dcsan / kotoba

A Discord bot for helping with learning Japanese.

Kotoba

Kotoba is a project with several semi-independent pieces. Those are:

• Kotoba Discord Bot
• Kotobaweb.com frontend (React)
• Kotobaweb API (Express)

In addition to the three main projects there are a few other directories:

• /common - Common code that is intended to be shared between node processes and browser.
• /node-common - Common code that is intended to be shared between node processes but not browser.
• /nginx - An nginx configuration for proxying HTTP requests to the frontend and API.
• /backup - Tools for backing up user data to Google Cloud Storage.

Configuration

After cloning the repo, fill out config_sample.js and rename it to config.js. You only have to fill out the sections for the components you want to run. For example if you're only going to run the bot, you only have to fill out the bot section.

Self-hosting the bot

After following the configuration instructions:

sudo apt install docker docker-compose
sudo docker-compose up kotoba-bot mongo_readwrite

The bot will take some time to build and should then come online. Note that it will be missing some fonts and features that are not in this repo. These instructions are for Ubuntu Linux.

Developing

Node 10.x.x is recommended. Newer versions may not be able to build the native modules that Kotoba uses.

Discord bot

cd ./bot
npm install
npm start

The bot will start and come online. Some commands won't work. There are additional steps required to make certain commands work:

• Quiz command
  1. In the ./bot directory, run npm run buildquiz.
  2. Install cairo and pango. You can install them using the instructions for your operating system here.
  3. Install CJK fonts. Most of the fonts Kotoba uses are provided here.
• Furigana command
  1. Install cairo and pango. You can install them using the instructions for your operating system here.
  2. Install CJK fonts. Most of the fonts Kotoba uses are provided here.
• Pronunciation command
  1. Install MongoDB and start it on port 27017 (the default port). You can install it using the instructions for your operating system here.
  2. In the ./bot directory, run npm run buildpronunciation.
• Shiritori command
  1. Install MongoDB and start it on port 27017 (the default port). You can install it using the instructions for your operating system here.
  2. In the ./bot directory, run npm run buildshiritori.

KotobaWeb

1. Install cairo and pango. You can install them using the instructions for your operating system here.
2. Install CJK fonts. Most of the fonts Kotoba uses are provided here.
3. Install MongoDB and start it on port 27017 (the default port). You can install it using the instructions for your operating system here.

cd ./api
npm install
npm run buildall
npm run startdev_nix # Or on Windows: npm run startdev_win

cd ../kotobaweb
npm install
npm start

The API will start on port 3000 and the React dev server will start on port 3001. You'll need to setup a reverse proxy server to forward to them appropriately. You can use nginx with a configuration like this:

worker_processes  1;

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}

http {
    include       mime.types;
    default_type  application/octet-stream;
    sendfile        on;
    keepalive_timeout  65;

    server {
        listen 80;

        location /api {
            client_max_body_size 4M;
            proxy_pass http://localhost:3000;
            proxy_http_version 1.1;
            proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
            proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
        }

        location / {
            proxy_pass http://localhost:3001;
        }
    }
}

Help

Support

Third party links

Data from the following third parties has been used in Kotoba.

Jisho.org
Princeton University Japanese WordNet
KanjiVG
Forvo
Merriam-Webster
Oxford Dictionaries
Japanese Wiktionary
EDICT
ENAMDICT
Kanjimaji
Google Translate
YouTube
Jonathan Waller's site

In addition various people have contributed quiz data and are credited in the relevant quiz descriptions.

Child libraries

The following other codebases were written in the course of this project:

• fpersist - On disk persistence with safer writes. GitHub NPM
• unofficial-jishi-api - Encapsulates the official Jisho.org API and also provides kanji and example search. GitHub NPM
• render-furigana - Render Japanese text with furigana into a PNG buffer. GitHub NPM
• monochrome - A flexible node.js Discord bot core based on Eris. GitHub NPM
• jp-verb-deconjugator - Unconjugate conjugated Japanese verbs. GitHub NPM
• shiritori - A backend engine for playing shiritori. GitHub NPM
• array-on-disk - A module for storing and accessing large arrays on disk. GitHub NPM