Sage Anyone managed to use converted Apple Dict?

Legrumsx · 07-20-2023, 09:13 AM

Hi, new joiner here

On iPad/mac/iPhone there are really good built-in dictionaries. I managed to get the dictionaries data from my iPad, then I used pyglossary to convert them to dicthtml-XX.zip and add them to the \.kobo\custom-dict folder
The dictionary is detected, but most of the time it doesn't find the word and when it does, there is no CSS formatting so it's unusable.

Has anyone ever managed to properly convert them to Kobo format?

Later, I saw that KOreader supports Stardict format so I installed it on my device and because I am also using those Apple Dictionaries with GoldenDict on my PC I knew the conversion was successful, even the CSS formatting is like on my iPad.

But here again, after putting the converted dict to \.adds\koreader\data\dict, I see that there is a new entry in the list, but I never got it to display a definition, let alone a properly formatted one.

I managed to install open source dictionaries instead, but they are far inferior, even compared to the stock dictionaries. So I would appreciate some help.

(I can provide the files on demand as there would be probably copyright issues.)

woaitsbren · 07-21-2023, 10:10 PM

I’m interested in this as well, could you send over the raw apple dictionary files? I’ll take a look tomorrow and see what I can do!

Legrumsx · 07-30-2023, 03:22 PM

If anyone is interest, I did manage the conversion to Stardict format to use with KOreader, which I found way better.
I first converted the apple dictionaries to the Stardict XML format using pyglossary. This format is human readable and I could see some things which were suspicious compared to working Wiki dictionaries.
I wrote this Python script to do some clean-up:

Code:

import sys
import re
import fileinput
import shutil
import os

def replace_in_xml(xml_file_path):
    # Define the regular expression patterns and replacement strings
    patterns_to_replace = {
        r'<d:': '<',
        r'</d:': '</',
        r'soundFile="(.+?)" ': ' ',
        r'soundFile="(.+?)">': '>',
        r'source="(.+?)" ': ' ',
        r'source="(.+?)">': '>',
        r'<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css"></head>': '',
        r' href="(.+?)"': ' ',
        r'<span d:': '<span '
        # Add more patterns and replacements as needed
    }

    try:
        # Create a temporary file for writing the updated content
        with open(xml_file_path + '.tmp', mode='w', encoding='utf-8') as tmp_file:
            with fileinput.FileInput(xml_file_path, openhook=fileinput.hook_encoded("utf-8")) as file:
                for line in file:
                    for pattern, replacement in patterns_to_replace.items():
                        line = re.sub(pattern, replacement, line)
                    tmp_file.write(line)

        # Replace the original file with the updated content
        shutil.move(xml_file_path + '.tmp', xml_file_path)

    except FileNotFoundError:
        print(f"Error: File '{xml_file_path}' not found.")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error occurred: {str(e)}")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    if len(sys.argv) < 2:
        print("Usage: python cleanse_apple_xml.py <xml_file_path>")
    else:
        xml_file_path = sys.argv[1]
        replace_in_xml(xml_file_path)

And then I converted the files to the Stardict ifo format.
For the formatting, I took the css from apple and did some clean up with various tools.

Here a link to the CSS file (there are still some quirks), it should be in the same folder as the .ifo and have the same name.
https://pastebin.com/u2puYFRZ

07-20-2023, 09:13 AM	#1
Legrumsx Junior Member Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2023 Device: Kobo Sage	Anyone managed to use converted Apple Dict? Hi, new joiner here On iPad/mac/iPhone there are really good built-in dictionaries. I managed to get the dictionaries data from my iPad, then I used pyglossary to convert them to dicthtml-XX.zip and add them to the \.kobo\custom-dict folder The dictionary is detected, but most of the time it doesn't find the word and when it does, there is no CSS formatting so it's unusable. Has anyone ever managed to properly convert them to Kobo format? Later, I saw that KOreader supports Stardict format so I installed it on my device and because I am also using those Apple Dictionaries with GoldenDict on my PC I knew the conversion was successful, even the CSS formatting is like on my iPad. But here again, after putting the converted dict to \.adds\koreader\data\dict, I see that there is a new entry in the list, but I never got it to display a definition, let alone a properly formatted one. I managed to install open source dictionaries instead, but they are far inferior, even compared to the stock dictionaries. So I would appreciate some help. (I can provide the files on demand as there would be probably copyright issues.)

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07-21-2023, 10:10 PM	#2
woaitsbren Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2023 Device: Kobo Clara HD	I’m interested in this as well, could you send over the raw apple dictionary files? I’ll take a look tomorrow and see what I can do!