
=head1 NAME

Net::Dict - client API for accessing dictionary servers (RFC 2229)

=head1 SYNOPSIS

    use Net::Dict;
    
    $dict = Net::Dict->new('dict.server.host');
    $h = $dict->define("word");
    foreach $i (@{$h}) {
        ($db, $def) = @{$i};
	. . .
    }

=head1 DESCRIPTION

C<Net::Dict> is a perl class for looking up words and their
definitions on network dictionary servers.
C<Net::Dict> provides a simple DICT client API for the network
protocol described in RFC2229. Quoting from that RFC:

=over

=item

The Dictionary Server Protocol (DICT) is a TCP transaction based
query/response protocol that allows a client to access dictionary
definitions from a set of natural language dictionary databases.

=back

An instance of Net::Dict represents a connection to a single
DICT server. For example, to connect to the dictionary
server at C<dict.org>, you would write:

    $dict = Net::Dict->new('dict.org');

A DICT server can provide any number of dictionaries,
which are referred to as I<databases>.
Each database has a I<name> and a I<title>.
The name is a short identifier,
typically just one word, used to refer to that database.
The title is a brief one-line description of the database.
For example, at the time of writing, the C<dict.org> server
has 11 databases, including a version of Webster's
dictionary from 1913. The name of the database is I<web1913>,
and the title is I<Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)>.

To look up definitions for a word, you use the C<define> method:

    $dref = $dict->define('banana');

This returns a reference to a list; each entry in the list
is a reference to a two item list:

    [ $dbname, $definition ]

The first entry is a I<database name> as introduced above.
The second entry is the text of a definition from
the specified dictionary.

=head2 MATCHING WORDS

In addition the looking up word definitions,
you can lookup a list of words which match a given
pattern, using the B<match()> method.
Each DICT server typically supports a number of I<strategies>
which can be used to match words against a pattern.
For example, using B<prefix> strategy with a pattern "anti"
would find all words in databases which start with "anti":

    @mref = $dict->match('anti', 'prefix');
    foreach my $match (@{ $mref })
    {
        ($db, $word) = @{ $match };
    }

Similarly the B<suffix> strategy is used to search for words
which end in a given pattern.
The B<strategies()> method is used to request a list of supported
strategies - see L<"METHODS"> for more details.

=head2 SELECTING DATABASES

By default Net::Dict will look in all databases on the DICT server.
This is specified with a special database name of C<*>.
You can specify the database(s) to search explicitly,
as additional arguments to the B<define> and B<match> methods:

    $dref = $dict->define('banana', 'wn', 'web1913');

Rather than specify the databases to use every time,
you can change the default from '*' using the C<setDicts> method:

    $dict->setDicts('wn', 'web1913');

Any subsequent calls to B<define> or B<match> will refer to these databases,
unless over-ridden with additional arguments to the method.
You can find out what databases are available on a server
using the C<dbs> method:

    %dbhash = $dict->dbs();

Each entry in the returned hash has the name of a database as the key,
and the corresponding title as the value.

There is another special database name - C<!> - which says that
all databases should be searched, but as soon as a definition is
found, no further databases should be searched.

=head1 CONSTRUCTOR

    $dict = Net::Dict->new (HOST [,OPTIONS]);

This is the constructor for a new Net::Dict object. C<HOST> is the
name of the remote host on which a Dict server is running.
This is required, and must be an explicit host name.

The constructor makes a connection to the remote DICT server,
and sends the CLIENT command, to identify the client to the server.

B<Note:> previous versions let you give an empty string
for the hostname, resulting in selection of default hosts.
This behaviour is no longer supported.

C<OPTIONS> are passed in a hash like fashion, using key and value pairs.
Possible options are:

=over 4

=item B<Port>

The port number to connect to on the remote machine for the
Dict connection (a default port number is 2628, according to RFC2229).

=item B<Client>

The string to send as the CLIENT identifier.
If not set, then a default identifier for Net::Dict is sent.

=item B<Timeout>

Sets the timeout for the connection, in seconds.
Defaults to 120.

=item B<Debug>

The debug level - a non-zero value will resulting in debugging
information being generated, particularly when errors occur.
Can be changed later using the C<debug> method,
which is inherited from Net::Cmd.
More on the debug method can be found in L<Net::Cmd>.

=back

Making everything explicit, here's how you might call
the constructor in your client:

    $dict = Net::Dict->new($HOST,
                           Port    => 2628,
                           Client  => "myclient v$VERSION",
                           Timeout => 120,
                           Debug   => 0);

This will return C<undef> if we failed to make the connection.
It will C<die> if bad arguments are passed: no hostname,
unknown argument, etc.

=head1 METHODS

Unless otherwise stated all methods return either a I<true> or I<false>
value, with I<true> meaning that the operation was a success. When a method
states that it returns a value, failure will be returned as I<undef> or an
empty list.


=head2 define ( $word [, @dbs] )

returns a reference to an array, whose members are lists,
consisting of two elements: the dictionary name and the definition.
If no dictionaries are specified, those set by setDicts() are used.


