Importers, in particular Praat

[wjarek]

Hello everyone,
I'm totally new to Advene (but have used ELAN before). I'm on Windows 7, and Advene seems to work OK in general. However, I seem to have a problem with importing text files. The importer window lets me select a file and a specific importer; however, the "Start" button remains greyed out. The formats I've tried are Praat (I have a collection of Praat TextGrids that I would like to use in Advene), plain text, and SRT. The behaviour is the same for all three.
What is the correct procedure for this?
Thank you in advance,
Jarek

[oaubert]

Hello

you have found a bug in the windows version. I will not go into details, but it has to do with the naming conventions in windows (using \ as separator and drive letters such as c:). We will issue a fixed version soon, but in the meantime, here is a workaround:

- open the importer dialog
- select the file to import
- in the Advene menu, select "View/Evaluator" (second to last item)
- in the Evaluator window, enter the following statement in the Expression editor:

Code: Select all

importerview.filename=importerview.fb.get_filename()

and execute it (Control-Return or the execution icon)
- then enter and execute (same process as above) the expression

Code: Select all

importerview.update_importers()

The Launch button will be activated, and the appropriate filter should be selected.

[wjarek]

Thank you very much! I'll give it a go.

[oaubert]

A new windows installer (1.0.1) is now available, that fixes this bug.

[wjarek]

Hello,

First of all, thank you very much for such speedy reaction during such a slow time of the year. Much appreciated; I'm impressed.

I've now had time to test the new release and it does work indeed with text and srt files. However, Praat import still seems to be a problem. I've tried with some of my TextGrids, and they won't import.

(1) It doesn't matter how many annotation tiers there are; even with only one, the import doesn't seem to work.
(2) I've also tried all the formats that Praat uses for TextGrids (text file, short text file and chronological file. No luck.
(3) In the import window, the Start button is normal, and seems to work normally. But as soon as I press it, I get a pop-up saying "No annotation type; No package; No relation..." etc.

What am I doing wrong? Is some specific TextGrid "format" required?

(BTW, this isn't a huge problem, since I can convert the annotations using a script within Praat; but it would help if the import worked "out of the box"...)

Anyway, thank you once more.

Jarek

[oaubert]

The PRAAT import only handles text PRAAT format, and may not be solid enough to deal with some features. Could you send me some sample files so that I can test and improve the import filter (or write a new one if needed)?

[wjarek]

Thanks. But it seems I can't attach any files to the post. Should I send them by email?

[oaubert]

Yes, send them to olivier.aubert -at- liris.cnrs.fr