • Complex Forms
    • Components
    • Variant of
    • Publish Pronunciation In
    • Etymology
      • Preceding Annotation
      • Source Language
      • Source Form (Called "Etymology" in LF): Only the vernacular field is supported- not the analysis fields.
      • Bibliographic Source
      • Etymology Note
    • Cross References
    • Import Residue
    • Date Created (LF records this but does not display it)
    • Date Modified (LF records this but does not display it)
  • Senses
    • Reversal Entries
    • Dialect Labels (sense)
    • Complex Forms
    • Import Residue
    • Referenced Complex Forms
    • Subentries
    • Variants of Sense
    • Example Sentence
      • Translation Type
      • Reference
      • Publish Example In
    • Lexical Relations [Anticipated]
    • Picture
      • Image's file path at the time of its upload (LF documents this but does not display it.)
      • Publish Picture In
      • If sending and receiving, only images under 1MB can be used.
  • Variants [Considered]
  • Allomorphs [Considered]
  • Grammatical Info. Details
    • Inflection Class
    • Inflection Features
    • Exception "Features"
  • Publication Settings [Considered]

For even more information on unsynced features, you can look at this list and this list in a commented section of the LfMerge codebase (Also, the lists immediately below them.)

Send/Receive

  • Only projects built on FLEx 9.0 or higher will synchronize.
  • Some types of FLEx custom lists will cause a project to go on hold in Language Forge. (See Issue 976 for more information.) [Anticipated]
  • Writing Systems are imported into Language Forge only on the initial Send/Receive of the project. Further changes made to writing systems in either FLEx or Language Forge do not propagate via Send/Receive.

Other

  • A stable internet connection is required to use Language Forge [Anticipated]
    • Workaround: use FLEx to export your data for offline reference. Possibly to a PDF, or an app made with the Dictionary App Builder.
  • Language Forge does not support creating, editing, or removing custom fields at this time. Editing input and writing systems can now only be done in FLEx.
  • Apparently missing entries: Rarely, it appears that entries are missing from the project.
    • Workaround guide Language Forge will then reload all of the entries to your device from the database. You should now be able to see the missing entries.

Other Resources

Click here to see the Release Notes and learn how we have been improving Language Forge for you.