DevTools:conf Files

Creating a .conf File

module.conf File Layout

The module.conf file tells the SWORD engine how to treat installed module files, etc. which kind of markup they contain, and so forth.

Below is a listing of the possible directives in that file. Each of these directives of the form key=value. Some keys can be repeated. Some can have values that span more than 1 line with '\' at the end of a line indicating that the text on the next line continues the value. Some values allow RTF and some allow HTML <a href="xxx">label</a>hypertext links. HTML is not allowed otherwise.

Note on RTF, only the following are allowed:

• \qc - for centering
• \par - for paragraph breaks
• \pard - for resetting paragraph attributes, i.e. turning off centering.
• \u{num}? - for unicode characters, where {num} is a signed, 16-bit representation of the code point and where ? is the ASCII character used in case unicode is not supported. If the {num} is less than 0 then add 65536 to it. This should only be used in modules that have an Encoding=UTF-8, but using the actual UTF-8 character is preferred.

Enumerated values are shown in bold. These should be used exactly as given and no other values should be used.

The order of elements specified in a conf file is immaterial, except where specified otherwise.

Configuration elements not defined in this page are assumed to be ignored by most front-end applications.

Any line that starts with a semicolon or a hash should be ignored by front-end applications, and treated as a remark or comment line.

Notes:

Required Elements

Element	Values (type or enumerated)	Default Value	Allows
[ModName]	Each conf file begins with [ModName], replacing "ModName" with a short well known abbreviation for the module (e.g., [KJV]). This must be first in the file. Valid characters for this abbreviation are limited to A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and _. The Abbreviation element is meant to allow for localization of this field.</br> The .conf file should be named the lowercase of this abbreviation followed by .conf. For example, [MyModule] would be mymodule.conf.
Abbreviation	<string> This field allows for the localization of the ModName. It is meant to be short just like the ModName. Actually, this element is not required, but it makes the most sense to have it here.	[ModName]	Localization
Description	<string> This is a short (1 line) title of the module.		Localization
DataPath	<relative system path pointing to the data files> DataPath is the path to the module data files relative to the SWORD module library root directory. This path should start with "./modules". If the DataPath indicates a directory it should end with a '/'. Otherwise the module name is both the directory and the prefix for each file in that directory. Although DataPath can point to any folder or files under the root of the SWORD module library, the following conventions are recommended and must be used for modules wishing to be included in a CrossWire repository: Paths for a module named [MyModule], depending on the type of module (Bible text, commentary, lexcon or dictionary, general book) and the data driver used are: ./modules/texts/rawtext/mymodule/ ./modules/texts/ztext/mymodule/ ./modules/comments/zcom/mymodule/ ./modules/comments/hrefcom/mymodule/ ./modules/comments/rawcom/mymodule/ ./modules/comments/rawcom4/mymodule/ ./modules/comments/rawfiles/mymodule/ ./modules/lexdict/zld/mymodule/mymodule ./modules/lexdict/rawld/mymodule/mymodule ./modules/lexdict/rawld/devotionals/mymodule/mymodule ./modules/lexdict/rawld/glossaries/mymodule/mymodule ./modules/lexdict/rawld4/mymodule/mymodule ./modules/genbook/rawgenbook/mymodule/mymodule
ModDrv	RawText (for uncompressed Bibles) zText (for compressed Bibles) RawCom (for uncompressed Commentaries) RawCom4 (for uncompressed Commentaries having entries greater than 32K bytes) zCom (for compressed Commentaries) HREFCom (each module entry must be only a URL to the body for the entry; experimental) RawFiles (stores each entry in a simple text file in the datapath; recommended for Personal Commentary) RawLD (for uncompressed Dictionaries) RawLD4 (for uncompressed Dictionaries having entries greater than 32K bytes) zLD (for compressed Dictionaries) RawGenBook (for uncompressed tree keyed modules)

