Wednesday, March 06, 2013
Quick CGI SpellChecker
Here's a small CGI program that provides spellchecking services based on GNU Aspell. I use it on a local network where Delphi Win32 clients connects to this CGI hosted on an Apache Server, running on Linux, to ask for spelling suggestions.
This simple spellchecker has a small API that does the very basic, that is, check for word spelling, add word to dictionary, and delete word from dictionary. The client side can be done using any language capable of doing http GET requests, and handling JSON responses.
Of course, the first requisite is to install Aspell and one or more dictionaries. On apt-get based systems, you'll install them using this:
Then next step is to create a personal dictionary, this is a just a plain text file where new words will be added. The file must have just one line, containing this:
If the dictionary will be using, for example, spanish words, you must replace "personal_ws-1.1 en 0" by "personal_ws-1.1 es 0", and do:
IMPORTANT: please set RW attributes to the file, to allow read/write by everyone.
All requests must be done using these commands:
Here is any word to be spelled, added or deleted from dictionary.
For example, if you want to check spelling on word "houuse", youl have to do this:
This will return "Ok." if the word was added correctly.
This will return "Ok." if the word was removed correctly, or, a message saying it wasn't deleted.
In Lazarus, just create a CGI Application (you'll need the WebLaz package), save the project as "cgiaspell.lpi", and rename unit1 to main.
Now, adapt your main.lfm to this :
Then do the same to main.pas as this:
Compile, copy to your Apache CGI directory and enjoy!.
This simple spellchecker has a small API that does the very basic, that is, check for word spelling, add word to dictionary, and delete word from dictionary. The client side can be done using any language capable of doing http GET requests, and handling JSON responses.
Prerequisites:
Of course, the first requisite is to install Aspell and one or more dictionaries. On apt-get based systems, you'll install them using this:
sudo apt-get install aspell sudo apt-get install aspell-en_US
Then next step is to create a personal dictionary, this is a just a plain text file where new words will be added. The file must have just one line, containing this:
personal_ws-1.1 en 0
If the dictionary will be using, for example, spanish words, you must replace "personal_ws-1.1 en 0" by "personal_ws-1.1 es 0", and do:
sudo apt-get install aspell-es_ES (or es_AR for Argentina).
IMPORTANT: please set RW attributes to the file, to allow read/write by everyone.
How it works, the API:
All requests must be done using these commands:
/cgi-bin/cgiaspell/TSpellCheck/WordSpell?word=/cgi-bin/cgiaspell/TSpellCheck/WordAdd?word= /cgi-bin/cgiaspell/TSpellCheck/WordDelete?word=
Here
Spell checking
For example, if you want to check spelling on word "houuse", youl have to do this:
http://myserver /cgi-bin/cgiaspell/TSpellCheck/WordSpell?word=houuseThe result is this JSON string:
{ "replacements" : ["House", "house", "hose", "horse", "hours", "hoarse",
"hoes", "hues", "Hosea", "housed", "houses", "Hus", "hos", "horsey", "hour's",
"Ho's", "hows", "huhs", "Horus", "hoarser", "douse", "louse", "mouse", "rouse",
"souse", "Hausa", "Hesse", "hoe's", "hoers", "how's", "hussy", "Hui's",
"House's", "house's", "hue's", "hoar's", "hoer's", "Horus's"], "total" : 38 }
Adding a word to the personal dictionary
http://myserver /cgi-bin/cgiaspell/TSpellCheck/WordAdd?word=houuse
This will return "Ok." if the word was added correctly.
Deleting a word from the personal dictionary
http://myserver /cgi-bin/cgiaspell/TSpellCheck/WordDelete?word=houuse
This will return "Ok." if the word was removed correctly, or, a message saying it wasn't deleted.
The program
In Lazarus, just create a CGI Application (you'll need the WebLaz package), save the project as "cgiaspell.lpi", and rename unit1 to main.
