Which program/app for creating simple sutta database?

I would like to create a simple database where I can read a sutta, enter that sutta’s ID, and attach my own keywords/tags to that sutta. Most importantly, I’d like it to also have a “lookup” feature that has two functions:

  1. When clicking on a sutta id (e.g., MN 1) from a master list of all suttas, it will show all of the keywords I’ve entered for that individual sutta.

  2. When clicking on a keyword (e.g., “sekha”) from a master list of all keywords I’ve entered, it will show all of the suttas linked to that keyword.

I’m not a coder; just have a basic proficiency with common programs like MS Office and its Google versions. A friend of mine helped me build something in Google Sheets, but it’s pretty complicated and requires him to update it periodically so that the newly-entered suttas and tags show up in the lookup feature. It seems that there must be a simpler way – ideally one that I can maintain by myself.

Any suggestions?

2 Likes

If you want something like the following, it is not too hard:

Sutta Notes
MN1 root of suffering (sujato: relishing; bodhi: delight)
DN33 Sariputta’s description of everything
etc…

The first link is just to SuttaCentral MN1.
The second link is just a link to Voice for finding the suttas that have a given phrase.

You could do this in Google Sheets. For this post I used Markdown. And I have made this post a wiki so anybody can edit it and you can see how I used Markdown.

(Anagarika @Sabbamitta, I’ve often wondered how we might support study notes in Voice)

5 Likes

This sounds like a good use case for a personal wiki. There are many applications, across all of the common platforms; it may take some trial-and-error to find one with the features that suit your needs.

3 Likes

Personally, I use Google Docs.

Specifically, I put the suttacentral epubs on the Google Play Books app. I turn on note exporting to Google Docs and then highlight the sutta title and add my tags there (in addition to highlighting and annotating passages that speak to me).

These notes (along with all my other notes on everything else) are then easily searchable on Docs.

2 Likes

Actually this is a really cool idea. If someone is feeling industrious, they could start a thematic index wiki here on SCDD, perhaps using AtI’s Index as a starting point.

1 Like

FYI, SC’s has its adapted version of the same index:

https://suttacentral.net/subjects

:anjal:

3 Likes

Hi, is there a way that i can get all the suttas and turn it into a table or database in Indonesian translation ?

I’m not a coder and I try to build my own personal app/ wiki too, but i cant find a way to get them without copying them 1 by 1.

They are all online in the sc-data repository:

I don’t think Github lets you download just one folder.

These texts are in html. They are kind of raw, but they are serviceable.

Not sure how you would turn them into a table or database. Or even what that would look like.

Are you interested in being able to search them? Because the main search function is improving all the time.

I’m currently using Memento Database app for my personal projects. The app basically let you build your own app based database which you can modify the field and add entries by yourself. It supports Javascript but i don’t know how to do it. It also supports sync with Google Sheets, so i can import and edit it there.

My Idea is to make it into a table that consist of sutta’s number, title, verse and tags, and then I will import it.

Is there a fastest way to fill the data in Gsheets?

Sheets can import with csv or Json with a plugin, so download the data from git or http and reformat the values you want programatically. This may not be very fast to set up, but it won’t process for too long.

What do you mean by verse and tags? Are you talking about having the translation itself in your database?

Okay i will try to google how to do it, thanks for your help.

The verse mean is the translation itself and the tags are my personal tags.
Is it possible to do it?

So you want the entire sutta’s text in the spreadsheet? That is a lot to put into a spreadsheet, having one cell with a link like suttacentral.net/{reference} is possible. Unless the tags are like comments for each line?

The import data from the sutta can be by line, but that is a lot to be shoved through sheets and then into the app, so you’d probably want to import straight to the app in that case.

Ah i get it, the google sheet itself have limit for only 5000 characters per 1 cell, so basically its not possible to fill it in 1 cell.

The problem with links is that it add a step to open the browser, is there any other way to view the text without using links?

You could make 5000 character buffers, but you should probably just skip over the spreadsheet and import from github to Momento

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/suttacentral/bilara-data/published/translation/en/{translator}/sutta/{book}/{reference}_translation-en-sujato.json

https://wiki.mementodatabase.com/index.php/Data_Sources

Hi, I tried to read the wiki and got lost in scripts and importing json part. I also tried it in the app but have some errors.

Would you mind if you give me the guide, the scripts and the json part specifically in Indonesian translation?

Your insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

I’m not able to give you what you are asking for, but I will say that the Indonesian texts are not in json files. They are html files.

2 Likes

Hi budi1st,

Welcome to the D&D forum! We hope you enjoy the various resources, FAQs, and previous threads. You can use the search function for topics and keywords you are interested in. Forum guidelines are here: Forum Guidelines. May some of these resources be of assistance along the path.

If you have any questions or need further clarification regarding anything, feel free to contact the moderators by including @moderators in your post or a PM.

Regards,
suaimhneas (on behalf of the moderators)

1 Like

hi Snowbird, thanks for the help, i will use something online to change html files to text later.

1 Like