Required Elements with defaults

Element	Values (type or enumerated)	Default Value	Allows
SourceType	Plaintext GBF (General Bible Format) ThML (Theological Markup Language) OSIS (Open Scriptural Information Standard) TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) Specifies the markup used in the module. The preferred markup is OSIS. TEI is preferred for dictionaries until OSIS supports dictionaries. While SourceType has a default, it is a best practice to specify it. In SWORD, for modules encoded with ThML, OSIS or TEI, each verse, dictionary entry, and book division needs to be well-formed XML or it will result in display problems in some front-ends.	Plaintext
Encoding	Latin-1† (Windows Codepage 1252 (cp1252)) UTF-8 UTF-16 SCSU (Standard Compression Scheme for Unicode) Indicates how the text in the conf and in the module are encoded. The preferred encoding of texts is UTF-8. Other than Hebrew, UTF-8 modules must be encoded with Normalization Form C (NFC). Hebrew requires special handling. To date no module use UTF-16 or SCSU. †Warning: "Latin-1" is an ambiguously used term. Latin-1 is regularly used as a synonym for ISO-8859-1. Here it means Windows Codepage 1252, a superset of ISO-8859-1. Front-end implementors should use "cp1252" or "windows1252" explicitly, not "Latin-1" provided by some programming language libraries.	Latin-1
CompressType	ZIP LZSS (Lempel Ziv Storer Szymanski) BZIP2 XZ Used for modules having a ModDrv of zText, zCom or zLD to indicate the compression algorithm. While CompressType has a default, it is best practice to specify it. ZIP is the preferred format.	LZSS
BlockType	BOOK CHAPTER VERSE Used for modules having a ModDrv of zText (Bibles) and zCom (Commentaries) to indicate how much of the work is compressed into a block. The trade off is size for speed, with BOOK taking the least overall space and the longest time and VERSE taking the greatest overall space and the least time. While BlockType has a default, it is a best practice to specify it. Most Bibles use BOOK and larger Commentaries use CHAPTER. To date, no module uses VERSE.	CHAPTER
BlockCount	<integer> Used for modules having a ModDrv of zLD to indicate the number of entries in a compressed block. Higher values will make the module slower, but smaller. It is best practice to take the default and not specify it.	200
Versification	Catholic Catholic2 German KJV KJVA LXX Leningrad Luther MT NRSV NRSVA Orthodox Synodal SynodalProt Vulg Used to specify the versification employed by a Bible module. Refer to Alternate Versification.	KJV
CipherKey	<string> Indicates that a module is enciphered and that the module is (un)locked. When the key has no value ("CipherKey=") the module is locked. When it has a value, the module is unlocked. A good key is something that is hard to guess. Typically in a format matching the pattern: /[0-9]{4}[A-Za-z]{4}[0-9]{4}[A-Za-z]{4}/. Internally the key can be any byte sequence from 1 to 255 bytes in length. But it needs to be readable, plain text, without leading or trailing spaces.
KeyType	TreeKey VerseKey Used for RawGenBook to indicate whether the module contains a book or a Bible. At this time VerseKey is not yet supported and is being developed as a solution for Bibles which do not conform to any supported versification system in SWORD. It is best practice to take the default and not specify it.	TreeKey

