Bob Hall
rjhjr at cox.net
Sat Jun 5 21:51:09 CDT 2004
On Sat, Jun 05, 2004 at 04:21:47PM -0700, Karen Rosenstiel wrote:
> Hi gang,
> I have a web project I am working on and would like your suggestions about
> how to do a part of it.
>
> I have a very long list of the Wade-Giles, Pinyin (both Chinese
> transliterations into a European alphabet) and Romaji (ditto Japanese)
> versions of Chinese and Japanese names in parallel columns. These are the
> names of old Zen masters from the last 1,800 or so years. Different books
> transliterate the names in different ways base on the above systems. This is
> very confusing for the average person who is not a language scholar to
> follow.
>
> How would you go about setting up a little web search tool so that the user
> could input a name and get the other variations?
On the backend, there's a one-to-one relationship between one version of a name and another. For example, Lin Chi is associated with Linji and Renzai and not Deshan and Tokusan. So have one table with a column named WadeGiles, a column named Pinyin, and a column named Romanji.
WadeGiles Pinyin Romanji
--------- ------ -------
Lin Chi Linji Renzai
Te Shan Deshan Tokusan
On the frontend, allow the user to select Wade-Giles, Pinyin, or Romaji. Whichever they choose, they get a scrollable list containing all the entries in that column, and a box allowing them to enter a name. They either type a name or select from the list, and the frontend returns the table row containing the name they specified, along with its variations.
For cases where the user doesn't know which version they're dealing with, you could have the entry box search all three columns. So the drop-down box to select the transliteration system would have
WadeGiles
Pinyin
Romanji
Don't know
The "Don't know" option might load all the names from all three columns into the list (Union query).
If you want suggestions on setting up lineage searches, let me know. You'll have to set up the table differently, and it will need special SQL statements.
Bob Hall