discuss: Thread: Linux Dictionary Online Database Help

Hello everyone,

Could someone please tell me whether there is an open source product that
will allow me to publish a Linux Dictionary and update it online with as
little fuss as possible.

It is currently organised as

Meaning(tab)Definition
Newline
Meaning(tab)Definition
Newline
Meaning(tab)Definition
Newline
etc....

Binh.

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, Binh Nguyen wrote:

> Could someone please tell me whether there is an open source product that
> will allow me to publish a Linux Dictionary and update it online with as
> little fuss as possible.
>
> It is currently organised as
>
> Meaning(tab)Definition
> Newline
> Meaning(tab)Definition
> Newline
> etc....

There are several ways of doing this, all using GPLed products.

The awkward part is arranging exactly how to do the editing online
(single editor? multiple editors? edit online? edit offline? give direct
online access to the actual data, or only to a copy of the data?  etc.)

Take a look at my own solution to a very similar problem; see :

     http://www.libraryofavalon.co.uk/

(do a keyword search);

and

     http://www.glastonbury.gov.uk/g_gov/

(choose 'Business Directory' from the LH table.  Search for 'lucas or
pegg or wheeler' to see why layout is as it is.)

These use a mixture of PHP, MySQL and Perl scripts, and are relatively
easy to implement.

(Funnily enough, when I read your last mail on this subject, I thought
of putting a searchable version of the dictionary online using these
scripts; but in the end was too lazy to do anything about it :)
I could still do it if you'ld like me to, though.

HTH,
-- 
Martin Wheeler   -   StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
####@####.####                http://www.startext.co.uk/mwheeler/
GPG pub key : 01269BEB  6CAD BFFB DB11 653E B1B7 C62B  AC93 0ED8 0126 9BEB
      - Share your knowledge. It's a way of achieving immortality. -

Martin WHEELER wrote:
> On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, Binh Nguyen wrote:
>
>> Could someone please tell me whether there is an open source product
>> that will allow me to publish a Linux Dictionary and update it
>> online with as little fuss as possible.
>>
>> It is currently organised as
>>
>> Meaning(tab)Definition
>> Newline
>> Meaning(tab)Definition
>> Newline
>> etc....
>
> There are several ways of doing this, all using GPLed products.
>
> The awkward part is arranging exactly how to do the editing online
> (single editor? multiple editors? edit online? edit offline? give
> direct online access to the actual data, or only to a copy of the
> data?  etc.)
>
> Take a look at my own solution to a very similar problem; see :
>
>      http://www.libraryofavalon.co.uk/
>
> (do a keyword search);
>
> and
>
>      http://www.glastonbury.gov.uk/g_gov/
>
> (choose 'Business Directory' from the LH table.  Search for 'lucas or
> pegg or wheeler' to see why layout is as it is.)
>
> These use a mixture of PHP, MySQL and Perl scripts, and are relatively
> easy to implement.
>
> (Funnily enough, when I read your last mail on this subject, I thought
> of putting a searchable version of the dictionary online using these
> scripts; but in the end was too lazy to do anything about it :)
> I could still do it if you'ld like me to, though.
>
> HTH,

Hi Martin,

That would be sweet indeed :) How much time does it take to get something
like that up and running? My preference is that proposed definitions will go
to a 'holding centre' and that two people to take a look at proposed
definitions and then approve or reject.

Binh.

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, Binh Nguyen wrote:

>  How much time does it take to get something
> like that up and running?

Depends whether you want a quick'n'dirty kludge; or a well-thought-out
scalable system  :)

> My preference is that proposed definitions will go
> to a 'holding centre' and that two people to take a look at proposed
> definitions and then approve or reject.

OK -- looks like we're going for the latter.
Binh -- can you tell me where I can pick up the original text-only
version of >>entries only<<, and I'll take it from there.