Now, adapt your main.lfm to this :
object SpellCheck: TSpellCheck
OnCreate = DataModuleCreate
OldCreateOrder = False
Actions = <
item
Name = 'WordSpell'
Default = False
OnRequest = WordSpellRequest
Template.AllowTagParams = False
end
item
Name = 'WordAdd'
Default = False
OnRequest = WordAddRequest
Template.AllowTagParams = False
end
item
Name = 'WordDelete'
Default = False
OnRequest = WordDeleteRequest
Template.AllowTagParams = False
end>
CreateSession = False
Height = 150
HorizontalOffset = 250
VerticalOffset = 250
Width = 150
end
Then do the same to main.pas as this:
unit main;
{$mode objfpc}{$H+}
interface
uses
SysUtils, Classes, httpdefs, fpHTTP, fpWeb,
process,
fpjson;
type
{ TSpellCheck }
TSpellCheck = class(TFPWebModule)
procedure DataModuleCreate(Sender: TObject);
procedure WordAddRequest(Sender: TObject; ARequest: TRequest;
AResponse: TResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
procedure WordDeleteRequest(Sender: TObject; ARequest: TRequest;
AResponse: TResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
procedure WordSpellRequest(Sender: TObject; ARequest: TRequest;
AResponse: TResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
private
function ASpellToJSON(AAspellResult: string): string;
function SpellWord(AWord: string): string;
public
{ public declarations }
end;
var
SpellCheck: TSpellCheck;
const
cDictionary = '/home/leonardo/.aspell.es_AR.pws';
implementation
{$R *.lfm}
{ TSpellCheck }
procedure TSpellCheck.DataModuleCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
end;
procedure TSpellCheck.WordAddRequest(Sender: TObject; ARequest: TRequest;
AResponse: TResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
var
lStr: TStringList;
lWord: string;
begin
if ARequest.QueryFields.IndexOfName('word') = - 1 then
raise Exception.Create('word param is not present')
else
lWord := ARequest.QueryFields.Values['word'];
// todo: this should be replaced by something
// more reliable. I.e.: what happens if cDictionary is blocked
// by another process, or LoadFromFile can be slow on big dictionaries.
lStr := TStringList.Create;
try
lStr.LoadFromFile(cDictionary);
if lStr.IndexOf( LowerCase(lWord) ) = -1 then
begin
lStr.Add(lWord);
lStr.SaveToFile(cDictionary);
AResponse.Content := 'Ok.';
end
else
AResponse.Content := lWord + ' already in dictionary.';
finally
lStr.Free;
end;
Handled:= True;
end;
procedure TSpellCheck.WordDeleteRequest(Sender: TObject; ARequest: TRequest;
AResponse: TResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
var
lStr: TStringList;
lIdx: Integer;
lWord: string;
begin
if ARequest.QueryFields.IndexOfName('word') = - 1 then
raise Exception.Create('word param is not present')
else
lWord := ARequest.QueryFields.Values['word'];
// todo: this should be replaced by something
// more reliable. I.e.: what happens if cDictionary is blocked
// by another process, or LoadFromFile can be slow on big dictionaries.
lStr := TStringList.Create;
try
lStr.LoadFromFile(cDictionary);
lIdx := lStr.IndexOf( LowerCase(lWord) );
if lIdx <> -1 then
begin
lStr.Delete(lIdx);
lStr.SaveToFile(cDictionary);
AResponse.Content := 'Ok.';
end
else
AResponse.Content := lWord + ' not in dictionary.';
finally
lStr.Free;
end;
Handled:= True;
end;
procedure TSpellCheck.WordSpellRequest(Sender: TObject; ARequest: TRequest;
AResponse: TResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
var
lWord: string;
begin
if ARequest.QueryFields.IndexOfName('word') = - 1 then
raise Exception.Create('word param is not present')
else
lWord := ARequest.QueryFields.Values['word'];
AResponse.Content := SpellWord(lWord);
Handled := True;
end;
function TSpellCheck.ASpellToJSON(AAspellResult: string): string;
var
lStr: TStringList;
lJSon: TJSONObject;
lJsonArray: TJSONArray;
I: Integer;
begin
Result := '';
lStr := TStringList.Create;
lJson := TJSONObject.Create;
try
if Pos(':', AAspellResult) > 0 then
lStr.CommaText:= Copy(AAspellResult, Pos(':', AAspellResult) + 1, Length(AAspellResult));
lJsonArray := TJSONArray.Create;
for I := 0 to lStr.Count - 1 do
lJsonArray.Add(lStr[I]);
lJSon.Add('replacements', lJsonArray);
lJson.Add('total', lStr.Count);
Result := lJSon.AsJSON;
finally
lJSon.Free;
lStr.Free;
end;
end;
function TSpellCheck.SpellWord(AWord: string): string;
var
lProcess: TProcess;
Buffer: array[0..2048] of char;
ReadCount: Integer;
ReadSize: Integer;
begin
lProcess := TProcess.Create(nil);
lProcess.Options := [poUsePipes,poStderrToOutPut];
lProcess.CommandLine := '/usr/bin/aspell -a --lang=es_AR -p ' + cDictionary;
lProcess.Execute;
lProcess.Input.Write(PAnsiChar(AWord)[0], Length(AWord));
lProcess.CloseInput;
while lProcess.Running do
Sleep(1);
ReadSize := lProcess.Output.NumBytesAvailable;
if ReadSize > SizeOf(Buffer) then
ReadSize := SizeOf(Buffer);
if ReadSize > 0 then
begin
ReadCount := lProcess.Output.Read(Buffer, ReadSize);
Result := Copy(Buffer,0, ReadCount);
Result := ASpellToJSon(Result);
end
else
raise Exception.Create(Format('Exit status: %d', [lProcess.ExitStatus]));
lProcess.Free;
end;
initialization
RegisterHTTPModule('TSpellCheck', TSpellCheck);
end.
Compile, copy to your Apache CGI directory and enjoy!.