Elements required for proper rendering

Element	Values (type or enumerated)	Default Value	Allows
GlobalOptionFilter	GBFStrongs (For GBF texts having Strong's Numbers) GBFFootnotes (For GBF texts having footnotes) GBFMorph (For GBF texts having morphology information) GBFHeadings (For GBF texts having headings) GBFRedLetterWords (For GBF texts marking the Words of Christ) ThMLStrongs (For THML texts having Strong's Numbers) ThMLFootnotes (For THML texts having footnotes) ThMLScripref (For THML texts having cross references) ThMLMorph (For THML texts having morphology information) ThMLHeadings (For THML texts having headings) ThMLVariants (For THML texts having variant readings) ThMLLemma (For THML texts having lemmas) UTF8Cantillation (For Hebrew texts having cantillation marks) UTF8GreekAccents (For Greek texts having accents) UTF8HebrewPoints (For Hebrew texts having vowel points) OSISLemma (For OSIS texts having lemmas) OSISMorphSegmentation (For OSIS texts having morphological segmentation elements) OSISStrongs (For OSIS texts having Strong's Numbers) OSISFootnotes (For OSIS texts having informational notes) OSISScripref (For OSIS texts having cross reference type notes) OSISMorph (For OSIS texts having morphology information) OSISHeadings (For OSIS texts having non-canonical headings) OSISVariants (For OSIS texts having variant readings) OSISRedLetterWords (For OSIS texts marking the Words of Christ) OSISGlosses (For OSIS texts with glosses) OSISRuby (For OSIS texts with glosses) OSISXlit (For OSIS texts that include transliterated forms) OSISEnum (For OSIS texts with enumerated words) OSISReferenceLinks (For OSIS texts with glossary links) Each of these filters removes/hides the text's feature, when activated by the application. These filters are applied in the order that they are listed in the conf. Some filters are dependent on each other for certain features - e.g. crossreferences in notes require both the OSISFootnotes and the OSISScriprefs filters enabled.		Repeats
Direction	LtoR (Left to Right) RtoL (Right to Left) BiDi (Bidirectional) Indicate whether the language's script is a left to right script or a right to left script. Languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Urdu, and Farsi have a right to left script. If the RtoL script is transliterated into a LtoR script, set the value to LtoR. If a module has both RtoL and LtoR text, then it is BiDi.	LtoR
DisplayLevel	<integer> Used for General Book module types (these are keyed with a TreeKey table of contents). Indicates the preferred level from a leaf in the tree to display for context. e.g., 1 will only show the requested entry; 2 will show the entry, surrounded by all siblings, etc.	1
Font	<string> Specify the font to be used for display of the module if it is available. Omit this line to use the default font. Do not make use of font-specific encodings in your documents, but use Unicode instead and the Private Use Area if necessary for codepoints that are not handled by Unicode.
OSISqToTick (deprecated)	This attribute is deprecated in favor of the marker attribute on the q element. E.g.: <q who="Jesus" marker="">....</q> true/false When set to false indicates that OSIS quote elements without a marker attribute are not to produce a quotation mark. This is useful for languages (e.g. Thai) and texts (e.g. KJV) that do not have quotation marks. It is also useful for modules that mark the "Words of Christ" on a verse by verse basis, when the quote spans more than one verse.	true
Feature	StrongsNumbers (for modules that include Strong's numbers) GreekDef (for modules with Strong's number encoded Greek definitions) HebrewDef (for modules with Strong's number encoded Hebrew definitions) GreekParse (for modules with Greek morphology expansions) HebrewParse (for modules with Hebrew morphology expansions) DailyDevotion (for daily devotionals using one of the LD drivers and keyed with MM.DD) Glossary (for collections of glosses using one of the LD drivers) Images (for modules that contain images of any type) NoParagraphs (for modules without any paragraphing information, which are typically typeset with a verse per line)		Repeats
GlossaryFrom	<xml:lang identifier> Glossaries map one language to another. This value indicates the language being translated from. See Lang below for a discussion of valid values.
GlossaryTo	<xml:lang identifier> Glossaries map one language to another. This value indicates the language being translated to. See Lang below for a discussion of valid values.
PreferredCSSXHTML	<filename> Names a file in the module's DataPath that should be referenced for the renderer as CSS display controls. Generality is advised: Use controls that are not specific to any particular rendering engine, e.g. WebKit.

Optional elements to support particular features

StrongsPadding

At the heart of our lexicon/dictionary drivers, we have some old logic which tries to detect if a key value is a Strong's number, and if so, then pad it with leading zeros accordingly. To support this logic, the recognition has recently been added for an optional new .conf entry for lexicon/dictionary modules:

StrongsPadding=true|false

Notes:

1. So as not to break everything, this currently defaults to true if it is not present in the lexdict module's .conf file
2. It can be set to false if you are building a lexdict module which has entries which may be misconstrued as Strong's numbers.
3. In a couple years, we'll probably switch the default to false, so it would be nice to add this line and set the value to true on modules which really do require the logic.
4. This is only available in SWORD version 1.7 or later. JSword never had this problem.

Strip Filters

SWORD has the concept of "filtering" a module's text at different processing points for purposes other than rendering.
One of these filter-points is for searching and we call these filters Strip Filters.

Strip Filters are typically named something like OSISPlain or GBFPlain, etc. These typically take all the markup out of an entry and prepare the text to be searched, but anything can be done to the text to prepare it further for searching. We typically remove accents and vowel points from Greek and Hebrew respectively.

Any Strip Filter can be added to a module by the module author with a line in the .conf file, such as:

LocalStripFilter=GBFPlain

If diacritics need to be removed from Arabic, then we can certainly add a filter for this as well. The conf line would be:

LocalStripFilter=UTF8ArabicPoints

Our current list of filters can be found by browsing the source folder here:

http://crosswire.org/svn/sword/trunk/src/modules/filters/

They're pretty concise and don't involve much knowledge from the rest of the engine, making them easy to write if we need a new one.

This processing can replace or be complimentary to any processing done by clucene.

