Is it possible to update entries in the CC-CEDICT database?

xiaoshiyilang · Post by **xiaoshiyilang** » 23 Dec 2012, 11:17

Hello everyone ! I'm a newcomer here. I've had a long search with Google for the way to modify/import/update the dictionary database for my Hanping Chinese Dictionary Pro. I know that this app uses CC-CEDICT as its database for translating from Chinese to English, but I'm wondering how I would do to update those entries stored in "/sdcard/Android/data/com.embermitre.dictroid/zh/dicts/cccedict.dsd". For example: I try translating this word "Nihao" and then receive a result in English as "Hello", but I want to add other LANGUAGE to the only ENGLISH here, for example Vietnamese, so how can I do to extract this file and try to modify them with any text editor then compile it ? Thanks in advance.

Post by **hanping** » 02 Jan 2013, 15:06

Hi - unfortunately there is no easy way to do this. If you wanted to hack a solution, well the database is an SQLite database so you could use something like SQLiteSpy to manually edit it. However, keep backups, because when the database is automatically updated (approximately every 6 months) your changes will be overwritten!

fcantusaldivar · Post by **fcantusaldivar** » 18 Apr 2013, 03:26

Hi embermitre,

I wanted to ask you, did you create the sqlite db by yourself or you obtained it from other source?

I have downloaded the cc-cedict (raw format) and I would like to make something like what xiaoshiyilang said but if the sqlite is proprietary of yours I wouldn't like to use it. instead I would create my own to suit my needs.

Cheers!

Post by **hanping** » 18 Apr 2013, 10:27

Hi, yes the database is proprietary and took quite a lot of work to build from the raw CC-CEDICT data file, so it wouldn't be right to just copy it.

I wish you good luck with building something using the raw CC-CEDICT data file. We are all very lucky to have such a data source to build Chinese language-learning software from.

gbraad · Post by **gbraad** » 02 May 2013, 16:14

embermitre wrote:Hi, yes the database is proprietary and took quite a lot of work to build from the raw CC-CEDICT data file, so it wouldn't be right to just copy it.

No matter how you change the format of cedict, it's content will remain CC-licensed. http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=cedict

Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

I wish you good luck with building something using the raw CC-CEDICT data file. We are all very lucky to have such a data source to build Chinese language-learning software from.

Have a look at cjklib and how this generates their database (uses cedict as source). Currently using this library for a plugin I develop for my favourite editor. http://cjklib.org/

Post by **hanping** » 03 May 2013, 02:22

Thanks very much for that @gbraad . I will look into this. The phrase "build upon" is very ambiguous. I always felt that with CC-CEDICT this was regarding the dictionary content (i.e. headwords and definitions) rather than the way it is stored.

I will get back later with an update once I have found out more.

But, yes, maybe cjklib would be more useful to @fcantusaldivar anyway.

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