willhains / kotoba

Quickly search the built-in iOS dictionary to see definitions of words. Collect words you want to remember.

Kotoba

Quickly search the built-in iOS dictionary to see definitions of words. Collect words you want to remember.

Installation (iPhone or iPad)

Note: An Apple Developer account is required.

1. Clone or download Kotoba from GitHub.
2. Open code/Kotoba.xcodeproj in Xcode.
3. Select the Kotoba project file in Navigator, select the "Kotoba" target, then select the "Signing & Capabilities" tab.
4. Change the "Team" to your Apple Developer account team.
5. Change the "Bundle Identifier" to com.yourdomain.Kotoba.
6. Change the "App Groups" to groups.com.yourdomain.Kotoba by adding yours, and deleting the current one.
7. Select the "ShareExtension" target, and repeat the three steps above.
8. Open the "Devices and Simulators" window (Shift-Cmd-2) and confirm your device is connected. If not, connect it via USB.
9. Product > Run.

How to Use

1. Tap "Add a new word".
2. Type or dictate the word you want to look up, and hit the Search key.
3. The iOS system dictionary view will slide up, showing you the definition of the word.
4. If no definition appears, you may not have the right dictionaries installed. Tap "Manage" in the bottom-left of the screen, and download the appropriate dictionaries.
5. Tap Done, and you're back at the main screen. The word you just looked up is added to the word history list.
6. You can delete words from the list by swiping left and tapping "Delete".

Why Kotoba?

The original idea came from @gruber in a DM to @DFstyleguide:

Ever find a good iPhone dictionary app?

Best I’ve found is Terminology, but it’s so complicated I usually just fire up Vesper and use the system “Define” service.

The system one is good; and it’s perfect for when I’m reading in an app. I find it fiddly to use though when I’m reading a printed book.

I want:

1. Open dictionary app.
2. Start typing word to look up.
3. Read definition.

Instead I have to:

1. Open Vesper
2. Open a note
3. Type the word I’m looking for
4. Select the word, tap Define
5. Read definition.
6. Close dictionary and delete the word from my note.

Development Status

Kotoba is in a bare-bones state, with just enough functionality to be useful.

As far as I know, it works fine. But if you find any bugs, or have suggestions for improvement, please raise an issue on GitHub. Any feedback is heartily welcome.

Why Open-Source?

Look, ladies and gents, you are much smarter than I. I am a working developer, but Swift/iOS is not my day job. I made this open-source for two reasons:

• Honestly, I suspected Kotoba wouldn't be approved for the App Store. If it's open-source, the Xcode-savvy can at least install it on their personal devices.
• If smarter, more experienced Swift developers can suggest improvements or fix my bugs, I will learn from them.

Which is a nice segue to... how to contribute

kotoba's Issues

Ignore multiline pasteboard text at launch

The new feature added in #41 to automatically detect text on the pasteboard, and offer to use it as a search, should ignore pasteboard text that contains newline characters, as it is unlikely to be useful as a word search.

Don't add duplicate words to the list

If the user enters a word that's already on the list, just bring it to the top, without duplicating it.

Improve animation of Clipboard Suggestions chevron

Currently it's just flipped using scale, but that makes it briefly disappear.
It's so fast it's barely noticeable; you have to turn on slow animations to see it. But still.

Add license

UIReferenceViewController instances not cleaned up

While debugging the view stack, I noticed the UIReferenceViewControllers from multiple searches were building up in the container view.

First-run experience is confusing

Export word list

Would you consider integrating an export function into the app?

In my own crude way, I tried to accomplish this by downloading the app's container via Xcode and browsing through the files, but to no avail. If there ever comes a point where the app is no longer supported, I wouldn't want the words I've accumulated to disappear along with it.

I found the app based on @gruber's recommendation and I've been using it incessantly ever since. Your work is much appreciated. Thank you.

Ugly Ivegrid icon

Settings: Button to share Kotoba

Write up instructions on how to install Kotoba, and a button to share instructions via email/text/etc. (via share sheet).

Add UI tests

Show date of entry in each row

Settings: Detect if user has Kotoba disabled in iCloud prefs

...and show instructions on how to fix it.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11006610/how-to-programmatically-detect-if-the-icloud-is-enabled-on-users-device-when-on

@IBDesignable/@IBInspectable all the things

Close gap between Interface Builder look and actual runtime look.

