Howto convert bibles from the Zefania XML format to use for Simple Bible

HaPe · 10/10/2009, 02:58 PM

Hi all,

I have the Zefania2SimpleBible converter now in a version that is ready for a first public release. Others and I tested it with some bibles from the Zefania homepage, but as there still may be problems as there a many bibles available in this format.

You need to have Java installed to run the converter from Windows. Execute 'Zafania2SimpleBible.vbs' to start it. You will be asked for the source file that should be converted. The result is written to a 'Simple Bible' folder. From there you can copy it to your Palm Pre. The installtion works the same way as for the bibles you can download from the Simple Bible homepage => Bits Of God Software » Download bible modules

The converter dose not support all the information that can be part of a bible in the Zefania XML definition. At the Moment the following extra information is supported:

<PROLOG> prologues for a vers are shown above the vers in italic
<CAPTION> chapters for a vers are shown above the vers
<DIV><NOTE> Notes (mostly studynotes) in a vers as includes in square brackes and bold font
<STYLE> only font-style:italic and font-style:bold are supported right now
<BR> supported for line brakes and paragraph brakes
<X-REF> cross references to other verses are includes below the vers as [XREF:...] in italic

If you find information in a source bible that is missing in the converted one then post it here and I will try to add it.

You can find more information about the format here:
Zefania XML Wikipedia (Germany)
Zefania XML Wikipedia (in English via Google Translate)

You can find some free bibles in this format here:
Bible Resources Archive: Where to get Zefania XML modules?
http://www.opensong.org/d/downloads (Scroll down to Bible Translations)

If you start searching the web you will find more bibles in this format or converters that can convert other bibles into that format. For example from the sword project to Zefania: Bible Resources Archive: Sword bible to Zefania XML

The converter can be used on any Platform as long as you can execute a xsl transformation. You can find the required XSLs in the bin sub folder. XMLBible2SimpleBible.xsl creates the bible books. XMLBible2SimpleBibleToc.xsl creates the required toc file with the table of contents.

If you find any problems or have ideas for changes post them here.

You can download the current version from my homepage => Zefania2SimpleBible Download ...

V091010a:
- First public release

I posted a new version, the download link is the same. Here are the changes:
V091027:
- support for the apocrypha books in the catholic bible
- fixed some formatting issues
- hint for the 'fakepath' problem of IE8
- support for the new path and toc file naming convention of Simple Bible 0.12.x

HaPe

bclancy · 10/10/2009, 03:21 PM

Thanks HaPe,
I've followed some code that did XSLT in my last gig. Hopefully I'll be able to look at what you did here and at least learn a bit more. Thanks for writing this!

HaPe · 10/10/2009, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bclancy

Thanks HaPe,
I've followed some code that did XSLT in my last gig. Hopefully I'll be able to look at what you did here and at least learn a bit more. Thanks for writing this!

Yeah, was kind of fun. I did a lot XSL (and I'm still learning) in my last work project. What I like is that you can nearly create any target format in a platform independent way.

Speaking about platform independence. The call, if you have java installed , should be the same as from windows. So I would be happy if we get more scrips for other platforms. Only two calls are needed

Code:

java -jar bin\saxonhe\saxon9he.jar "path\to\source\Zefania\bible\asv.xml" "bin\XMLBible2SimpleBibLe.xsl" !indent=yes
java -jar bin\saxonhe\saxon9he.jar "path\to\source\Zefania\bible\asv.xml" "bin\XMLBible2SimpleBibLeToc.xsl" !indent=yes

The vbs is just a wrapper for the windows users....

HaPe

Dr.Grace · 10/10/2009, 05:28 PM

So this won't work on a Macintosh? I'd love to get the Chinese Union bible (both Traditional and Simplified versions) into Simple Bible App.

HaPe · 10/10/2009, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr.Grace

So this won't work on a Macintosh? I'd love to get the Chinese Union bible (both Traditional and Simplified versions) into Simple Bible App.

