ePub Zip/Unzip AppleScript application for Mac OS X

[MichaelGray]

Hi there
Hope somebody can help with this - I've been using ePub zip for a while and it's been a fantastic saviour, but suddenly it doesn't seem to work any more. When I try to zip my folder into epub I get an error message: "Can't make <<class ctnr>> of item 1 {alias "Macintosh HD:Users:Mini25esktop:nameofmyfolder:"} into type text." I can OK this or press an "Edit" button, which opens the Apple Script Editor (beyond me!)
Not sure what changed on my system or in my epub - it just seems to have changed from one day to the next. Any ideas?
Thanks very much
Michael

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by MichaelGray

Hi there
Hope somebody can help with this - I've been using ePub zip for a while and it's been a fantastic saviour, but suddenly it doesn't seem to work any more. When I try to zip my folder into epub I get an error message: "Can't make <<class ctnr>> of item 1 {alias "Macintosh HD:Users:Mini25esktop:nameofmyfolder:"} into type text." I can OK this or press an "Edit" button, which opens the Apple Script Editor (beyond me!)
Not sure what changed on my system or in my epub - it just seems to have changed from one day to the next. Any ideas?
Thanks very much
Michael

Hmm... Well, it's obviously a bug, but exactly what's causing it is a mystery to me at the moment.. It might be that I'm not escaping a path when I should. Try putting the epub folder onto the top level of your hard disk and trying from there. If that works, then it must be something in the path, but I can't see what. When I get a moment I'll see if I can spot anything 'obvious' in the script.

[danrodney]

First I wanted to thank pdurrant so much for writing the EPUB Zip script!

However I disagree that unzipping is so easy. I've had some EPUBs that do not properly unzip with the Finder's native unzipper (and renaming your files is a pain if you need to do it a lot). Using pdurrant's code as a reference, I went ahead and made an UnZip app that uses the terminal command which I find more reliable.

While I was at it I updated the EPUB Zip 1.0.2.app to remove the confirmation dialog at the end (to speed things up) and make the dialog messages more consistent with the UnZipper I created.

Here's the new version for all to enjoy. It contains:
EPUB UnZip 1.0.app
EPUB Zip 1.0.3.app

Thanks again for your contribution.
Dan

[danrodney]

When updating the scripts I changed the name from ePub to EPUB because it seemed like the ePub developers wanted it that way.

But I have since changed my mind and went back to ePub because I see more people using it and honestly I like it better. Even the official ePub logo uses a lowercase "e" so they can't even decide which way to go! So no real changes other than the name change, but I still wanted to post it anyway.

[wannabee]

I've been zipping and unzipping on windows 7 at work with just a right click and assumed that if I had to do it at home on my mac it would be the same. Glad I came across this post and thanks for the script. I'm sending it home straight away.

[a-name4epub]

Thanks for this, pd. It works, but I am getting errors of a different kind, so will be searching...

[wannabee]

Spent the day finalising a book. (I hope) must have unzipped, edited and rezipped 30 times. Used 3 press and flightcrew every time to validate with no errors.

No scripts, just right click "extract all" and right click "send to zip file"

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by wannabee

Spent the day finalising a book. (I hope) must have unzipped, edited and rezipped 30 times. Used 3 press and flightcrew every time to validate with no errors.

No scripts, just right click "extract all" and right click "send to zip file"

If you're lucky, that might work. It would require the zip to have zipped the mimetype file first, and to not apply any compression to it. I'd advice checking with epubcheck as well, which I know checks that the mimetype file has been done correctly.

[wannabee]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'd advice checking with epubcheck as well, which I know checks that the mimetype file has been done correctly.

Thanks for your response. I appreciate it very much.

Now seriously, I was trying to get some tables formatted the way I like and and validated many versions yesterday. All with epubcheck and flightcrew.

As soon as I have a few moments I''ll take that file and modify it for copyright, validate it and post it because I am confused about all this need to use scripts to zip it up.

I have never used a script. I'm using Windows 7 and just using the extract all files option and send to zip from right click then just change the file type. I have four books that validate and could not count how many times I validated them.

Signed - confused

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by wannabee

I have never used a script. I'm using Windows 7 and just using the extract all files option and send to zip from right click then just change the file type. I have four books that validate and could not count how many times I validated them.

How interesting. It might be that Windows 7 is clever enough to notice that it's an ePub being zipped, but I think it more likely that the way you have named the files and the folders in your ePub source just happen to give the right result.

So long as it works for you. It certainly doesn't work on Mac OS X if you just use the built-in right-click/Compress (which creates a zip file).

[wannabee]

I guess you're right. I'll see what the mac does tomorrow when I get some time.

[Juris]

Hello,
I hope this is the proper forum for the questions I have.

I bought and downloaded an epub book with Adobe DRM. I wanted to read it on my iPad and used ineptepub to strip the drm. It only returned the first 18 pages of the book, the rest were blank.

i used several versions of ineptkey and ineptepub and got the same result.
I then made a copy and using your scripts unzipped and then rezipped the book.

When I went to remove the drm, I got an error message saying this was not an Adept file. When i opened the book in ADE, it only showed the first 18 pages, the same as when I initially used ineptepub. So something is obviously happening in the unzip and rezip process.
Could this be a new block against removing DRM, or am I doing or not doing something.
Thanks

[pdurrant]

There are certainly some problems with the zip structure of some epub books.

That simply unzipping and rezipping causes a problem in ADE does suggest that there's some problem in this book's zip structure that might also be causing problems in the dedrm process.

Originally Posted by Juris

Hello,
I hope this is the proper forum for the questions I have.

I bought and downloaded an epub book with Adobe DRM. I wanted to read it on my iPad and used ineptepub to strip the drm. It only returned the first 18 pages of the book, the rest were blank.

i used several versions of ineptkey and ineptepub and got the same result.
I then made a copy and using your scripts unzipped and then rezipped the book.

When I went to remove the drm, I got an error message saying this was not an Adept file. When i opened the book in ADE, it only showed the first 18 pages, the same as when I initially used ineptepub. So something is obviously happening in the unzip and rezip process.
Could this be a new block against removing DRM, or am I doing or not doing something.
Thanks

[James_Wilde]

You're the man, Paul. Thanks.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

There are certainly some problems with the zip structure of some epub books.

That simply unzipping and rezipping causes a problem in ADE does suggest that there's some problem in this book's zip structure that might also be causing problems in the dedrm process.

It turns out that this is a known problem to do with non-ascii characters in file names, and is a bug in the ineptepub script. I think a fix should be out soonish.

Meanwhile, it is possible to work around the problem by unzipping the epub in question, and changing the file names and the references to the files in the opf file and the encryption.xml file