Re: J2EE & LibQuran

[Meor Ridzuan Meor Yahaya <meor dot ridzuan at gmail dot com>]

Actually, anything usefull would be good, it is just that we need to
make it happen. Right now, I don't see much work on the "make it
happen" part.

FYI, my background is not computer science/software engineering. So,
to me it seems that to create a Quran application is quite simple,
with some basic feature. That's why I created a web application (html
+ javascript, no server side scripting, so can run locally without 
web server) which currently have the following feature:
1. On demand translation (click)
2. On demand audio recitation (click), even if the recitor recites
multiple ayah together.
3. Continuous recitation for the whole surah, with syncronized display of ayah.
4. Ability for the user to change the recitor (provided they have the
audio file and data). I've created a tool for a user to add in their
favourite qaari, but they need to do a lot of work (basically listen
to the audio, and record the start and stop time for each ayah).

All the above function is achieved using just html+javascript.
Searching is not there yet. I'm planning to do it when other issues
are resolved. Since there is no server side scripting at all, that is
why I don't need something like libquran, because I don't think
javascript handle it well. (of course, we can create a javascript
version of the library, but not much use IMHO).

The part that works only in IE is audio. This is because I embed
windows media player into IE to get it functioning. Other browser
should be able to display it, provided they support arabic decently,
which I find not many. Even our beloved firefox have some problems
displying Quranic Arabic properly, especially when the text are
justified. Konq, i think is a bit behind in this dept.

FYI, font and unicode support is still a big issues/problems if you
want to render the Madinah Mushaf correctly. There are at least 2
things that is not directly supported by unicode that I can recall
atm. For this, you need to do some workaround, and with that
workaround, you cannot avoid from using a custom font.

Regards.


On 12/29/05, faro0q <faali at vt dot edu> wrote:
> Well, as I said earlier, my intention is to develop an extensible Quran web
> application, not just a one-time app that I can host on a web site. The
> application should have an extensible framework--components that can be
> reused and/or extended by other people. Keeping this in mind, I'm using the
> web side of J2EE (there's obviously no need for EJBs) because:
>
> 1) It lets me use good OO design skills and design patterns.
> 2) It lets me take code out of the presentation layer (web pages). If you
> had libquran installed, wouldn't it be nice to be able to do this in your
> web pages:
>
>     <quran:forEachAyah surahNumber="2" var="ayah" lang="ar">
>         Arabic:
>             ${ayah}
>
>         English Translation:
>             <quran:ayah number="${ayah.number}" surah="2" lang="en"
> var="translation">
>                 ${translation}
>             </quran:ayah>
>     </quran:forEachAyah>
>
>         to print all the ayahs in Baqara with their translations? Zero code,
> readable, structured, and easy for web designers to use too. Of course it
> doesn't end there, custom tags and EL (the ${..} stuff) can do much more.
> But the best part is that my web pages don't depend on the XML files or even
> the Java library I'm using. So come time to replace JQuran, my JSPs (where
> most of the work is going) won't need to change.
> 3) I can test my code better.
> 4) I can use other people's Java code, libraries, and frameworks. JQuran,
> Spring, and Hibernate are examples.
> 5) I just love Java :)
>
> I'm not saying that none of this is possible with other languages like PHP,
> ASP, CGI, etc. Java's just my preference. Out of curiosity, what "only works
> in Internet explorer" in your app? Anything I need to watch out for when
> making mine?
>
> As for libquran, I agree with you and I'm up for helping with the remake.
> I'll be watching the mailing list for development on this issue.
>