Settings/Import: More useful info on result of import

• Number of words in import source
• Number of duplicates vs number actually imported
• Undo button

Hard to touch done button when done

Please use UINavigationController to push the UIReferenceLibraryViewController, instead of modally present. Considering current iPhone's screen can be up to 5.8 inch, the done button is really hard to reach.

in UIViewController+Dictionary.swift
'''
navigationController?.pushViewController(dictionaryViewController, animated: true)
// present(dictionaryViewController, animated: true, completion: nil)
""

So that we can get back to main view controller by swiping

Thank you.

Dictionary view continues under keyboard

The scrollable area should adjust for the keyboard.

Turn on autocorrect in search bar

@gruber:

Turning on “Correction” for the UISearchBar is a nice improvement: gruber.d.pr/18zkD/3hnQGCeK
gruber.d.pr/1dYTE/60rnWGBB

App Store description and keywords

Search not triggered on autocorrect

1. Disable QuickType.
2. Mis-type a word in a way that autocorrect can fix.
3. Tap Search button on keyboard.

Should search for autocorrected word.

Search doesn't happen.

Force Apple Dictionary when none are set up

Instead of the annoying prompt upon first search to remind the user to set up their iOS dictionaries, use @danielpunkass's clever hacks to inspect the currently-installed set of dictionaries, and just use the default Apple Dictionary if there are none.

This is tangentially related to #32. Consider implementing together.

Website

App Store screenshots

Add tests for History export

Add tests for clipboard behaviour

#41 added a new feature to use the pasteboard text as a search.

The new feature breaks UITests if there is something on the pasteboard before launch, and the new feature itself is missing tests.

For now, I have added code in the UITests to clear the pasteboard in setup, but this is not ideal. The pasteboard contents should not be destroyed by the test, in case there was something important there.

Review & improve accessibility

Replace `NSUserDefaults` with something better

NSUserDefaults was used as a quick temp solution for persistence in the beginning, and I never got around to replacing it with something better.

Candidate replacements, off the top of my head:

• Core Data
• Realm
• a plain ol' flat file
• something else I've never heard of

(Unfortunately, since Apple won't accept Kotoba for the App Store, CloudKit is off the table, I guess.)

Launch screen doesn't look like app anymore

Change icon

Add UI tests for Settings screen

Dark Mode text is invisible when typing

When in dark mode, the text typed for search as well as text in the history section is not shown or maybe it's white and I can't see it?

Typing too slow

@gruber:

BTW, just got around to downloading and installing Dictionary.app. Was intolerably slow to type for me, but changing the Timer delay from 0.5 to 1.0 did the trick.

iCloud syncing for word list

CloudKit?
iCloud KV store?

Internationalisation

Searches are slow on iOS 13

Hi,

when i type in a word and then click Search, Kotoba reacts rather slow and slugish, when run on iOS 13. Any updates for iOS 13 in sight (i am not a developer which could fix this)?

Thanks for such a useful App!

Clipboard: Hide Clipboard Suggestions when there is nothing on the clipboard

Bigger search bar

@gruber

can we make the search bar and text bigger? More like 20pt or 24pt or something instead of 16? Why not since it’s the only input?
I tried poking around the storyboard in Xcode but don’t see any way to change that there.

"Done" button doesn't do anything

One of a slew of rough edges caused by shoehorning UIReferenceLibraryViewController...

The built-in iOS dictionary view has its own nav bar, with a "Done" button for dismissing it. Since we don't present the dictionary view modally, the "Done" button does nothing.

Add info for contribution, etc. to README.md

Multiple lists

e.g. to keep foreign language learning vocab lists separate

Allow import of .dictionary files

It would be immensely useful to be able to import and use custom made .dictionary files (same as used in macOS Dictionary app). One could then utilize dictionaries and thesaurus outside of Apple-provided languages, specific to a profession or other needs, offline.

Settings/Import: Disable clipboard import button when clipboard is empty

Import buttons: Can't cancel tap by moving finger outside bounds

Word list sorting modes

Allow switching between alphabetical and reverse-chronological sorting orders.

Change name

"Words"?

Show number of words in history

• Show number of words in history screen somewhere
• Show number of words when exporting
• Localise "n words" text
• Pluralise "1 word" properly

iPad split view: Update Clipboard Suggestions dynamically when user copies text in another app

Add unit testing target + tests

Tests failing

Fix unit/UI tests that are failing after 2.0 enhancements.

Sync across devices

This is a redux of #11, to enable syncing via iCloud Drive or other cloud services. If the user can select a save location of their choice via the Files API, and Kotoba can access/update that location without prompting the user every time, then it doesn't need iCloud access (read: doesn't need to be an App Store app).

Scrambled Eggs recipe

@gruber:

What’s your recipe? Best I’ve found is Ted Williams: http://t.co/fPyHrdxZrP