Nested Lists Not Working for ePubs

annako · 05-26-2023, 08:49 AM

Hello! I hope everyone is having a great day.

I'm having an issue trying to create nested lists in epubs. This is not for a nav or toc.xhtml document, but rather, appears in the running text of the book. For example, I want a nested list in the <body> tag of chapter01.xhtml:

Code:

<ul>
<li>First item</li>
   <ul>
      <li>First item Quality A</li>
      <li>First item Quality B</li>
   </ul>
<li>Second item</li>
   <ul>
      <li>Second item Quality A</li>
      <li>Second item Quality B</li>
   </ul>
</ul>

This is the correct way to nest lists to my knowledge. However, running the epub through pagina epub checker brings up the error:

"Error while parsing file: element "ul" not allowed here: expected the element end-tag or element "li", "script", or "template"

switching to <ol> tags doesn't work, and in any case, not what I want (I don't want a numbered list, but bulleted).

It seems only <li> are allowed within <ul> or <ol> tags. I tried searching on google for nesting lists for epubs, but it doesn't seem to be a common problem? What am I doing wrong?

Thank you in advance!

KevinH · 05-26-2023, 09:33 AM

Your knowledge of how to nest is incorrect (but does work in all browsers I have tested!).
To see it properly done take a look at how nesting is done in the nav.

Or

try this shortened snippet based on your above. The second level ul is actually nested inside the first li tag because the nested list belongs to that list item.

Code:

<ul>
  <li>First item
     <ul>
        <li>First item Quality A</li>
        <li>First item Quality B</li>
     </ul>
  </li>
  <li>Second item</li>
</ul>

Or based on a quick web search (which you should probably do before asking here

)

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...ml-nested-list

And:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/...#nesting_lists

annako · 05-26-2023, 09:46 AM

Oh my gosh it worked. I feel so silly now for not realizing that I need to nest the second <ul>/<ol> within a <li> tag. Thank you so much for explaining to me! Have a lovely day

Turtle91 · 05-26-2023, 10:19 AM

That is how I get it to work as well… although IIRC epubcheck throws fits with nesting it that way??? I haven’t tried it in awhile, it may have been fixed with the latest epubcheck update.

JSWolf · 05-26-2023, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turtle91

That is how I get it to work as well… although IIRC epubcheck throws fits with nesting it that way??? I haven’t tried it in awhile, it may have been fixed with the latest epubcheck update.

The code posted in the 1st post does throw errors with the latest epubcheck.

JSWolf · 05-26-2023, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by annako

This is the correct way to nest lists to my knowledge. However, running the epub through pagina epub checker brings up the error:

If you were to use Calibre's Editor or Sigil, you could install the epubcheck plugins. That way if you do find any errors, it would be a lot easier to fix them as you can click on the error and be taken to the line that has the error to then fix.

05-26-2023, 08:49 AM	#1
annako Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2023 Device: none	Nested Lists Not Working for ePubs Hello! I hope everyone is having a great day. I'm having an issue trying to create nested lists in epubs. This is not for a nav or toc.xhtml document, but rather, appears in the running text of the book. For example, I want a nested list in the <body> tag of chapter01.xhtml: Code: <ul> <li>First item</li> <ul> <li>First item Quality A</li> <li>First item Quality B</li> </ul> <li>Second item</li> <ul> <li>Second item Quality A</li> <li>Second item Quality B</li> </ul> </ul> This is the correct way to nest lists to my knowledge. However, running the epub through pagina epub checker brings up the error: "Error while parsing file: element "ul" not allowed here: expected the element end-tag or element "li", "script", or "template" switching to <ol> tags doesn't work, and in any case, not what I want (I don't want a numbered list, but bulleted). It seems only <li> are allowed within <ul> or <ol> tags. I tried searching on google for nesting lists for epubs, but it doesn't seem to be a common problem? What am I doing wrong? Thank you in advance!

05-26-2023, 09:33 AM	#2
KevinH Sigil Developer Posts: 7,734 Karma: 5444398 Join Date: Nov 2009 Device: many	Your knowledge of how to nest is incorrect (but does work in all browsers I have tested!). To see it properly done take a look at how nesting is done in the nav. Or try this shortened snippet based on your above. The second level ul is actually nested inside the first li tag because the nested list belongs to that list item. Code: <ul> <li>First item <ul> <li>First item Quality A</li> <li>First item Quality B</li> </ul> </li> <li>Second item</li> </ul> Or based on a quick web search (which you should probably do before asking here ) See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/...ml-nested-list And: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/...#nesting_lists Last edited by KevinH; 05-26-2023 at 09:40 AM.

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05-26-2023, 09:46 AM	#3
annako Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2023 Device: none	Oh my gosh it worked. I feel so silly now for not realizing that I need to nest the second <ul>/<ol> within a <li> tag. Thank you so much for explaining to me! Have a lovely day

05-26-2023, 10:19 AM	#4
Turtle91 A Hairy Wizard Posts: 3,119 Karma: 18727091 Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Charleston, SC today Device: iPhone 11/X/6/iPad 1,2,Air & Air Pro/Surface Pro/Kindle PW & Fire	That is how I get it to work as well… although IIRC epubcheck throws fits with nesting it that way??? I haven’t tried it in awhile, it may have been fixed with the latest epubcheck update.