My Pocket Dictionary

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  Type Hi (Step 1)

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  Type word to be searched (Test) Step 2. Meaning is displayed. Click on Examples.

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  Example displayed. Click on Synonyms.

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  Synonyms displayed. Click on Phonetics.

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  Phonetics displayed. Type new word (New)

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  New word meaning displayed. Click on Phonetics

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  Play the audio for reading the word as per correct phonetics

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  Type a word not known to dictionary. Displays No Definitions Found

Inspiration

I just wanted to learn using chat bots in messenger a try with some basic working stuff which is useful in general. So came up with idea of using a chat bot for word search and get word meaning using underlying rest api exposed by some open source dictionaries.

What it does

Chat with bot when you have key words for which you expect meanings. Chat bot will provide you with the meaning for the words. In additional it will give you option with further check the synonyms, example usage in sentences and phonetics of the word searched. In addition the bot will send an audio file with how to spell the word.

How I built it

Javascript code using the sample code provided as part of messenger chat bot implementation guide. Used open source dictionary rest api - https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/api/v1/entries/en/{word} Glitch server for deploying the UI code - https://my-dictionary-bot.glitch.me

Challenges I ran into

Not knowing how to send multi line messages and sequence those messages to UI. I am completely new to facebook messenger and hence every step of implementation was challenging. There are lots of documentations, however i feel its a bit less organised and confusing on how and where to use what in some cases.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Able to complete a sub task of what i actually planned to implement. Idea was to implement a game on guess the word search and provide multi language supported dictionary. Though dictionary api provided supports it and is easy to add multi language. Do not have enough time to complete as i started late on working with project.

What I learned

Excited about learning new by creating a messenger chat bot. Would love to find more options with NLP and AR with messenger and find some use case which can be taken to live facebook implementation.

What's next for My Pocket Dictionary

Support multi language support and improved features provided along with gamification of word search functions.

Built With

• express.js
• javascript
• json
• rest