Misspelling of "Participant" field in .flextext export causes import failure

[Maaz Shaikh]

Dear all,

I wanted to report a bug I encountered while working with .flextext files in FLEx.

While trying to import a .flextext file that had been exported from ELAN (via the Elan–FLEx workflow), the import failed with the following error:
Fieldname 'Particpant' does not exist.

Screenshot 1: Import failure error message

Initially, I assumed this was an issue with the ELAN-exported file. But to test further, I created a fresh interlinear text directly within FLEx, exported it as .flextext, and then opened the exported XML in a text editor. There, I found that the field “Participant” had been misspelled as Particpant (missing an "i") in the exported file. This misspelling is what caused the import to fail—FLEx could not recognize the malformed field name on re-import.

Screenshot 2: .flextext XML exported from FLEx showing the misspelling "Particpant"

To be clear, the spelling is correct in the FLEx interface itself (see UI screenshot), but the export routine introduces the error in the XML. This was something I discovered while debugging why the “Participant” field exported from ELAN wasn’t being recognized by FLEx.

Screenshot 3: FLEx interface where the field label appears correctly as “Participant”

Screenshot 2: .flextext XML from ELAN showing the correct spelling "Particpant"

I have attached the ELAN exported .flextext and the test .flextext file from FLEx as well.

Please let me know how can I deal with this issue. 

Thank you!
Maaz

--

Maaz Shaikh माज़ शेख़ معاذ شیخ (འཇིགས་མེད) [he/him] 

PhD candidate and TA

4-23 Assiniboia Hall,

Department of Linguistics,

University of Alberta,

Edmonton, AB,

Canada T6G 2E7

maazahmadshaikh.github.io

ཕ་ཡུལ་བརྗེད་ན་སང་ཕ་སྐད་མ་བརྗེད། phayul bjetnasang, phaskat mabjet.

'Even if you forget your motherland, do not forget your mother tongue.' 

—A Balti Proverb 

The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the histories, languages, and cultures of First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.

I learn and acknowledge our university's location on the unlawfully occupied lands of ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ, or Amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton)—the unceded ancestral home of the Papaschase Cree and the Treaty 6 territory. Learn more: https://native-land.ca/

[Kevin Warfel]

While it is possible that those who need to be informed of bugs in FLEx will see them here on the FLEx list, it is best to send reports like this to FLEx_...@sil.org. That way they go directly to those who manage the bug-tracking database. And we should always include in the bug report the version of FLEx that we are/were using when we encounter(ed) the bug; that detail is just as important as the details about the problem encountered.

I sometimes request input from other FLEx users about their experience here on the FLEx list prior to submitting a report to FLEx_Errors, as I'm not always sure if I'm doing things the way I'm supposed to.

Best wishes,

Kevin

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[Maaz Shaikh]

Thanks, Kevin. That’s very helpful—I’ll send a report to FLEx_...@sil.org and include the version number this time. I only posted here first because I wanted to confirm it wasn’t something I was overlooking.

Best
Maaz

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[kevin_...@sil.org]

That is a valid reason for posting here.

 

-Kevin

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[jason_...@sil.org]

Is it possible that the Participant custom field was originally created with the misspelling?
When you re-name a custom field in FieldWorks it retains the original name internally and only updates the label. This isn't a problem in the lexicon area, but custom fields have only recently been introduced into the Interlinear view.

If you sent your project to the flexerrors email they should be able to verify if this is the case. This is certainly an undesirable behavior when you are trying to round trip this data and using the label. Hopefully we can find a way to improve this in the future but for now you may need to work with the support team to modify the project data without losing any existing data that you have entered in that custom field.

Kind Regards,

Jason Naylor

[Maaz Shaikh]

Dear Jason,

Apologies for the delayed response—I'm currently in the field with limited internet access and intermittent power, so I'm catching up slowly.

Thanks a lot for your thoughtful reply. Yes, I did create the “Participant” custom field following the ELAN–FLEx–ELAN workflow instructions by Tim Bodt. However, I double-checked the field configuration, and I don’t see any spelling errors or typos during the creation process. The field is displayed correctly as “Participant” in the UI (see the attached screenshots for reference).

That said, the .flextext export still ends up encoding the field name as Particpant (missing an "i"), which leads to the import failure. I've already written to the support team at FLEx_...@sil.org and have forwarded the screenshots and test files to them. Hopefully, they'll be able to inspect the project file and verify the issue.

Thanks again for pointing out the possibility of internal label mismatches—I’ll keep that in mind when creating custom fields in future projects.

Best wishes
Maaz

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