Adding dictionary files to the Mozilla Suite

Following from a question asked at the l10n IRC meeting (2004-Jun-11), this page describes how to add (non–en-US) dictionary files to:

  1. A Mozilla language pack (ie langabcd.xpi)
  2. A full Mozilla Suite installer

The processes are fairly straightforward, as long as you start from the right place.

NB: this guide doesn't address legal aspects (ie "Am I allowed to bundle dictionary X with my language pack?"), only technical ones.

Section 1: Adding files to the Language Pack

You will need:

The Steps

If you are beginning with a completed language pack, extract its contents (keeping the internal structure):

C:\spellcheck>wzunzip -d langengb.xpi xpi\
WinZip(R) Command Line Support Add-On Version 1.0 (Build 3181)
Copyright (c) WinZip Computing, Inc. 1991-2000 - All Rights Reserved

Zip file: langengb.xpi

   creating: xpi/bin/
   creating: xpi/bin/chrome/
unzipping xpi/bin/chrome/en-GB.jar
unzipping xpi/bin/chrome/en-GB-mac.jar
unzipping xpi/bin/chrome/en-GB-win.jar
unzipping xpi/bin/chrome/en-GB-unix.jar
unzipping xpi/install.js

Notes: (i) Extracting into a sub-directory (the "xpi\" at the end of the command) keeps all the files nicely separate. (ii) The -mac.jar, -unix.jar and -win.jar files are so-named because of Bug 102509.

Anyway, the folder structure now looks like this:

xpi\
 ├─  install.js
 └── bin\
      └── chrome\
           ├─  ab-CD.jar
           ├─  ab-mac.jar
           ├─  ab-unix.jar
           └─  ab-win.jar

This is where you join in if you have all the component parts.

Under xpi\bin\, create a new folder, "components"; in that, create "myspell". Move or copy the ab-CD.dic and ab-CD.aff files into the myspell folder. Your folder structure should look like this:

xpi\
 ├─  install.js
 └── bin\
      ├── chrome\
      |    ├─  ab-CD.jar
      |    ├─  ab-mac.jar
      |    ├─  ab-unix.jar
      |    └─  ab-win.jar
      └── components\
           └── myspell\
                ├─  ab-CD.dic
                └─  ab-CD.aff

Because the install.js already copies the contents of the bin\ folder to the relevant place, the new files will get added automatically with no changes required.

All you now need to do is to re-archive the language pack, to the same or a different (as shown below) archive.

C:\spellcheck>wzzip -ex -rp langengb+dic.xpi xpi\*.*
WinZip(R) Command Line Support Add-On Version 1.0 (Build 3181)
Copyright (c) WinZip Computing, Inc. 1991-2000 - All Rights Reserved

  Adding bin/
  Adding bin/chrome/
  Adding bin/chrome/en-GB.jar
  Adding bin/chrome/en-GB-mac.jar
  Adding bin/chrome/en-GB-win.jar
  Adding bin/chrome/en-GB-unix.jar
  Adding bin/components/
  Adding bin/components/myspell/
  Adding bin/components/myspell/README_en_GB.txt
  Adding bin/components/myspell/en-GB.dic
  Adding bin/components/myspell/en-GB.aff
  Adding install.js
creating Zip file langengb+dic.xpi

Et voilà!

Section 2: Adding files to a full Mozilla installer

You will need:

The Steps

With mozip, extract the spellcheck.xpi file:

C:\spellcheck>mozip -x installer-filename spellcheck.xpi

Extract all the files from spellcheck.xpi using your zip tool:

C:\spellcheck>wzunzip -d spellcheck.xpi spell\
WinZip(R) Command Line Support Add-On Version 1.0 (Build 3181)
Copyright (c) WinZip Computing, Inc. 1991-2000 - All Rights Reserved

Zip file: SPELLCHECK.XPI

   creating: spell/bin/
   creating: spell/bin/components/
unzipping spell/bin/components/myspell.dll
unzipping spell/bin/components/spellchk.dll
unzipping spell/bin/components/spellchecker.xpt
   creating: spell/bin/components/myspell/
unzipping spell/install.js
unzipping spell/bin/components/myspell/en-US.dic
unzipping spell/bin/components/myspell/en-US.aff

Replace the en-US files with your ab-CD files. For completeness, you can change the message on (or around) line 100 of install.js to report the correct language:

var err = initInstall("Mozilla Myspell Spellchecker (en-GB)", "Spellchecker", "1.5.0.2003100716");

Then, re-archive:

C:\spellcheck>wzzip -ex -rp spellcheck_en-GB.xpi spell\*.*
WinZip(R) Command Line Support Add-On Version 1.0 (Build 3181)
Copyright (c) WinZip Computing, Inc. 1991-2000 - All Rights Reserved

  Adding bin/
  Adding bin/components/
  Adding bin/components/myspell.dll
  Adding bin/components/spellchk.dll
  Adding bin/components/spellchecker.xpt
  Adding bin/components/myspell/
  Adding bin/components/myspell/README_en_GB.txt
  Adding bin/components/myspell/en-GB.dic
  Adding bin/components/myspell/en-GB.aff
  Adding install.js
creating Zip file spellcheck_en-GB.xpi

This file can now replace the spellcheck.xpi file in your localised installer. I've written a guide on how to make a localised installer, and one on how to fill it full of other bits and pieces as well.

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