pastiera-dict

Asset repository for Pastiera dictionaries (.dict) and downloadable keyboard layouts (.json).

This repo is the companion to the main app repo (palsoftware/pastiera) and is used to keep APK size under control by distributing large assets separately through GitHub Releases + GitHub Pages manifests.

Repository Roles

• palsoftware/pastiera
  • App source code
  • Bundled/default assets used directly in the APK
  • Locale integration (method.xml, strings.xml, locale_layout_mapping.json)
• palsoftware/pastiera-dict (this repo)
  • Release-distributed dictionaries (dicts/*.dict)
  • Release-distributed layouts (layouts/*.json)
  • Manifests served via GitHub Pages (docs/*.json)

Folder Layout

• dicts/: dictionary binaries to upload as release assets (*_base.dict)
• layouts/: downloadable keyboard layouts (*.json)
• docs/dicts-manifest.json: generated dictionary manifest (GitHub Pages)
• docs/layouts-manifest.json: generated layout manifest (GitHub Pages)
• docs/dicts-metadata.json: manually maintained dictionary display metadata
• docs/APP_INTEGRATION.md: app-side retrieval/integration notes
• docs/RELEASE_PROCESS.md: release + manifest automation details

Corpus Sources and Credits

Some dictionary assets are built from public monolingual corpora. For this project we use data from the Leipzig Corpora Collection where applicable.

Reference:

• D. Goldhahn, T. Eckart, U. Quasthoff: Building Large Monolingual Dictionaries at the Leipzig Corpora Collection: From 100 to 200 Languages. Proceedings of LREC 2012, 2012.

Source:

• https://wortschatz-leipzig.de/de/download/

Cross-Repo Workflow (Practical)

1. Add language support in pastiera

In the app repo:

• add layout JSON under app/src/main/assets/common/layouts/
• add locale mapping in app/src/main/assets/common/locale_layout_mapping.json
• add IME subtype label in app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml
• add subtype in app/src/main/res/xml/method.xml
• add translations (values-xx/strings.xml) as needed
• optionally add dictionary assets to the app PR if immediate bundled support is required

Notes:

• Be careful with app/src/main/assets/common/variations/variations.json:
  • it is global, not locale-scoped
  • locale-specific characters can unintentionally affect other languages
• Prefer putting language-specific reachability into the layout (multi-tap) where possible.

2. Move downloadable assets into pastiera-dict

In this repo:

• add dicts/<lang>_base.dict
• add layouts/<layout>.json (must include name + description)
• add dictionary metadata in docs/dicts-metadata.json:
  • name
  • shortDescription
  • languageTag

Notes:

• docs/dicts-manifest.json and docs/layouts-manifest.json are generated from releases.
• Manual edits to manifests should be rare (e.g. typo correction) and ideally followed by the next automated release update.

3. Publish release in pastiera-dict

• create a GitHub Release
• upload the new .dict / .json assets
• publish release

The GitHub Actions workflow runs update_manifests.py and updates:

• docs/dicts-manifest.json
• docs/layouts-manifest.json

These manifests are consumed by the app via GitHub Pages.

Maintainer Checklist (Before Merge / Release)

• layout JSON parses and contains name / description
• no empty or invalid multi-tap entries
• locale integrations in pastiera keep existing locales intact (merge conflicts often happen here)
• translation files have valid format placeholders (%1$s, %1$d, etc.)
• dicts-metadata.json contains metadata for any new dictionary IDs