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Magic Mirror module to display a random Kanji character

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njwilliams/MMM-Kanji-Random

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MMM-Kanji-Random

This an extension for the MagicMirror.

This module displays the Kanji content using two sources:

On a regular basis (by default hourly, more or less), this will retrieve a random Kanji character and display the definition and readings. Kun readings are shown in cyan. On readings are shown in green. The kanji character will be displayed in orange if it is an uncommon kanji. Note that this is based on the Jisho API saying that the kanji is not common, however I'm not convinced on the interpretation of that field, since it says things like 試 is uncommon, while the full web interface says it's #392 out of the 2500 most used kanji in newspapers...

The Jisho API is awesome, but not quite polished yet. This means that it provides a wealth of information (much of which is not displayed, since there's a vast amount of info there!). It does provide more thorough meanings of Kanji compared to the data found from the random kanji service, however the API readings are a little broken, so this module will always display the readings that came from the random kanji service. I hope that as the API improves, this service can cutover more data from there.

Example

Screenshot of MMM-Kanji-Random

Installation

Open a terminal session, navigate to your MagicMirror's modules folder and execute git clone https://github.com/njwilliams/MMM-Kanji-Random.git. A new folder called MMM-Kanji-Random will be created. In that folder, run 'npm install' to ensure that dependent packages are available..

Activate the module by adding it to the config.js file as shown below.

Using the module

modules: [
{
  module: 'MMM-Kanji-Random',
  position: 'middle-center',
  config: {
    type: "JLPT",
    level: "N4",
    minsBeforeChange: 180, // let's leave it up for a few hours
  }
},

Configuration options

The following properties can be configured:

Option Values Description
type random, elementary, jlpt, minna no nihongo Selects the source of the Kanji. Random will pick from all of the sources and has no other options. If one of the other types is chosen, then the level option must also be provided
level N1-N5, 1-6, 1-2 Sets the level of the given type. JLPT uses "N1", "N2", etc. Elementary grades are 1 through 6. Minna No Nihongo just has 1 and 2
minsBeforeChange 60 How many minutes before the Kanji is changed. The default is 60 (i.e. hourly).

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Magic Mirror module to display a random Kanji character

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