Reader practice app

Overview

This is a simple language learning application designed to help practice reading skills in Dutch by focusing on single words. The app is structured in two main components:

• Backend: Handles text management and API endpoints. The division of text into syllables happens on the backend
• Frontend: Provides the user interface for word-by-word reading exercises including color block for distinguishing letters.

The application focuses specifically on Dutch language learning since this is what I am personally interested in. Using it for other languages would probably require adjustments to both the backend and the frontend.

Running the app

Running the app involves starting the backend and the frontend on the same machine.

Backend

For the backend you need to have the Rust toolchain installed. To start the backend run:

    cargo run -- --texts-path .\demo_texts\

This command starts the backend which will read all the texts in JSON format from the .\demo_texts\ folder. Any other folder path is acceptable. The text files must end with json extension and follow the correct schema, which looks like this:

{
    "title": "This is the title",
    "text": ["This is block1", "This is block2"]
}

You can put any texts you like to read on this folder and they will be automatically picked up by the backend without needing to restart.

Frontend

The frontend is only basic HTML+Javascript so you can serve it with any HTTP server. I normally use Python for this:

    python -m http.server --directory reader_frontend

Once both components are running you can simply access the frontend server using your browser. The home page is a list of all the texts available: