DEX2XML

dex2xml is a Python script to convert DEXonline database to xml format for creating a MOBI dictionary.

Due to Kindle fonts, the diacritics for Romanian language are not displayed properly (Romanian standard defines diacritics as letters with comma (,) and Kindle displays these with cedilla) Due to this problem, searching for terms containing diacritics with comma would not return any result. This was overcome by exporting terms and inflected forms both with comma and with cedilla.

Tested with Kindle Paperwhite 2013 and Kindle Keyboard 2010

This python script is based on tab2opf.py by Klokan Petr Pøidal (www.klokan.cz) The regexs for formatting definitions are adapted from: https://github.com/dexonline/dexonline/blob/master/lib/Constant.php#L68 https://wiki.dexonline.ro/wiki/Ghidul_voluntarului

Requirements:

Linux or Windows enivronment
MySQL server
copy of DEXonline database - download and installation instructions: http://wiki.dexonline.ro/wiki/Instruc%C8%9Biuni_de_instalare
Python (this script was tested using Python 3.10)
PyMySql package (compiled from sources or installed using "pip install pymysql")
optional: kindlegen for generating MOBI format (available for Linux/Windows/Mac at http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000765211)

Workflow:

The Deploy workflow from the Github Actions section of the repo can also be used to create the .mobi dictionary. This has the advantage of not requiring to install anything. You can find the generated file(s) in the "artifacts" section of a succesful build.

Usage:

dex2xml.py (-i | -b | -h | -v) [-s SERVER] [-p PORT] [-u USERNAME]
            [-passwd PASSWORD] [-d DATABASE]
            [-src SOURCES [SOURCES ...]] [-o OUTPUTFILE]
            [--diacritics {comma,cedilla,both}] [-k | -t]

optional arguments:
-i, --interactive     run the program in interactive mode
-b, --batch           run the program in batch mode, taking parameters from command line
-h, --help            print this help file
-v, --version         print the program's version

Batch arguments:
-s SERVER, --server SERVER
                    Specify the mysql server to connect to.
                    Default: 'localhost'
-p PORT, --port PORT  Mysql server port.
                    Default: 3306
-u USERNAME, --username USERNAME
                    Specify the username to connect to mysql server.
                    Default: 'root'
-passwd PASSWORD, --password PASSWORD
                    The password of the mysql server.
-d DATABASE, --database DATABASE
                    DEX database on the mysql server.
                    Default: 'DEX'
-src SOURCES [SOURCES ...], --sources SOURCES [SOURCES ...]
                    List of dictionary sources to extract from database.
                    Must contain the sources id's from the table 'sources'.
                    If some source doesn't exist or can't be distributed, it will be removed from the list.
                    Default: 27 36
-o OUTPUTFILE, --outputfile OUTPUTFILE
                    Filename of output file.
                    May include path.
                    Existing files will be deleted first.
                    Default: 'DEXonline'
--diacritics {comma,cedilla,both}
                    Specify how the diacritics should be exported.
                    Default: 'both'
-k, --kindlegen     Do not run kindlegen to convert the output to MOBI.
                    Default: not set
-t, --temp_files    Keep the temporary files after running kindlegen.
                    Default: not set

Version history:

0.9.2
    updated to work with Python 3.10
    fixed "A" chapter not being generated correctly
    implemented formatting for definitions
    added workaround for displaying the titles from "Mic dictionar mitologic greco-roman"
    reworked page formatting, cleaned up templates

0.9.1
    added parameter to select how the diacritics should be exported (comma, cedilla, both)

0.9.0
    output file compliant with EPUB Publications 3.0 (http://www.idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30-publications.html)
    added TOC
    added abbreviation page
    added full interactive mode
    added full batch mode
    added usage help

0.2.2
    various bugfixes and improvements
    added posibility to directly run 'kindlegen' to convert the OPF to MOBI

0.2.1
    added parameters for connecting to MySql server
    added posibility to choose the dictionary sources

0.2
    initial dex2xml.py version

0.1
    initial version of tab2opf.py - Copyright (C) 2007 - Klokan Petr Pøidal (www.klokan.cz)

License

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Library General Public License for more details.