I also propose we take this discussion temporarily off-list -- anyone
else feel free to join us, though (Tille? Andrew? Anthony?) -- until
we've worked out the exact model we want to work from.
-- 
Martin Wheeler   -   StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
####@####.####                http://www.startext.co.uk/mwheeler/
GPG pub key : 01269BEB  6CAD BFFB DB11 653E B1B7 C62B  AC93 0ED8 0126 9BEB
      - Share your knowledge. It's a way of achieving immortality. -

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 20:54:18 +1000 Binh Nguyen ####@####.#### wrote:

> Martin WHEELER wrote:
> > On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, Binh Nguyen wrote:
> >
> ...
> >
> > (Funnily enough, when I read your last mail on this subject, I thought
> > of putting a searchable version of the dictionary online using these
> > scripts; but in the end was too lazy to do anything about it :)
> > I could still do it if you'ld like me to, though.
> >
> > HTH,
> 
> Hi Martin,
> 
> That would be sweet indeed :) How much time does it take to get something
> like that up and running? My preference is that proposed definitions
> will go to a 'holding centre' and that two people to take a look at proposed
> definitions and then approve or reject.

That would be great, Martin. I published Binh's XML document, but I
fear it's not usable in the current mode. It's basically one
*huge* section containing an itemized list.

Binh, I was thinking that perhaps one way to make this easier to
use in a "book" form would be to take a hint from the traditional
dictionary layout and break it up by alphabetical sections. ideally,
a searchable version is the best implementation, imo...but we could
still attempt to publish this breaking on alpha sections. It's your 
choice.

--
Greg

>>> (Funnily enough, when I read your last mail on this subject, I
>>> thought
>>> of putting a searchable version of the dictionary online using these
>>> scripts; but in the end was too lazy to do anything about it :)
>>> I could still do it if you'ld like me to, though.
>>>
>>> HTH,
>>
>> Hi Martin,
>>
>> That would be sweet indeed :) How much time does it take to get
>> something like that up and running? My preference is that proposed
>> definitions
>> will go to a 'holding centre' and that two people to take a look at
>> proposed definitions and then approve or reject.
>
> That would be great, Martin. I published Binh's XML document, but I
> fear it's not usable in the current mode. It's basically one
> *huge* section containing an itemized list.
>
> Binh, I was thinking that perhaps one way to make this easier to
> use in a "book" form would be to take a hint from the traditional
> dictionary layout and break it up by alphabetical sections. ideally,
> a searchable version is the best implementation, imo...but we could
> still attempt to publish this breaking on alpha sections. It's your
> choice.

I suppose we could publish an alpha. I should have it broken up by tommorrow
sometime (Australian EST). One of the reasons why I did as one big file was
because I didn't want to have to go from file to file manually sorting the
thing. I never realised that it would become quite so large.

Binh.

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003, Greg Ferguson wrote:

> That would be great, Martin. I published Binh's XML document, but I
> fear it's not usable in the current mode. It's basically one
> *huge* section containing an itemized list.

<immense grin />
That's *exactly* what the stuff I use depends on.  One humongous great
file, laid out as a list.  It looks better on the page when items are
pre-sorted alphabetically -- which there's a script to do for this
material, I believe.


> Binh, I was thinking that perhaps one way to make this easier to
> use in a "book" form would be to take a hint from the traditional
> dictionary layout and break it up by alphabetical sections. ideally,
> a searchable version is the best implementation, imo...but we could
> still attempt to publish this breaking on alpha sections. It's your
> choice.

Breaking it up into alpha sections whilst retaining the ability to
search within that section is perfectly possible (see libraryofavalon
site) -- the real nuisance is that this text is tagged for XML, where
all my scripts assume HTML tagging, and actually use that fact for fast
presentation purposes.
(I.e. all text is NOT tagged 'on the fly' as the search result is dished
up, but is actually taken from pre-tagged material.  This increases
the size of the data file enormously, but gives a very fast response on
the search query -- important when you're dealing with humongous great
wodges of information.)

I think the way forward here is to set it all up in a very simple (two
field) database, editable online by those with the requisite permission,
and with the ability to produce at least two reports: one in XML for
LDTP multi-presentation publishing purposes; the other in HTML for
online web-page presentation / search purposes.
(The downside here of course is that you have to create a new report
everytime you add a new entry; the upside is you never have the punters
playing with your *real* data, even when only searching.)
An associated wiki could be used to prepare new entries before including
them in the full text held in the database.
Or maybe a simple web page entry form could be used to submit new
entries to a panel of editors.  (see Glastonbury Business Directory.)

What think, all?
-- 
Martin Wheeler   -   StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
####@####.####                http://www.startext.co.uk/mwheeler/
GPG pub key : 01269BEB  6CAD BFFB DB11 653E B1B7 C62B  AC93 0ED8 0126 9BEB
      - Share your knowledge. It's a way of achieving immortality. -