LexManager
Since a number of people have asked me about this, here it is.
What is LexManager?
LexManager is a free and open-source dictionary management tool, designed to be very flexible and customizable to fit whatever you might use it for.
- It is web-based, making it nearly-universally portable and accessible from anywhere. It is written using PHP and MySQL, two ubiquitous web technologies that are available from most hosting providers and, if you so desire, can easily be installed on your own computer.
- It is flexible and highly-customizable right out of the box, allowing you to easily manage as many different dictionaries or lexicons as you so choose, even if they have very different structures or contents. You can also easily customize the appearance of each lexicon.
- It is searchable, letting you quickly find whatever you were looking for with minimal effort.
- It is free and open source code, available under the GNU General Public License (Version 3). That means you are more than welcome to take the code in full or in part and modify it however you want, so long as you agree to release the source of whatever you use it for.
- It is... still a work in progress. Features will continue to be added as time goes on. The current version still relatively basic, but it is fully usable. I will try to do whatever I can to make it upgrade-friendly, however; after all, I'm using it too!
Current Features
- Create as many dictionaries as you want, each with its own unique structure and contents.
- Create custom collations (dictionary ordering sequences) easily. It even handles any Unicode or multi-character sequences correctly.
- Customize the appearance of entries in public-facing lexicons.
- A password-protected management page allowing you to make changes.
- Ability to export SQL dumps of all of your databases for backup or relocation.
Planned Features
- Plugin support, allowing for dynamically-generated fields. Examples include automatic conjugation/declension utilities or links to other entries sharing a single root.
- More export options
- Ability to import SQL dumps.
- Ability to change the structure of already-existing lexicons.
- More advanced search options.
Screenshots
Part of the New Lexicon window
From the View Lexicon window
An entry open for editing
Some lexicon display settings
The public-facing lexicon
What's It Written In?
If you want to edit LexManager's source code, you'll need some familiarity with the following scripting, markup, and database languages:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript (and the jQuery library)
- PHP
- MySQL
Installation Instructions
Before you can set up LexManager, you need to have three things: a server, a PHP interpreter, and a MySQL instance. If you're using a web hosting provider, chances are all of these are already available; if you're trying to set this up locally, you'll have to look up how to install these for your particular system.
Once you have a server, PHP, and MySQL up and running, you'll need to create two user accounts in MySQL. One will be used by LexManager as the administrator to add, edit, and otherwise manage lexicons through the LexManager administration pages; the other will be used by the general public to view entries without having to authenticate. Naturally, your administrator account will need broad editing permissions, while your general account will only need the ability to SELECT records.
Once that's been taken care of, you can actually get started with LexManager. Unzip the LexManager files into whatever web directory you want. Then open 'manager.php' from the root LexManager directory. You will be taken to a page that will guide you through the initial set up process, where you will give LexManager the two MySQL users you created and create your own personal username and password to access the LexManager administration pages.
After LexManager creates a configuration file for you, you're ready to go. Just click 'Add New Lexicon' to begin!
Version History
- v0.1 - first released version
Source
You can download all of the files needed for LexManager together here, just choose your preferred compression format:
- lexmanager_v0_1.zip (57KB compressed, 233KB uncompressed)
- lexmanager_v0_1.tar.gz (29KB compressed, 233KB uncompressed)
The code may also be viewed on Google Code: LexManager on Google Code.
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