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International Journal of Computer

Science and Information Technology
IAARD-International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology, 2016, 2(2),22-24
Android English-Tigrigna Mobile Application
Mehari Yohannes Hailemariam
Department of Software Engineering, Microlink Information Technology College, Mekelle, Tigray, Ethiopia
Email: meharijhon909@yahoo.com
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Abstract: In the current situation, English is widely used for communication. In context of our country, there are many people
who are facing problems in English languages due to various reasons. So there are various English- Tigrigna dictionaries
available in the market today. Such dictionaries come under the category written form like books which leads the hardship to
users while it is difficult for them to access the resources anywhere at any time. This project would then be aanswer for such
problems as users can use the application on their android supported smartphones. English-Tigrigna Dictionary is offline
dictionary. This dictionary finds the Tigrigna meaning of the English word by searching from stored data. This dictionary
application is called as “EngTigDictionary” because it helps users to find Tigrigna meaning equivalent of inserted English
words.
Key Words: English – Tigrigna Dictionary, Android
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1. Introduction The method used in the research data collection is as follows:
The use of smart phone devices in our day to day lives has 1. Library Research The research is done by reading
become very common and they are used to do a variety of literature books, magazines, lecture materials, different
tasks ranging from the small tasks like calling and texting to Tigrigna-English dictionaries and other sources to
more complicated tasks such as web browsing, or using the obtain data in accordance with the object of research.
GPS system. 2. Observation with direct observation of an object under
There are various online and offline dictionaries available study, it can be more clearly know theconstraints of an
now a day while they are of other languages and there is existing problem
almost none for our language.The dictionaries currently 3. Interview I do this method by interviewing several
available which are in our language are in a form of books people who are expert in the in particular home
and it is hard to use them when needed and where ever 4. Analysis and design application for needs sat this step, I
necessary. performed an analysis and
The English – Tigrigna Dictionary then helps Tigrigna design of the needs that you want to research into the
speaking community boost their knowledge of English application to be made
vocabulary translated through their native language Tigrigna,
while resolving the portability issue as well as declining 3.1 Analysis
difficulty of using such a huge dictionary books anywhere, so Eclipse is a multi-language software development
that they can use the developed application through their environment, comprising an integrated development
android supported smart phone easily and everywhere. environment (IDE) and an extensible plug-in system. It is
written mostly in Java and can be used to develop application
2. Objectives of the study in Java and by means of various plug-ins.
Since this is a dictionary application, the main objective of
the application will be to provide the user with the Tigrigna The above diagram is the system architecture of the
meaning of the searched English word. Apart from this the application “EngTig Dictionary”. The application contains
application has the following objectives. update vocabulary method. The method will parse the source
2.1 User friendly UI: - All the application for any platform files and retrieve the resultant words and store them in the
will be finally used by the user. The user may feel database of the user device. The user then searches the
boring if the UI of the application is not good and required word from the given UI and retrieves the meaning of
properly managed. So in Englsh-Tigrigna Dictionary, I the searched word from the database of his/ her device’s UI.
have tried to use the user friendly UI as far as possible.
It will help the user to use the application efficiently. 4.1. Class Diagram
The application “EngTig Dictionary” is based on android
2.2 Compatibility: The application “EngTigDictionary” is platform. It uses Java as the programming language for the
developed in such a way that it supports the older
activities of the application. Such activities are coded as java
Android devices and it also had been made supportable
classes. The application also contains other helper class for
to coming up versions of Android devices.
defining the SQLite database and for other purposes. The
arrangement of all the classes can be diagrammatically
The application “EngTig Dictionary” has its use for the
presented as the below class diagram.
students to search the difficult English words for meanings. It
can be useful to the language learners and the community to 1.1 Programming Environment
learn Tigrigna with the English language. A mobile operating system, also called a mobile OS, is an
operating system that is specifically designed to run on
3. Research Methodology

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 IAARD-International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology, 2016, 2(2), 22-24

mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs,

tablet computers and other handheld devices.
Commonly used operating systems in smartphones are IOS,
Windows Phone OS and Android.
A. IOS
It is a mobile operating system developed and distributed by
Apple Inc. Originally released in 2007 for the iPhone.It has
2. System Architecture
been extended to support other Apple devices such as the
iPod Touch, iPad Mini, and second-generation Apple TV
Unlike Microsoft's Windows Phone and Google's Android,
Apple does not license iOS for installation on non-Apple
hardware.

