Using FLEx List Migrator

• Windows, with FieldWorks Language Explorer 9 installed — download FLEx from SIL (opens in a new tab).
• FLEx List Migrator. Download the .exe. It's portable: there's nothing to install, so save it anywhere and double-click it. The first time, Windows SmartScreen may warn you; choose More info → Run anyway.
• Close FLEx before you load a project here. FLEx locks a project while it has it open.
• Shared project? Do a Send/Receive first. If the project you'll import into uses Send/Receive, do one in FLEx before importing, so you import into everyone's latest data. After importing, open the project in FLEx and Send/Receive again to share the new items.
• Back up the project you'll import into. In FLEx, choose File ▸ Back up this Project. The import is a single transaction, but a backup lets you undo it later if you change your mind. For a shared project, check with your team before restoring a backup: FLEx warns that restoring an old backup can send old data to everyone and lose newer changes.

Save a file

Load the source and check the items, in as many lists as you like, as in steps 1–3 above. Then click Save Transfer JSON… and choose a name. The file holds everything you checked.

Import from a file

Under Source, choose JSON File, click Browse… to pick one or more files, and click Load. A file with several lists shows each of them in the Lists pane. Check the items (or choose Select All ▸ In all supported lists), then load the target and import as in steps 4–6 above.

Each file is checked as it loads. If it has problems, it isn't loaded, and the message says what's wrong and where in the file. Smaller issues are shown as notes, and the file still loads. The status bar shows the file's format version.

Open files by dropping them on the app

Drag one or more .json files onto FLEx List Migrator.exe, or onto a shortcut to it, to start the app with them loaded. With several files, each list is labelled with the file it came from.

A colleague can also give you a copy of the app with lists already built in, or with a preload folder of lists next to it. It opens those lists by itself when it starts.

Templates

Under Source, choose Template to pick from ready-made lists bundled with the app, listed by name, such as LTTW Papua (Seth). Click Load, check the items you want, and import them like any other source.

Share your own. If you've built lists that work well for a region, a language family, a field organization, or a workshop or training course, please offer them as a template so colleagues can start from them. Save them with Save Transfer JSON…, then click Submit yours… next to the template list (or use the template form (opens in a new tab)) and attach the file.

Ready-made lists

The Download section has ready-made files, such as a set of evidentials for Text Chart Markers. Load one as a JSON source and import it.

Versions

Version 1.2 opens files saved by 1.0 and 1.1. A file with one list is saved so that 1.1 can open it too; a file with several lists needs 1.2 or later. Version 1.0 can't open files saved by 1.1 or later. To write a file by hand, see the transfer file format (opens in a new tab).

Which list

The matching list in the target is found by its GUID, then by the kind of list (so Text Chart Markers is found even where FLEx gave the list its own GUID), then by name. If nothing matches, you choose the list.

Where the items go

Imported items are added at the end of the target list's top level, with all their subitems. To put them somewhere else, move them in FLEx afterwards: drag them in the Lists area, or use Promote and Demote. Text Chart Markers can also be moved with Move Up and Move Down.

Skip duplicates

When it's on, a checked top-level item whose name matches a top-level item already in the target list is skipped, together with everything under it. It doesn't merge new subitems into an existing item.

What's copied

• Name, Abbreviation and subitems.
• Description, including text in other writing systems and character styles.
• Discussion, with all its paragraphs.
• Status, Confidence, Researchers and Restrictions. These point to items in the target's Status, Confidence Levels, People and Restrictions lists, found by GUID or by name. One that isn't found is left out, and the notes say which.

Text in a writing system the target project doesn't have isn't imported, and the notes say so. Add the writing system in FLEx first if you need that text. Dates and other fields that FLEx manages itself aren't copied.

Which lists

This version exports and imports Text Chart Markers, Text Markup Tags and Text Constituent Chart Templates. Other lists (Parts of Speech, Semantic Domains, entry types, custom lists and more) can't be exported or imported yet. Support for them may come in a future release; see the known issue (opens in a new tab).

• Each top-level marker group becomes a Mark … command in a Text Chart cell's menu (for example, Mark Evidentials), and its subitems become submenus.
• Only items with no subitems can be chosen. An item that has subitems is just a heading in the menu.
• The chart cell shows the chosen marker's abbreviation, coloured and in parentheses; the menu shows Name (Abbreviation). Keep abbreviations short and distinct, and enter them in the project's default analysis writing system.