Since we need to strip markup, and other things clucene will likely never support (see PapyriPlain – annotations like [,],?{,}, underdot) we need this preprocessing mechanism to prepare the text before searching. We also maintain searching functionality apart from "fast indexed searching".

Note:

General informatic and installer elements

Element	Values (type or enumerated)	Default Value	Allows
Abbreviation	<string> This field allows for the localization of the ModName. It is meant to be short just like the ModName.	[ModName]	Localization
About	<string> A lengthier description and may include copyright, source, etc. information, possibly duplicating information in other elements.		Continuation RTF Localization
SwordVersionDate	<yyyy-mm-dd> (ISO 8601 Date) Indicates the date that the module was changed.
Version	<version string> Gives the module's revision number. Incrementing it when changes are made alerts users of the SWORD Installers to the presence of updated modules. Please start with version 1.0 and increment by 0.1 for minor updates and by larger values for more major updates such as a new text source. Changes to this conf file should also increment the version number. Do not use non-numbers, such as 1.4a. CrossWire's standard practice is to indicate updates that only require a .conf-file update/download by incrementing the third most significant number (the revision number). For example, if module version 1.2 requires a .conf-file update. A new .conf file with version number 1.2.1 could be released.	1.0
History_x.x	<string> x.x is taken from the Version value. Indicates what has changed between different versions. Each time a version is incremented a history line with that version number should explain the change. It is recommended that each explanation be suffixed by the corresponding SwordVersionDate value.		Repeats Localization
MinimumVersion	<version string> Identifies the minimum version of the SWORD library required for this module.	1.5.1a
Category	Daily Devotional (for modules with Feature=DailyDevotion) Glossaries (for modules with Feature=Glossary) Cults / Unorthodox / Questionable Material Essays (for essays) Maps (for modules that primarily consist of maps) Images (for modules that primarily consist of images) Biblical Texts (for Bibles) Commentaries Lexicons / Dictionaries Generic Books (for anything else....) This is used by installers to further categorize the modules beyond what can be figured out by the ModDrv and Feature.	Biblical Texts   ModDrv=RawText or   ModDrv=RawText4 or   ModDrv=zText or   ModDrv=zText4 Commentaries   ModDrv=HRefCom or   ModDrv=RawCom or   ModDrv=RawCom4 or   ModDrv=RawFiles or   ModDrv=zCom or   ModDrv=zCom4 Lexicons / Dictionaries   ModDrv=RawLD or   ModDrv=RawLD4 or   ModDrv=zLD Daily Devotional   Feature=DailyDevotion and   ModDrv=RawLD or   ModDrv=RawLD4 or   ModDrv=zLD Glossaries   Feature= Glossary and   ModDrv=RawLD or   ModDrv=RawLD4 or   ModDrv=zLD Generic Books   ModDrv=RawGenBook
LCSH	<tree/string> Library of Congress Subject Heading. You may search the Library of Congress catalog or use it as a guide for determining an appropriate LCSH for books that are not in the Library of Congress.
Lang	<Language[-Script]?[-Region]?> The language identifier is a combination of sub-tags for Language and optionally Script, and/or Region, according to BCP 47 and RFC 4647. Private use extensions defined by BCP 47 (e.g. x-, qaa, and Qaaa) should be avoided wherever possible. Language sub-tag (Regex: /[a-z]{2,3}/): This is the primary language code of the module according to ISO 639 parts 1, 2, 3 and 5. Some languages have several codes. Use the following to determine the best choice: When available use a 2-letter ISO 639-1 code (registrar), (e.g. en for English). If there is none for the given language, use an ISO 639-2/T code (registrar) (e.g. ceb for Cebuano). Failing that, use a ISO 639-3 code (registrar), which covers over 7000 languages. Finally, use a ISO 639-5 code (registrar) for macro languages. The ISO639-3 registrar page gives up-to-date table on all of the above. Script sub-tag (Regex: /[A-Z][a-z]{3}/): If a text is script-specific, such as a Latin vs. Cyrillic Serbian Bible or a Bible transliterated into other than its native script, include the ISO 15924 script code (registrar) after the language code (e.g. sr-Latn for Latin script Serbian, sr-Cyrl for Cyrillic script Serbian). Region sub-tag: (Regex: /[A-Z]{2}/) If a text is region (country)-specific, such as the Anglicized NIV, include the ISO 3166-1 region code (registrar) after the script code (or language code if no country code is present) (e.g. en-GB for UK English). Combinations(Regex: /[a-z]{2,3}(-[A-Z][a-z]{3})?(-[A-Z]{2})?/): Individual sub-tags (language, script, and region) are always separated by a hyphen. Identifiers should be as basic and succinct as possible. A script should not be specified for a language written in its expected script, unless the language has multiple common scripts (as in the case of Serbian above). A region should not be specified unless a text should be categorized separately from others texts in that language that do not specify a region.	en
InstallSize	<integer> Indicates the total byte size of the module on disk, excluding the the size of any Lucene index files. For modules in the CrossWire repositories, this is automatically generated and overwritten if needed.
Obsoletes	<ModName> Each instance of this element gives a former ModName that is made obsolete by this module.		Repeats
OSISVersion	<version string> Identifies the OSIS schema version employed in the OSIS source document. The current version is 2.1.1. It is recommended that this be present for every OSIS module.
Companion	<ModName[, ModName]*> Specifies companion module(s) that should be opened together e.g. When Bible and Commentary modules are distributed together.