Picture 1 System architecture of “EngTigDictionary”

Picture 1 Class diagrame

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 IAARD-International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology, 2016, 2(2), 22-24
B. Windows Phone OS
Windows Phone is a series of smartphone operating systems
developed by Microsoft. Unlike Windows Mobile, Windows
Phone 7 (also referred to as WinPho7) is targeted more to the
consumer market than the enterprise market, and it replaces
the more traditional Microsoft Windows OS.
C. Android
Android is a Linux-based operating system designed
primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as
smartphones and tablet computers. Android has a large
community of developers writing applications ("apps") that
extend the functionality of devices, written primarily in the
Java programming language. In October 2012, there were
approximately 700,000 apps available for Android, and the
estimated number of applications downloaded from Google
Play, Android's primary app store, was 25 billion.
2.1 Programming in android
Programming in information technology means making a
device (may be a computer or anything else) follow your
instruction. In todays practice, the work of making a device
follow our command is generally done by building
applications or operating systems that run on the devices.
Developing an operating system is considered to be a
difficult task and is done by some companies like Microsft,
Apple and Google. So what I mean here is developing an
application on the OS developed by those companies is
known as programming or developing also called app
development. Though there are a lot of platforms to work on,
I have choosen android development in this project because I
am gaining knowledge on exciting use of XML and java
language in hand held device programming. Here I want to
mention a little on various components in android
programming.
While developing an application in android platform, I want
to be familiar with some terminologies. These terms are used
in another platforms of programming as well which are; SDK
(Software Development Kit): It is the basic set of tools that
allows the creation of application for a certain package,
software framework or hardware platform, computer systems
or any other such development packages.
This is a general development tool for all the developing
platform. In case of android application development, I use
ADT (Android Development Tool) which is specified for
generating apps in android platform including debug mode
and release mode works as well. ADT contains the JDK
(Java Development Kit) to compile the codes written in Java
programming language, An Emulator for debugging and
testing the applications developed in Android plateform, An
IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to the
developers easy to develop the application which contains an
XML editor, Source code (java) editor and other facalities.
The popular IDEs in Android Development are Eclipse with
ADT and Android Studio. The ADT also contains the API
Level (Application Programming Interface Level) to work
and support the changes in the android operating system
itself. The API level goes on increasing with the release of
new version in android operating system. The current API
level for Android 4.4 KitKat is 19. These are all the basic set
of tools used in android application development. After a
developer is provided with these all tools, then to develop an
application following strategies are adopted.
Mehari Yohannes Hailemariam
I. Java as Activity
Java is an object-oriented language similar to C++, but
simplified to eliminate language features that cause common
programming errors. Java source code files (files with a
.java extension) are compiled into a format called bytecode
(files with a .class extension), which can then be executed by
a Java interpreter.
II. Extensible Markup Language (XML)
Is a markup language. XML was designed to transport and
store data. XML was designed to carry data, not to display
data, but in case of android programming XML is use as
various components of the application like screen, string and
other resources. Let us see a brief description of uses of XML
on android development.
III. XML
As screen for every application, there may be a single or
multiple screens depending upon the application. In
programming and designing of the android applications, they
are basically called as layout. XML is used in android
programming to create the screens of the application.
Whatever the use sees on the screen is all the work of XML.
IV. XML as Menu
Menu in android programing is used for user interface. That
is to provide the extra information in the application like
updating and information about the application and others. In
android programming XML is used in android Menu creation
also.
V. XML as String
A string resource in android programming is used to fill a
text box, text view or anything another related to the string
variable during the programming. Such resources can be used
to name the entire application also.
3. CONCLUSION
The aim of this project is developing for the user who needs
to know meaning of Tigrigna and English words on user's
handle device and also communication with this application
and. This application can be use simply by install .apk files in
android supported device with enhanced screen. I collect
knowledge form different resources for making the project
practical and acquire additional knowledge about database
handle in mobile device. Finally, I express my profound
pleasure to bring the" EngTigDictionary" to you all.
4. REFERENCES
1. Isaac Tsegay 1997 Mahder English Tigrigna Dictionary
2. www.tutorialpoints.com
3. Ivan MS, 2011, Membongkar Source CodeAndroid.
4. www.androidcompare.com
5. www.androidhive.info
6. www.apple.com
7. www.microsoft.com
8. www.wikipidea.com
9. www.developer.android.com
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