Hi,

it will, as Macintosh is based on Linux. But someone will need to create the scripts for you.
Or you can try to use the two commands from my last post (you will need to replace \ with / for Linux) from a terminal window in the folder where you expanded the zip archive to. (The one with the Zafania2SimpleBible.vbs in it)

HaPe

bclancy · 10/10/2009, 09:10 PM

Hello HaPe,
I tried running this under cygwin on Windows XP. An error message had showed up, then I realized that I had files, so I moved the output directory to a new name before running again. I also noticed I had forgot the "!indent=yes" part of the command so I added it the second time that I ran it. (Note that there was still an error message during the command as invoked below

Code:

PANASONIC@panasoni-279508 /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/PANASONIC/My Documents/MyDownloads/Zefania2SimpleBible_091010a/Zefania2
SimpleBible
$ java -jar ./bin/saxonhe/saxon9he.jar ../../sf_dourh/dourh.xml ./bin/XMLBible2SimpleBible.xsl \!indent=yes
Error at xsl:result-document on line 127 of XMLBible2SimpleBible.xsl:
  XTDE1490: Cannot write more than one result document to the same URI:
  file:/c:/Documents%20and%20Settings/PANASONIC/My%20Documents/MyDownloads/Zefania2SimpleBible_091010a/Zefania2SimpleBible/Simple%20
Bible/dour-eng/nt/.html
Transformation failed: Run-time errors were reported

PANASONIC@panasoni-279508 /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/PANASONIC/My Documents/MyDownloads/Zefania2SimpleBible_091010a/Zefania2
SimpleBible

The only file I'm concerned with is:
Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/.html

Here is the content of the above file:

Code:

PANASONIC@panasoni-279508 /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/PANASONIC/My Documents/MyDownloads/Zefania2SimpleBible_091010a/Zefania2
SimpleBible/Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt
$ pwd
/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/PANASONIC/My Documents/MyDownloads/Zefania2SimpleBible_091010a/Zefania2SimpleBible/Simple Bible/d
our-eng/nt

PANASONIC@panasoni-279508 /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/PANASONIC/My Documents/MyDownloads/Zefania2SimpleBible_091010a/Zefania2
SimpleBible/Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt
$ cat .html
<!DOCTYPE html
  PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<div id="32557" label="" name="" class="book">
   <div id="32558" name="c1" label="Chapter 1" class="chap">
      <table id="_c1" class="palm-divider labeled">
         <tr>
            <td class="left"></td>
            <td class="label">
               <div class="chapno">Chapter 1</div>
            </td>
            <td class="right"></td>
         </tr>
      </table>
      <div id="32559" name="c1v1" class="vrs">
         <div class="vrsno">1:1</div>And these are the words of the book, which Baruch the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, the so
n of Sedecias, the son of Sedei,
         the son of Helcias, wrote in Babylonia.
      </div>
   </div>
</div>
PANASONIC@panasoni-279508 /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/PANASONIC/My Documents/MyDownloads/Zefania2SimpleBible_091010a/Zefania2
SimpleBible/Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt
$

Here is the "long" listing of my output files:

Code:

PANASONIC@panasoni-279508 /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/PANASONIC/My Documents/MyDownloads/Zefania2SimpleBible_091010a/Zefania2
SimpleBible
$ find Simple\ Bible/dour-eng/ -exec ls -ld {} \;
drwx------+ 4 PANASONIC None 0 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/
drwx------+ 2 PANASONIC None 0 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 770 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 242828 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Acts.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 21949 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Col.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 34014 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Eph.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 33304 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Gal.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 72205 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Heb.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 25084 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Jms.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 194644 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/John.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 6720 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Jud.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 259005 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Luk.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 241570 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Matt.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 152347 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Mrk.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 99076 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Onecor.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 25291 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Onejhn.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 25769 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Oneptr.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 20683 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Oneths.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 26160 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Onetim.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 5373 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Phm.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 23606 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Php.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 112602 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Rev.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 98229 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Rom.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 3652 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Threejhn.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 10910 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Tit.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 62339 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Twocor.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 3418 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Twojhn.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 16097 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/T***tr.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 11228 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Twoths.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 18876 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/nt/Twotim.html
drwx------+ 2 PANASONIC None 0 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 39984 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Amos.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 129653 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Dan.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 251213 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Deut.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 55460 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Ecc.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 53067 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Estr.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 297558 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Exo.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 358357 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Ezk.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 72427 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Ezr.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 361210 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Gen.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 15013 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Hab.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 10734 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Hag.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 53163 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Hos.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 351658 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Isa.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 169865 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Jdg.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 387808 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Jer.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 13012 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Jnah.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 218538 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Job.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 19751 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Joel.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 170918 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Jsha.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 36862 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Lam.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 211198 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Lev.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 16317 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Mal.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 30058 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Mic.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 13099 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Nah.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 103083 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Neh.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 302317 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Num.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 6178 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Obad.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 214324 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Onechr.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 218666 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Onekng.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 226160 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Onesam.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 185510 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Prvb.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 544209 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Pslm.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 23653 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Rth.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 28226 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/SOS.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 236921 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Twochr.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 204636 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Twokng.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 187023 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Twosam.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 59960 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Zech.html
-rwx------+ 1 PANASONIC None 15527 Oct 10 19:53 Simple Bible/dour-eng/ot/Zep.html

PANASONIC@panasoni-279508 /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/PANASONIC/My Documents/MyDownloads/Zefania2SimpleBible_091010a/Zefania2
SimpleBible

EDIT (6:45pm EST): I noticed that I forgot to run the XSLT to create the TOC. I just did that now.

