Convert Chinese Characters to Pinyi

readme.txt

This script is part two of a solution to convert Chinese characters to pinyin. Please note the reference link for part one (a simple utility to read the Chinese dictionaries on MacOSX).

To create:

Start a new Automator Service project
Add a Run Shell Script action
Change Pass input menu to "as arguments"
Paste in the script above (requires that you add rdef utility to the /usr/local/bin)
Save your Automator service as Convert to Pinyin

To use:
Right click any Chinese characters on your MacOSX 
Select Services sub menu (at the bottom of the context menu)
Select Convert to PinYin

Result:
You will see Chinese text converted to pinyin

e.g. 第二次世界大战正在迫近,
becomes dì èr cì shì jiè dà zhàn zhēng zài pò jìn 


Reference:
Utility to get definition of a Chinese character output to the MacOSX Terminal -  https://github.com/mingsai/rdef
Full Solution - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22580539/looking-for-a-terminal-command-to-parse-macosx-dictionary-data-file

automator_script

# Assumes you have rdef utility installed in /usr/local/bin
# rdef can be found here: https://github.com/mingsai/rdef
# See accompanying readme.txt for instructions to create MacOSX service

PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin/: 
export PATH
LC_CTYPE=UTF-8
x=$1

for ((i=0;i<${#x};i++)); do rdef "${x:i:1}" | awk -F  '\|' 'BEGIN {ORS=" "}{ gsub(/^ | +?/, "", $2); if (length($2) > 0) print $2 ; exit}'; done