Spell Checker

This page demonstrates use of our CGI spell checker service which operates in a number of different modes. The script is a wrapper around a local command-line install of ASpell which has a language specific dictionary and a custom one we can add to over time.

Please Note - this service will only check non-Waikato hosted web pages if you are logged in through the web.

Browser Toolbar Check

In recent versions of Mozilla or Firefox you should be able to left-click and drag the following Spell Check link to your browser toolbar area to create a button you can then use to spell-check any waikato website page.

If you're using Internet Explorer you should be able to right-click the link above and select Add to Favourites and choose the Links folder as a place to store the link. Also make sure your Links toolbar is switched on (View-Toolbars-Links)

Page, Form or Word Check

The following uses of the spell-checker return human readable HTML marked up with suggestions and corrections, these would typically be linked to off a web page

Word Check

Adding a couple of words to a querystring parameter 'words' when calling check.cgi will return a small fragment of HTML containing suggestions. This might be used from a web service or perhaps an AJAX like application embedded in a remote web page.

/cgi-bin/spell.cgi?words=diagnoze thiz center

URL Check

Using the querystring parameter combination mode=page and url=[someURL] the script will fetch and spell check an entire document. This will typically be used in the footer of a page on a test site so the owner can check spelling before migrating changes to the live server. This mode will only allow urls on waikato sites to be checked.

/cgi-bin/spell.cgi?mode=page;url=http://waikato.ac.nz/

Form Check

Submitting content to the script form a form where the textarea is named 'words' and a hidden form variable mode is set to 'form'

Structured/XML Checks

XML Suggestions

With the format parameter set to xml the script will return a bunch of suggestions for every word in the words list that is not found in the dictionary marked up in machine parseable XML

/cgi-bin/spell.cgi?format=xml;words=applez analyze

XML Best Suggestion Only

With a format of xml and maxsuggest of 1 the script will return a more compact best guess suggestion only for every word in an XML payload.

/cgi-bin/spell.cgi?maxsuggest=1;format=xml;words=applez analyze