Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/TermBox project (ID: 23553622)/Final Report
Application type: Tech project
Parts 1-3: Project and impact
1. What was built or achieved during the project, and how did it align with your original goals, milestones and technical plan? (required)
The TermBox project, now renamed Lexis to avoid a naming conflict with a component in Wikidata, has been under development for a long time, and the project has essentially achieved its original objectives.
With the two objectives of (1) allowing users to create dictionaries, and (2) enabling editors to look up terminology while translating articles, Lexis has performed exceptionally well in terms of capability, with many extensions beyond the initial intentions. As for objective (3), facilitating the creation of lexical data in Wikidata, it was not implemented because, after analysis, I realized that it was unnecessary and created conflicts in the user experience. Therefore, I devoted the time originally allocated to objective (3) toward objectives (1) and (2) in order to develop additional features.
Overall, there are 21 main features in the Lexis software, divided into 5 groups:
– Dictionary (Create Dictionary, Edit Dictionary Information, Enable/Disable Dictionary, Save Dictionary, Unsave Dictionary, Delete Dictionary (experimental))
– References (Search References, Add Reference, Edit Reference, Delete Reference, Quick Import References (experimental))
– Terms (Search Terms, Add Term, Edit Term, Delete Term, Quick Import Terms (experimental))
– Lookup (Lookup Using Form, Lookup Using Shortcut Keys, View Detailed Information of Results)
– History (View History, Clear History)
The extensive development of the core features expected from a typical termbase application like Lexis significantly increased the development time. Nevertheless, the software has been completed and has reached what I consider to be the highest quality within my capabilities, despite certain changes from the original plan.
From a technical perspective, instead of developing both the back-end and front-end as originally planned, I simplified the architecture by developing only the front-end in order to reduce project complexity. At the same time, I developed a custom text format to store dictionary data directly on Wikipedia without requiring a database. This is a structured format in which information can be written on a single line, without becoming as cluttered or storage-intensive as JSON.
The project source code is hosted on GitHub and released under the AGPL-3.0 license.
2. Share links that demonstrate your project's impact, usage, and technical outcomes. (required)
Required links:
- Project page on relevant Wikimedia spaces (e.g. Phabricator, Wikimedia projects, Toolforge)
- Code repository (e.g. Gerrit, GitHub or GitLab)
- Documentation or user guides
- Dashboards, metrics tools, or analytics used to track usage or contributions
Optional links you may include:
- Diff or mailing list announcements
- Community feedback
- Demos or product presentations
- Survey results or user testing feedback
- Examples of integrations or usage within Wikimedia projects
The Lexis project page on Vietnamese Wikipedia: vi:User:Plantaest/Lexis.
Detailed usage guide for all software features: vi:User:Plantaest/Lexis/Hướng dẫn sử dụng.
Project source code development guide (for programmers): vi:User:Plantaest/Lexis/Hướng dẫn phát triển.
Project source code on GitHub: github:plantaest/lexis.
The page storing Lexis dictionaries on Vietnamese Wikipedia: vi:Wikipedia:Lexis.
Lexis project release announcement on the general discussion space of Vietnamese Wikipedia: vi:Wikipedia:Thảo luận#Dự án Lexis.
Images related to the project are stored on Wikimedia Commons: c:Category:Lexis (software).
3. What are the key lessons you learned during this project, both technical and non-technical? (required)
From a technical perspective, I gained new experience through developing a termbase project like Lexis, which is a type of software that I find particularly interesting. Building Lexis gave me a much deeper understanding of termbase software in general. During the development process, I also learned many new things about Vue.js and its ecosystem, including libraries such as Pinia, Pinia Colada, VeeValidate, Valibot, and especially Dexie, an excellent library for interacting with IndexedDB. Thanks to the Lexis project, I was introduced to many interesting technologies such as Dexie.
From a non-technical perspective, I believe I had an important opportunity to interact with the Program Officer of the ESEAP region. Through communication with her, the completion process of this project proceeded smoothly, despite the many obstacles encountered during implementation due to circumstances in my personal life.
4. How did the Wikimedia community or your target audience engage with your project during its development or release? (required)
During the implementation of this project, I did not engage in online discussions with the Vietnamese Wikipedia community, because we had already discussed this project extensively and in sufficient depth long ago for me to clearly understand what needed to be done.
However, in early 2026, during an in-person gathering with several members of the Vietnamese Wikipedia community for the 25th anniversary of Wikipedia, I briefly discussed this project and received some feedback from them.
5. What risks or challenges did you encounter (related to delivery, safety, or security), and how did you address them? (required)
There were no challenges related to safety or security, because Lexis is a completely front-end project; therefore, it is incapable of collecting user data or other sensitive information.
Regarding delivery, I was delayed in completing this project compared to the original plan due to various issues in my personal life. Nevertheless, the project was ultimately completed, and I am happy that I was able to continue creating something useful for others.
6. Who will maintain the project going forward, and what is your plan for long-term maintenance? (required)
I will be the primary maintainer of the project in the future, and I will continue developing this project throughout this year. In the following years, either I or someone close to me may continue maintaining this project, with the assistance of AI.
(questions 7-9 are skipped)
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)
130500000
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
4952.75
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Upload the financial report
12.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
No
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
N/A
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
N/A
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
14.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
14.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
14.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
15. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. (optional)