I guess my next step is to install SimpleBible and the output directory structure on my Pre and see what happens. (I just wanted to send you the error message (above) in case you know what it means.)

thanks,
--
Bob

bclancy · 10/10/2009, 09:50 PM

I just installed the SimpleBible app, then I copied over my "dour-eng" subfolder (of "Simple Bible") to the root of my USB drive. When I tried to load the translation, it showed up as "dour.toc" but after the import finished, it was not there.

I need to leave for a bit to pick up my son. HaPe is probably still sleeping over in Germany anyway. If anyone wants to add a note on what to do (or if this is a known bug) please let me know. When I get back home I'll try and copy over one of the other translations (just to see what happens, and as a "control" to know if the bug is in the app or in the structure of my conversion.

thanks, -- Bob

frankos72 · 10/11/2009, 01:29 AM

HaPe,

Just wanted to give you a public Thanks for helping to enrich the Simple Bible community.

Jev

frankos72 · 10/11/2009, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bclancy

I just installed the SimpleBible app, then I copied over my "dour-eng" subfolder (of "Simple Bible") to the root of my USB drive. When I tried to load the translation, it showed up as "dour.toc" but after the import finished, it was not there.

thanks, -- Bob

There is probably something in the TOC file that the json parser doesn't like. What I encountered when testing for HaPe was some extra quotation marks ( " ) in the about part of the TOC file.

I tried to convert this file but I get runtime errors. HaPe will be up and around in 3-4 hours. If you guys can't figure it out in the AM, let me know and I see if I can help tomorrow.

EDIT: BTW, once we get it working, I'll be happy to host it on our website for others. We will do this with any translations we can verify is in Public Domain.

HaPe · 10/11/2009, 04:30 AM

Morning,

just having my first coffee beside my Laptop

bclancy, I have good and bad news for you. The good, I got the same error as you got, so you did everything right.
The bad is, that the catholic bible has some more books then the evangelic bible. So I did not checked this before and I'm not sure if Simple Bible supports them. I will have to clarify that and then come back to you.

HaPe

HaPe · 10/11/2009, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankos72

There is probably something in the TOC file that the json parser doesn't like. What I encountered when testing for HaPe was some extra quotation marks ( " ) in the about part of the TOC file.

Only for information, that one is fixed in the version that can be downlaoded from here

HaPe

jbg7474 · 10/12/2009, 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankos72

EDIT: BTW, once we get it working, I'll be happy to host it on our website for others. We will do this with any translations we can verify is in Public Domain.

Do you guys know whether the ESV is in the public domain or not? I have gotten it for free previously, but the Sword module that I found for it contained some info about copyrights. I'm trying to see if I can convert it for my own use at the moment, but before I recommend this to others, I'd like to understand whether this is okay or not.

It would be really cool to find some format that people could purchase non-public domain versions in, and then provide a converter from that format to Simple bible.

jbg7474 · 10/12/2009, 01:18 AM

Running the .vbs on XP, I kept getting a weird error saying that the file C:\fakepath\ESV_zefania.xml did not exist. I created that path and plopped the .xml file in it, and it worked. So it would seem that under some circumstances, the path is hard coded. For what it's worth, I have My Documents pointing towards E:\Documents. Both the converter and the zefania xml were in separate folders under E:\Documents\Downloads.

jbg7474 · 10/12/2009, 01:40 AM

Okay, sorry for spamming the thread, but I now have an ESV version on my Pre. As this is the version we use in our church, I'm very pleased. I converted this from a sword module to a zefania module, and then used HaPe's converter to convert to Simple Bible format. I don't know whether this is entirely legal or not, or whether I should have paid someone (Crossway?).

A couple of formatting issues (and I'm not sure whether they're from the source, conversion to zef or conversion to SB): there is no space after the verse numbers before the text starts. It's readable, but slightly distracting. Also there are no spaces after any punctuation. Finally, there are no section headings, but I am guessing that was lost in either the source or the first conversion.

If the ESV is public domain, I'll be happy to upload this SB version to wherever you guys want me to. But my guess is that it's not on your list yet because there are copyright issues.

frankos72 · 10/12/2009, 02:51 AM

Quote: