A Bible reading and study tool

xulsword is a Bible reading and study tool intended to be easy to use, yet very powerful at the same time. It utilizes popular Open Source technologies such as Node.js, React and The SWORD Project, and will always be a free program. It is designed for full internationalization, including right-to-left languages, and is fully functional offline. Modules may be installed from the Internet however.

Distinctives include:

• Direct text download. Easily download thousands of texts in hundreds of languages with the "Add New Module" interface (located under the File menu, or else just press F2). Bible translations, commentaries, glossaries, books and study materials in many languages can be freely downloaded and installed for offline use.
• Original language study features. Gain deeper understanding of any Bible translation through comparison to ancient original language texts and instant concordance lookup.
• Comprehensive and lightning fast search capability. The indexed C++ search engine works without Internet and enables you to dig deep into God's Word.
• Complete internationalization including right-to-left languages.
• Very readable texts. Formatted texts are displayed on screen the way they look in printed form. Text flows from column to column. Font, font size, line spacing etc. are adjustable for each text.
• Easy Bible browsing. Instantly jump to any heading in the entire Bible with a single click using a Bible navigator widget which also gives a visual representation of the Bible.
• Print capability. Powerful print features allow Bible texts and related information to be easily printed, and includes print preview.
• Recursive popup windows. Dictionary links, cross references, footnotes and more appear in recursive popup windows that allow instant access to a variety of information without necessitating a complex user interface.
• Bible texts and footnotes include quick links to associated dictionaries, including pictures, maps and tables.
• Bookmark and personal annotation features.
• Integrated audio. Allows you to listen to the Bible and read along. Export audio for other uses, such as mp3 players.
• Secure texts. Texts can be encrypted to prevent tampering.
• Open Source software technology. Xulsword was developed using the most popular Open Source technologies as of 2023, to make it freely available for years to come.

Build Instructions

The build has two parts: a Node.js project and a native libxulsword C++ library.

Important: Each time you open a shell to build xulsword, environment variables must be set by running source ./setenv.

1. Install nvm on Linux, Windows or Mac. On Windows nvm for Windows is recommended.
2. Use nvm to select Node version 20.12.2. On Windows, select the x86 architecture with: nvm install 20.12.2 followed by nvm use 20.12.2 32 to select it. Install yarn globally with: nvm -i global yarn. On Windows, administrator priviledge is required for these steps (subsequent steps do not require admin priviledge).
3. Run source ./setenv to set environment variables. On Windows, the Git Bash shell that comes with Git for Windows can be used to run this, and subsequent command line steps.
4. Build the native libxulsword C++ dynamic library for your system (this step only needs to be done once and won't be needed again until the rare occasion that xulsword/Cpp C++ source changes):

• Download the boost_1_80_0.tar.gz source code package (check for the right version number; you may need to go to the history section to find previous releases). Create an archive sub-directory under xulsword and place the source package there (boost doesn't support scripted downloads).
• Install VirtualBox and Vagrant, and run vagrant up. Native libraries for each system will eventually appear in the Cpp/lib directories.
• Install the shared library for your particular operating system by running yarn install-libxulsword. The apporpriate binaries will be installed to the libxulsword nodejs module.

5. Run yarn to install Node.js dependencies.
6. Start xulsword with yarn start.

NOTE: In the very rare occasion that the libxulsword interface changes, the Node.js libxulsword.node addon will need to be recompiled on each operating system, and the addon committed to git. See libxulsword ReadMe.

Packaging Instructions

Packaged applications for each operating system are created with:

yarn package-linux
yarn package-32win
yarn package-64win

PECL extension: phpsword

The PHP extension brings libxulsword's API into php.

Compilation and use

Compile the extension by going to the xulsword/Cpp/phpsword directory and running:

$ phpize
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

This will install the extension to your php shared extensions directory.

Next, to enable the extension you can add the following to your php.ini:

[PHP]
extension=phpsword.so

And then restart PHP:

$ sudo apache2ctl restart

Finally, to access phpsword from PHP, do something like this:

if (!extension_loaded("phpsword")) {
    header('Location: ' . $redirect_URL);
    exit;
}

$Sword = new phpsword($repository_path);

$My_modlist = $Sword->getModuleList();