spellChecker is a spell checking library for LiveCode. It uses NSSpellChecker on macOS and Hunspell on Windows to provide spell checking functionality.
The API consists of all of the public handlers in the spell_checker.livecodescript file as well as handlers that begin with spellchecker in the nsspellchecker.lcb and hunspell.lcb files.
On macOS the system dictionaries are used so there is no configuration necessary.
On Windows you must distribute dictionaries with your application. You can find dictionaries that work with Hunspell in the following Github repo:
https://github.com/wooorm/dictionaries
On macOS all initialization occurs when the spell_checker.livecodescript stack is put in use.
On other platforms call spellcheckerInitialize and pass in the folder where dictionaries are stored, the dictionary language to load (the name of the dictionary folder), and the (optional) path to the file where words that the user adds to the dictionary will be stored. If you don't pass in the last parameter then the words will only be added to the in-memory dictionary during the current session.
put levureAppFolder() & "/assets/dictionaries" into tDictionariesFolder
put "en" into tLanguage
put userDictionaryFolder() & "/en_user_words.txt" into tAddWordsFile
spellcheckerInitialize tDictionariesFolder, tLanguage, tAddWordsFile
To change the language during a session call spellcheckerSetLanguage:
put "fr" into tLanguage
put userDictionaryFolder() & "/fr_user_words.txt" into tAddWordsFile
spellcheckerSetLanguage tLanguage, tAddWordsFile
Spell checking an entire field is a single call. It will perform the spell check and flag the misspelled words.
spellcheckerFlagMisspelledWordsInField the long id of field "Document"
You can also spell check a string and specify the character to start spell checking from.
put the text of field "Document" into tText
put 30 into tCharOffset
put spellcheckerFindMisspelledWords(tText, tCharOffset) into tCharRanges
set the flaggedRanges of field "Document" to tCharRanges
put spellcheckerGuessesForWord(tWord) into tGuesses
If you would like to display a menu of dictionaries that the user can select from use spellcheckerAvailableLanguages(). This is usually only necessary on non-macOS systems.
put spellcheckerAvailableLanguages() into tLanguages
The following example can be put in a frontscript and will spell check any field that returns true for the uCheckSpelling property. The code tries to enforce the following rules:
- If user types a character that ends a word then previous word should be spell checked.
- If user presses the delete or backspace key in a chunk whose
flaggedproperty istruethen word surrounding the insertion point should be spell checked. - If user presses right arrow key to leave a word then previous word should be spell checked.
- If user presses up or down arrow key and leaves a word then word should be spell checked.
- If user double-clicks on a word then word should be spell checked.
Note that the example does not account for spell checking after the user cuts or pastes text. How you implement this will depend on how paste and cut are handled in your application. When pasting, the easiest solution is to spell check the whole field again using spellcheckerFlagMisspelledWordsInField, as a user can paste any amount of content and they can split up an existing word into multiple words. When cutting, you can use spellcheckerCheckWordAroundInsertionPoint after the text is cut.
local sUserDeletedText
on deleteKey
if the uCheckSpelling of the target then
put true into sUserDeletedText
end if
pass deleteKey
end deleteKey
on backspaceKey
if the uCheckSpelling of the target then
put true into sUserDeletedText
end if
pass backspaceKey
end backspaceKey
on textChanged
# if screen isn't locked then textChanged messages further on down the chain
# that might resize the field will cause screen flicker.
lock screen
if the uCheckSpelling of the target then
lock screen
if sUserDeletedText then
put false into sUserDeletedText
# Only update spelling if deleting characters in a misspelled word
if the flagged of character (word 2 of the selectedchunk) of field id (the short id of the target) \
or the flagged of character (word 4 of the selectedchunk) of field id (the short id of the target) then
spellcheckerCheckWordAroundInsertionPoint
end if
else
spellcheckerCheckLastWordTypedByUser
end if
end if
pass textChanged
end textChanged
on arrowKey pKey
# Account for user changing spelling and then exiting with up/down arrows
if pKey is "up" or pKey is "down" then
spellcheckerCheckWordAroundInsertionPoint
end if
pass arrowKey
end arrowKey
on rawKeyUp pKeyNum
# Look to spell check word if uses right arrow.
if pKeyNum is among the items of "65363" then
spellcheckerCheckLastWordTypedByUser
end if
pass rawKeyUp
end rawKeyUp
on selectionChanged
# Catches when user double-clicks on words
if the uCheckSpelling of the target \
and word 4 of the selectedChunk > word 2 of the selectedChunk then
spellcheckerCheckSelectedWord
end if
pass selectionChanged
end selectionChanged
The repo is organized in the Levure Helper format so that it can be dropped right into the helpers folder of an app built on the Levure framework.
To use in a non-Levure project you will need to do the following:
- Download the hunspell and nsspellchecker .lce files from the latest release on the Releases page: https://github.com/trevordevore/spell_checker/releases/
- Install the .lce files in LiveCode: https://lessons.livecode.com/m/4071/l/1031437-how-to-install-an-extension-using-the-extension-manager
- Open the spell_checker.livecodescript stack and
start usingit as a library.
The libhunspell.dll requires that MSVCP140.dll and VCRUNTIME140.dll be installed. If your application is built with the Windows 32-bit LiveCode engine a user may not have those files in the SysWOW64 folder.
To fix the issue install the "Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, 2017 and 2019" x86 installer available at the following url below.
If you see the error message and your app is built with the Windows 64-bit LiveCode engine then install the x64 installer. I am not aware of situations where this has occurred though.
The following web page may be helpful in understanding how the .dic and .aff files that make up a dictionary are formatted:
https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/editing-the-spell-checking-dictionaries