Copyright & Licensing related elements

Element	Values (type or enumerated)	Default Value	Allows
Copyright	<string> Contains the copyright notice for the work, including the year of copyright and the owner of the copyright.		Continuation Localization
CopyrightHolder	<string> Contains the name of the copyright holder.		Localization
CopyrightDate	<4 digit integer> (indicating year)		Localization
CopyrightNotes	<string>		Continuation Localization
CopyrightContactName	<string> Contains the name of the copyright holder.		Continuation Localization
CopyrightContactNotes	<string>		Continuation Localization
CopyrightContactAddress	<string> Contains the mailing address of the copyright holder.		Continuation Localization
CopyrightContactEmail	<string> Contains the email address of the copyright holder, preferably in the form: name at xyz dot com.		Localization
ShortPromo	<string> A link to the home page for the module, perhaps with an encouragement to visit the site.		HTML Link Localization
ShortCopyright	<string>		Localization
DistributionLicense	Public Domain Copyrighted Copyrighted; Permission to distribute granted to CrossWire Copyrighted; Free non-commercial distribution Copyrighted; Freely distributable Copyrighted; Permission granted to distribute non-commercially in SWORD format GFDL GPL Creative Commons: by-nc-nd Creative Commons: by-nc-sa Creative Commons: by-nc Creative Commons: by-nd Creative Commons: by-sa Creative Commons: by Creative Commons: CC0 Use one of these strings verbatim. The actual copyright and/or license information is held in other elements. The last six licenses are Creative Commons licenses. Note: modules in other repositories may have a different organization name instead of CrossWire in Copyrighted; Permission to distribute granted to CrossWire.
DistributionNotes	<string> Indicates any additional notes about distribution of the module.		Continuation Localization
TextSource	<string> Indicates, either in prose (such as "CCEL") or as a URL of the source of the text		Continuation
UnlockURL	<string> Contains the URL (a bare URL, not a HTML <a> link) of a web page for unlocking instructions/payment		URL

Uniqueness

For comparing two versions of a module during module development, the module names and locations must be unique. For JSword based front-ends such as Bible Desktop, there is a further requirement, the Description items must be different.

Localization

Those .conf fields that are essentially text intended for presentation to the end-user may be localized by appending _locale to the field name, where locale is replaced by an appropriate locale code, according to BCP 47. See Lang above for details.

For example, to give a French description, you can have a field:

Description_fr=....

In order to distinguish a regional form from the primary form of a language, e.g. Brazilian Portuguese vs. the Portuguese of Portugal, append the country code as in:

Description_pt-BR=....

Script variants can be given as in:

Description_zh-Hans=.... simplified Chinese ....

Description_zh-Hant=.... traditional Chinese ....

In order for a .conf entry to appear in a localized form, a non-localized form of the same field must also occur within the .conf. For example, in order for a Description_en field to appear, a file must also possess a Description field. The locale of .conf entries without the locale modifier is the default and must reflect the locale/language of the module itself (as specified in Lang=) or English (if there are no localized versions of the field). In general, fields should be provided in the language of the module itself with English translations provided in parallel fields localized with _en. There is no explicit upper bound on the quantity of localized fields, but all localized and localizable fields should be unique.

Notes:

1. At the present, this is only a planned feature. Module .confs can & should make use of this facility, but at the moment, there is no SWORD library or front-end support for it.
2. See also Localized Language Names.