Ampersands and content.opf file

[AlexBell]

I'm designing an ebook with Daphnis & Chloe in the title, and the publisher may want me to use that style rather than Daphnis and Chloe. But putting & in

<dc:title>The Love Song of Daphnis & Chloe</dc:title>

prevents the ePub from validating; in fact the whole thing crashes. But

<dc:title>The Love Song of Daphnis and Chloe</dc:title> works as expected.

Is there a work around?

I personally don't like the Daphnis & Chloe formation anyway, but it's used several times in the text so I'm stuck with it.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

<dc:title>The Love Song of Daphnis & Chloe</dc:title>

prevents the ePub from validating; in fact the whole thing crashes.

Try <dc:title>The Love Song of Daphnis &amp; Chloe</dc:title>

The ampersand is a special reserved character when using markup language.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Try <dc:title>The Love Song of Daphnis &amp; Chloe</dc:title>

The ampersand is a special reserved character when using markup language.

Thanks. I should have mentioned that I tried that also, and it doesn't work.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks. I should have mentioned that I tried that also, and it doesn't work.

If you used Sigil 0.9.4, there's a bug in the Metadata Editor. It'll delete &amp; entities if you open and close the Metadata Editor.
(There was also different &amp; bug in an earlier version.)
The workaround is to enter &amp; directly into the .opf file.
BTW, even though Calibre and other tools use an ampersand for two authors, I remember having read somewhere that the proper way would be to have two author metadata entries.

[Toxaris]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

If you used Sigil 0.9.4, there's a bug in the Metadata Editor. It'll delete &amp; entities if you open and close the Metadata Editor.
(There was also different &amp; bug in an earlier version.)
The workaround is to enter &amp; directly into the .opf file.
BTW, even though Calibre and other tools use an ampersand for two authors, I remember having read somewhere that the proper way would be to have two author metadata entries.

Correct, it should be different author metadata entries. However, not all readers will actually honor that and will arbitrary use only one of the authors then.

[BetterRed]

Most style guides mandate that the '&' only be used in things like brand names (Dolce & Gabbano, Johnson & Johnson, Buckley's & Nunn ) Google NGram finds no fiction with "Daphnis & Chloe" - but it appears frequently in non fiction - magazines, blogs etc.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Try <dc:title>The Love Song of Daphnis &amp; Chloe</dc:title>

The ampersand is a special reserved character when using markup language.

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Thanks. I should have mentioned that I tried that also, and it doesn't work.

There is a fix in the Sigil development pipeline, and Kevin has suggested a workaround here ==>> https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...2&postcount=58

BR

[AlexBell]

Thanks for all the suggestions:

- about Sigil: I may be the only ebook designer in the world who doesn't use Sigil. Being old and set in my ways I use the HTML editor I used when I dabbled in website design.

@BetterRed: I don't like Daphnis & Chloe either. But who am I to argue with the author and editor? The editor at least has accepted that on an ebook booklist the title will appear as Daphnis and Chloe. But she still wants Daphnis & Chloe everywhere else.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

If you used Sigil 0.9.4, there's a bug in the Metadata Editor. It'll delete &amp; entities if you open and close the Metadata Editor.
(There was also different &amp; bug in an earlier version.)
The workaround is to enter &amp; directly into the .opf file.
BTW, even though Calibre and other tools use an ampersand for two authors, I remember having read somewhere that the proper way would be to have two author metadata entries.

The current Sigil bug (v0.9.5) doesn't rear it's ugly head quite that easily. You can, in fact, enter an ampersand character in the metadata editor in most fields, and it will be properly saved to the OPF as an &amp; entity. And vice-versa: manually entering an &amp; entity in the OPF will still allow you to later edit the metadata with Sigil's Metadata Editor without fear of &amp; entities being deleted.

The bug only occurs when &amp; entities occur in an attribute string value (typically the opf:file-as attribute) and the Metadata Editor is used. That is when &amp; entities will disappear from your OPF file. Entering an ampersand character in a "opf:file-as" string value in the Metadata Editor will also trigger it. And it's been fixed for the next release as BetterRed mentioned.

In the meantime, KevinH's workaround (as, again, BetterRed mentioned) will work. If you need two authors in one dc:creator tag, just use a different separator for the opf:file-as attribute string, such as a semi-colon (either manually or WITH the Metadata Editor) and you'll be fine:

<dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="One, Author; Two, Author">Author One &amp; Author Two</dc:creator>

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

BTW, even though Calibre and other tools use an ampersand for two authors, I remember having read somewhere that the proper way would be to have two author metadata entries.

Just FYI, even though the calibre library window displays as Author A & Author B, when the metadata is written into the epub (via Polish or something similar) it is in fact written as 2 <dc:creator> entries in the .opf file. E.g.

<dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="Patterson, James &amp; Karp, Marshall">James Patterson</dc:creator>
<dc:creator opf:role="aut">Marshall Karp</dc:creator>

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

@BetterRed: I don't like Daphnis & Chloe either. But who am I to argue with the author and editor? The editor at least has accepted that on an ebook booklist the title will appear as Daphnis and Chloe. But she still wants Daphnis & Chloe everywhere else.

I'm guessing the book references/channels Ravel's ballet or Offenbachs opera of the same name - Daphnis et Chloé. So they could argue -- given the ampersand is derived from 'Et' its usage is faithful to the French rendition of the original Δάφνις καὶ Χλόη, (Daphnis kai Chloē). Bit of long bow but -- and would they have the wit. Probably best to let it go through to the keeper

BR

[KevinH]

What do you mean "&amp;" doesn't work?

If this is a dc:title metadata entry entered directly into the opf then "&amp;" is the only correct way I know to handle that. It is an official xml escape sequence that is recognized and understood by html, html5, xml, xhtml, etc.

Alternatively, you can try replacing the "&" with a numeric entity "& # 38 ;" (without the spaces) but if "&amp;" doesn't work I have my doubts that "& # 38 ;" (again without the spaces) will work either.

And specifically what do you mean, it doesn't work? What are you viewing the opf or metadata with that is showing it doesn't work?

KevinH

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by KevinH

What do you mean "&amp;" doesn't work?

If this is a dc:title metadata entry entered directly into the opf then "&amp;" is the only correct way I know to handle that. It is an official xml escape sequence that is recognized and understood by html, html5, xml, xhtml, etc.

Alternatively, you can try replacing the "&" with a numeric entity "& # 38 ;" (without the spaces) but if "&amp;" doesn't work I have my doubts that "& # 38 ;" (again without the spaces) will work either.

And specifically what do you mean, it doesn't work? What are you viewing the opf or metadata with that is showing it doesn't work?

KevinH

I mean it doesn't validate with Epub-Checker

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I'm guessing the book references/channels Ravel's ballet or Offenbachs opera of the same name - Daphnis et Chloé. So they could argue -- given the ampersand is derived from 'Et' its usage is faithful to the French rendition of the original Δάφνις καὶ Χλόη, (Daphnis kai Chloē). Bit of long bow but -- and would they have the wit. Probably best to let it go through to the keeper

BR

No, it's actually a verse rendition of the Thornley translation.

But you've raised another hare now. Should the e in Chloe have a diacritic? I've seen Ravel's ballet 'Daphnis et Chloé, and very occasionally I've seen it in English as Chloë. But since by far the most common spelling is Chloe that's how I left it.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I mean it doesn't validate with Epub-Checker

That shouldn't happen, because &amp; is part of the XML 1.0 specs.

Can you please post the .opf file that caused this error message?

Also, which ePubCheck app/version did you use?