=head2 match ( $pattern, $strategy [, @dbs] )

Looks for words which match $pattern according to the specified
matching $strategy.
Returns a reference to an array,
each entry of which is a reference to a two-element
array: database name, matching word.

=head2 dbs

Returns a hash with information on the databases available
on the DICT server.
The keys are the short names, or identifiers, of the databases;
the value is title of the database:

    %dbhash = $dict->dbs();
    print "Available dictionaries:\n";
    while (($db, $title) = each %dbhash)
    {
        print "$db : $title\n";
    }

This is the C<SHOW DATABASES> command from RFC 2229.


=head2 dbInfo ( $dbname )

Returns a string, containing description of
the dictionary $dbname. 


=head2 setDicts ( @dicts )

Specify the dictionaries that will be
searched during the successive define() or match() calls.
Defaults to '*'.
No existance checks are performed by this interface, so you'd better make
sure the dictionaries you specify are on the server (e.g. by calling
dbs()).


=head2 strategies

returns an array, containing an ID of a matching strategy
as a key and a verbose description as a value.

This method was previously called strats();
that name for the method is also currently supported,
for backwards compatibility.

=head2 auth ( $USER, $PASSPHRASE )

Attempt to authenticate the specified user, using the scheme
described on page 18 of RFC 2229.
The user should be known to the server, and $PASSPHRASE
is a shared secret known only to the server and the user.

For example, if you were using dictd from dict.org,
your configuration file might include the following:

    database private {
        data "/usr/local/dictd/db/private.dict.dz"
        index "/usr/local/dictd/db/private.index"
        access { user connor }
    }

    user connor "there can be only one"

To be able to access this database, you'd write
something like the following:

    $dict = Net::Dict->new('dict.foobar.com');
    $dict->auth('connor', 'there can be only one');

A subsequent call to the C<databases> method would
reveal the C<private> database now accessible.
Not all servers support the AUTH extension;
you can check this with the has_capability() method,
described below.


=head2 serverInfo

Returns a string, containing the information about the server,
provided by the server:

    print "Server Info:\n";
    print $dict->serverInfo(), "\n";

This is the C<SHOW SERVER> command from RFC 2229.


=head2 dbTitle ( $DBNAME )

Returns the title string for the specified database.
This is the same string returned by the C<dbs()> method
for all databases.

=head2 capabilities

Returns a list of the capabilities supported by the DICT server,
as described on pages 7 and 8 of RFC 2229.

=head2 has_capability ( $cap_name )

Returns true (non-zero) if the DICT server supports the
specified capability; false (zero) otherwise. Eg

    if ($dict->has_capability('auth')) {
        $dict->auth('genie', 'open sesame');
    }

=head2 status

Send the STATUS command to the DICT server,
which will return some server-specific timing
or debugging information.
This may be useful when debugging or tuning a DICT server,
but probably won't be of interest to most users.


=head1 KNOWN BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

=over 4

=item *

Need to add methods for getting lists of databases and strategies
in the order they're returned by the remote server.
Suggested by Aleksey Cheusov.

=item *

The following DICT commands are not currently supported:

    OPTION MIME

=item *

No support for firewalls at the moment.

=item *

Site-wide configuration isn't supported. Previous documentation
suggested that it was.

=item *

Currently no way to specify that results of define and match
should be in HTML. This was also previously a config option
for the constructor, but it didn't do anything.

=back

=head1 EXAMPLES

The distribution includes two example DICT clients:
B<dict> is a basic command-line client, and B<tkdict>
is a GUI-based client, created using Perl/Tk.

The B<examples> directory of the Net-Dict distribution
includes two basic examples.
C<simple.pl> illustrates basic use of the module,
and C<portuguese.pl> demos use of an English to Portuguese
dictionary. Thanks to Jose Joao Dias de Almeida for the examples.

=head1 SEE ALSO

=over 4

=item RFC 2229

The internet document which defines the DICT protocol.

http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/htbin/rfc/rfc2229.html

=item Net::Cmd

A module which provides methods for a network command class,
such as Net::FTP, Net::SMTP, as well as Net::Dict.
Part of the libnet distribution, available from CPAN.

=item Digest::MD5

You'll need this module if you want to use the B<auth> method.

=item dictd

The reference DICT server, available from B<dict.org>.
Also includes a sample dict client, in C.

=item http://www.dict.org/

The home page for the DICT effort; has links to other resources,
including other libraries and clients.

=back

=head1 AUTHOR

The first version of Net::Dict was written by
Dmitry Rubinstein E<lt>dimrub@wisdom.weizmann.ac.ilE<gt>,
using Net::FTP and Net::SMTP as a pattern and a model for imitation.

The module was extended, and is now maintained, by
Neil Bowers E<lt>neil@bowers.comE<gt>

=head1 COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2002-2003 Neil Bowers. All rights reserved.

Copyright (C) 2001 Canon Research Centre Europe, Ltd.

Copyright (c) 1998 Dmitry Rubinstein. All rights reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.

=cut

