Scriptures in MySQL database

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Ztarlight-p40
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Scriptures in MySQL database

#1

Post by Ztarlight-p40 »

I cannot create new threads, so I just post this here..

I want to have a mysql database of the scriptures.. Where do I get this?
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mkmurray
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#2

Post by mkmurray »

Ztarlight wrote:I cannot create new threads, so I just post this here..
You should have rights to create a thread. Can you give me any error message you are encountering? Thanks.
rmrichesjr
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#3

Post by rmrichesjr »

Ztarlight wrote:...
I want to have a mysql database of the scriptures.. Where do I get this?
I doubt there is a canned solution that already exists. Your exact requirements will determine how much work it will take to create what you want. If you could define in more detail why you want to use MySQL and what you want from the database, someone might be able to offer at least some suggestions on how to do what you want.

The Church sells a CDROM product with a lot of fun stuff. How close does that product come to meeting your needs?

If all you want is the straight text, that shouldn't be very difficult. From a few years ago, I have a C program that can take the data from the Church's old floppy-based scriptures product and decompress it to plain text. However, I suspect it wouldn't be easy to find that product, even if the floppies could still be read. Or, for your own personal use, the text could be downloaded piecemeal from the the Gospel Library section at lds.org.

There has been a discussion about a possible scriptures API in this thread:

http://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.ph ... ipture+api

If/when the API is available, or if you want to parse the HTML version, the info could be loaded into a DBMS. How to do that would again depend on your detailed requirements.
dude22
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Re: Scriptures in MySQL database

#4

Post by dude22 »

I would be looking to get the scriptures in a database for app programming. Is this available somewhere, or even legal?
rmrichesjr
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Re: Scriptures in MySQL database

#5

Post by rmrichesjr »

(The following is based on my limited understanding. I may well be mistaken about a lot of it...)

If it's _only_ for your non-commercial personal use, it is my understanding it's okay to download and store the content. However, if it's for an app you will be distributing, I'm not sure there is an API approved for that use. The link in my earlier post no longer works after the forum platform change a few years ago. This _might_ be the thread in question:

https://tech.lds.org/forum/viewtopic.ph ... api#p53673

There's a Wiki page that says there is a web service for _official_ Church applications:

http://tech.lds.org/wiki/Gospel_Library_Web_Service

I'm not sure whether it is approved for use by independent apps. If we're lucky, somebody who actually knows something will follow up to complete and correct my information.
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