[jsword-devel] Introductions and some newb questions

[DM Smith]

Mike,
I have just checked in an Eclipse launcher for API examples. This  
manages all the jar files that might otherwise be missed and was the  
cause of a class not found exception when trying to style text.

I have also added an example to APIExamples of how to download a  
module from the Crosswire install location.

Happy coding!

Feel free to ask questions.

In Him,
	DM

On Feb 1, 2008, at 6:25 PM, DM Smith wrote:

> Mike Bradley wrote:
>> Hi,
>> My name is Mike Bradley, and I've been considering writing an open
>> source Biblical library management system.
>>
>
> Welcome! This is sounds great!
>
>> I'd link you to a website for more information, but I haven't put  
>> one up
>> yet.  Hopefully, if all goes well, someday it will be a competition  
>> of
>> sorts to programs such as yours, eSword, PCStudyBible, Logos, etc.  I
>> say "competition of sorts" as I want to focus more on the library
>> management side of things and a little less on the Bible study side  
>> of
>> things, something I haven't seen done yet.  As an example of the
>> difference, most of these programs are mostly about the Bible,  
>> whereas I
>> plan for my program to be primarily about texts that aren't Bibles  
>> (nor
>> lexicons, dictionaries, or concordances).
>>
>> As a good programmer, I've been scouring the net looking for  
>> libraries
>> and such that I can use from other people so that I don't have to  
>> write
>> all the code myself.  So, I've happened upon jSword and I am very
>> intrigued.  I believe jSword might be very usable for me in my  
>> project,
>> so that I can focus more on the features I want to add and less on  
>> the
>> book implementation.  I may need to modify some stuff as I will  
>> probably
>> need a richer set of "keys" for non verse-based and non-index based
>> texts.  But I'll have to dig into the code and figure out what's  
>> there
>> first.
>>
>
> Within the last month I have posted some tutorials and found others in
> the jsword-devel archive. I'd suggest reading those.
>
> I think the JSword architecture will work well for you.
>
> Regarding keys, we do have a robust notion of keys, but there is more
> work that can be done regarding ranges (e.g. Chapter 1 to Chapter 3,
> paragraph 4).
>
>> My first newb question is, how do I add books?  I ask this because  
>> the
>> APIExamples.java primer assumes that the KJV is installed and it  
>> isn't.
>> Never mind, I found my answer.  I'll post it in case anyone else is
>> looking for help on this issue.
>>
> JSword will look in many places for modules and you can set a Java
> variable to look in others. If a book is present in one of these
> locations, then it should load up quite easily.
>
> JSword has an install manager that if you ask it to get a Book from a
> location it will download it to it's download area. There are no
> examples of how to do this in APIExamples. I'll see about putting one
> together. And reply back to this email.
>
>> Download the following:
>> http://www.crosswire.org/ftpmirror/pub/sword/packages/raw/KJV.zip
>> Extract the zip file to a location that I'll refer to as [PATH]
>> Add the following code into the main() method of APIExamples.java  
>> (add
>> it before the readPlainText() is called) and import what is  
>> necessary to
>> compile the new types.
>>
>
> For JSword, this is a bit too manual. It should use the code to do the
> download.
>
>> <Code>
>>
>>        try
>>        {
>>            File file = new File("[PATH]/mods.d/kjv.conf");
>>            URI bookRootPath = new URI("[PATH]");
>>
>>            SwordBookMetaData sbmd = new SwordBookMetaData(file,
>> BIBLE_NAME, bookRootPath);
>>            SwordBookDriver.registerNewBook(sbmd);
>>        }
>>        catch (Exception e)
>>        {
>>            e.printStackTrace();
>>        }
>>
>> </Code>
>>
>> Is this something that you want me to check-in, or is that not  
>> helpful?
>>
> The examples are meant to work at a higher level. I think that this  
> is a
> little bit too low level.
>
> Let me see what I can come up with as an example.
>
>> The example still doesn't fully work as the next methods
>> (readStyledText(), readDictionary(), search(), etc) throw exceptions.
>> I'll get to work fixing these, but maybe someone else out there who
>> knows the code base should do it.
>>
>
> I haven't run the examples lately, but they should work without  
> exceptions.
>
>> That's it for now.  If there is anyone out there who would like to  
>> talk
>> more about what I'm doing or what you're doing, write me at MrQBerrt
>> <AT> gmail <DOT> com
>>
>> May the Lord make His face shine upon you,
>> -Mike
>>
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>>
>>
>
>
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