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Old 02-22-2010, 03:55 PM   #1
awx
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ePubHub, an open-source eBook assembly app for Windows

I'd like to introduce ePubHub, an open source program that I've been working on for several months. It is written in .Net but only runs on Windows. There is no Linux or Mac OS X support because the cross-platform .Net runtime Mono doesn't support Wpf.

Download the installer:
setup.exe


To get started using ePubHub, right click on the eBook or Metadata icon and Add any of the available items from the menu.

My goal for ePubHub was for it to be an ePub assembly tool - the last part of an ebook workflow. I wanted it to be a very technical program, giving access to the fundamental parts of the ePub format while also working in a language that is familiar to books (chapters, paragraphs, etc.).

Here's a screenshot of the current development build:


This is a preview release that is far from complete. There are a number of limitations, including:
  • The Open/Save feature does not work (exporting to ePub works).
  • Only .jpg images are supported.
  • Audio not implemented yet.
  • A few of the eBook item types are not implemented and will appear to crash if you try to export them into an ePub file. Do not use the Notes, Sidebar or Endnote controls.
  • A few of the eBook items are rendered incorrectly and will cause the ePub file to be invalid. Do not use the Underline control.
  • The source code will throw unhandled exceptions in a few places (mostly when using the unimplemented controls such as Sidebar). These will appear to crash the program if you do not have a debugger installed. These issues are known and will be addressed in due course.

Note: Do not worry if you see an item whose icon is an image of an exclamation point inside a red circle. This does not indicate an error. It's simply a placeholder icon being used until a better icon can be found.

Source code is available at the Sourceforge website, on this page:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/epubhub/

Please give feedback on this preview release.

Thanks,
Art

Last edited by awx; 12-27-2010 at 08:55 PM. Reason: new image
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Old 02-22-2010, 08:57 PM   #2
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Looks interesting. Unfortunately, there isn't anything to download in the files section .
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Old 02-22-2010, 09:46 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by charleski View Post
Looks interesting. Unfortunately, there isn't anything to download in the files section .
Read the 1st post again. Here's the link for the installer again:
http://epubhub.sourceforge.net/clickonce/publish.htm
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Old 02-23-2010, 05:09 AM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by awx View Post
Read the 1st post again. Here's the link for the installer again:
http://epubhub.sourceforge.net/clickonce/publish.htm
ClickOnce doesn't work in FireFox (at least not with my security settings). Finally managed to get it to install with IE, but a simple downloadable installer would be simpler.

Is there any way to import xhtml that's already been prepared, or is that still in development? I managed to create a few empty pages and paragraphs, but that's about it. Are there any plans to allow touch-up editing on the content?

BTW, I see you allow <a> tags to have both an 'id' and 'name' attribute - this should be fixed, as the name attribute is deprecated on <a> tags in xhtml.
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Old 02-23-2010, 01:13 PM   #5
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There is a ClickOnce extension for FireFox and a plugin for IE. If you have those disabled then you can download the ClickOnce setup.exe file:
http://epubhub.sourceforge.net/clickonce/setup.exe
This .exe is the same file that non-FF/IE users will receive when they go to the ClickOnce page.

BTW, once there is a release that could be deemed relatively stable and feature complete, I'll post a .zip in the Sourceforge file releases.

I changed the anchors to use id instead of name. You'll get an automatic update of the program after you've launched it twice. Thanks for pointing this out and please look for more errors like this.

The import feature is at the #2 spot on my to-do list. First is to add support for Css stylesheets, which I hope to complete or at least start today. Importing probably won't get started until next weekend.

Touch-up editing of imported text & html should work without any restrictions. There certainly needs to be better editing tools added to ePubHub.

Last edited by awx; 02-23-2010 at 01:16 PM.
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Old 02-25-2010, 03:53 PM   #6
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Too many hoops to jump through to get it downloaded. Sorry. I may try it once you have the downloading/install process fixed.
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Old 02-25-2010, 06:37 PM   #7
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I'm sorry too, but agree with JSWolf. I really don't like the download format either, but I'll be happy to try it when I can download and run a true install program though!
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Old 02-25-2010, 09:24 PM   #8
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This setup.exe won't work for you?

If it doesn't work, tell me what happens and I'll see what I can do.

Last edited by awx; 02-25-2010 at 09:29 PM.
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Old 02-27-2010, 04:25 AM   #9
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setup works well.

Still too early at this stage to give an elaborated opinion. Looks good though. But I agree hat importing chapter files already prepared would be a plus.
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Old 02-27-2010, 12:29 PM   #10
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Thanks for the feedback on the setup.exe.

I'll start working on importing text/html today as that seems to be the most pressing requirement.
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Old 02-27-2010, 11:55 PM   #11
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This looks like a cool project. I was considering writing something like this myself, but never really got to it. I'll be sure to check it out soon. Perhaps there's something I can help out with. =) (Though I'm only a hobbyist programmer.)
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Old 03-03-2010, 02:01 AM   #12
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I've pushed out a new test version that implements a rudimentary Xhtml Import function. The file is currently not validated against any Xhtml dtd but it must be valid xml with the Xhtml default namespace (i.e. <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">).

As always, the autoupdater will offer to download the newest version the 2nd time you launch it after the update is published.

Only a small subset of tags will be imported (div, span, p, h1-6, b, i, img). Any other tags and their contents will be ignored. All attributes (class, style, etc.) are currently ignored except on the img tag.

Imported img tags should also create an empty Image in the Images folder with the correct file name. But you would still have to import the corresponding .jpg file for this to be useful.

Please try importing a few of your Xhtml documents and let me know if they come through.

Right now all imported items are dumped in a generic page. There isn't any convenient way to move these in bulk to another page or chapter. I'll be working on that next.

@quillaja: thanks for checking this out. If you'd like to help, there are plently of programming and non-programming tasks that need to be done. Feel free to PM me through this board if you have time to help.

Last edited by awx; 03-03-2010 at 02:06 AM.
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Old 03-10-2010, 03:57 AM   #13
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Downloaded the version with the setup link you provided here. Still, I would have much more liked a downloadable version from sourceforge...

First impression is good for a first version. Could you please indicate if bug reports or feature requests could be best placed here or on sourceforge?

I have a few that came up before really testing:
1. Language metadata is currently restricted to English, German, French and Swedish. Since there are more languages , could you please either add them (for me personally dutch) or tell us how to add them ourselves?
2. Cover page, is this just an image or via svg?
3. import of an epub to make quick edits?
4. Save in-between work?

Perhaps some more will come up.

Since this is a nice tool (at least it looks like it), could someone make this thread a sticky?
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Old 03-10-2010, 07:59 AM   #14
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How do you download the program?
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Old 03-10-2010, 01:41 PM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by awx View Post
This setup.exe won't work for you?

If it doesn't work, tell me what happens and I'll see what I can do.
The link is mentioned earlier in the thread.
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