nook-dictionary

Create own dictionary for B&N Nook Simple Touch and Nook GlowLight built-in Reader app

Tested on B&N Nook Simple Touch with latest SW (1.2.1) and rooted by NookManager

Input format

My goal was to convert GNU/FDL English-Czech dictionary from GNU/FDL anglicko-český slovník which is using the following format:

english word [TAB] translation [TAB] notes [TAB] extra notes [TAB] author

It should be easy to customize the script to whatever source format you need.

Output

Output (basewords.db) SQLite3 DB

CREATE TABLE android_metadata
(locale TEXT);

INSERT INTO android_metadata VALUES('en_US');

CREATE TABLE tblWords
(_id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
 term TEXT,
 description BLOB);

CREATE INDEX term_index on tblWords (term ASC);

with following BLOB (zipped HTML description)

<div class="entry">
  <sup>6</sup><b><span class="searchterm-headword">a</span></b><br/>
  <i>abbreviation</i>
  <div class="definitions">
    <b>1</b> absent <br/>
    <b>2</b> acceleration <br/>
    <b>3</b> acre <br/>
    <b>4</b> adult <br/>
    [...]
  </div>
</div>

Usage

Convert dictionary to Nook format

python nook-dictionary.py

Remount /system directory to enable write access

adb shell mount -o rw,remount /dev/block/mmcblk0p5 /system

Backup original dictionary (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition)

adb pull /system/media/reference/basewords.db ./

Create a symlink

adb shell ln -s /system/media/reference/basewords.db /media/dict/basewords.db

Copy created dictionary to the device

adb push basewords.db /media/dict/basewords.db

Reboot the Nook (/system directory will be mounted as read-only automatically)

adb shell reboot

Prebuilt image

English-Czech dictionary / anglicko-český slovník
Source: GNU/FDL anglicko-český slovník
Size: 79 MB / 214680 translations

en-cs_v0.1.zip

Sources

Info about SQLite3 DB's and BLOBs
http://nookdevs.com/Nook_Simple_Touch_dictionary

Great thread about Nook dictionaries and hacking built-in Reader app
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1477918

Renate NST's page with usefull tools
http://www.temblast.com/android.htm