Hacking J-Bird (Version 0.5.2)

Is this page for you?

This page is for people who want to do unusual things with J-Bird that require a bit of work, confidence or expertise with computing. A list of possibilities follows.

• Display alternative images
• Internationalize J-Bird
• Import from relational databases
• Arbitrary access to J-Bird database - GUI
• Arbitrary access to J-Bird database - Perl
• J-Bird database schema
• Remote access to your J-Bird database
• Alternative database engines
• Source code via CVS
• Compile J-Bird for yourself
• Some guts for developers

Comments and suggestions about what is useful or needed are welcome.

Display alternative images

Image files used in pop-up gratifiers are named in the J-Bird.prefs file in the directory in which J-Bird is installed. You can display alternative images by editing the that file so that image files of your choice are named. Alternatively, you can copy contents of image files that you want displayed into the files that are named in J-Bird.prefs, but be warned that the images will be replaced each time that you upgrade J-Bird. J-Bird can display .gif files and .jpg files.

Internationalize J-Bird

Text that appears on J-bird's user interface can be translated to other languages fairly easily. You can translate for yourself and customize J-Bird if you can program Java and have installed the source code. Otherwise, you can translate the text and submit it as a patch on the J-bird project page. Someone will compile the translation. When submitting translations, please state explicitly that the translated text is your contribution to J-Bird and that authors of J-Bird may copyright it and distribute it under the GNU General Public License.

J-Bird is currently available only in the English dialect of the United States (en_US). If you are interested in translating J-Bird to a locale other than en_US, contact the developers. E-mail addresses and forums are available on the J-Bird project page.