Ebook software development forums?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by murg

And I have some prime swamp land that really needs that bridge...

I have the beach.
Just don't look for the ocean.

[murg]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I have the beach.
Just don't look for the ocean.

All we need now is the Statue of Liberty...

[shalym]

Originally Posted by murg

All we need now is the Statue of Liberty...

Give me your tired, your poor...

Shari

[pittendrigh]

Originally Posted by shalym

Give me your tired, your poor...

Shari

This is a surprisingly long thread, started quite a while back.

I'm working on a PHP-based server side epub3 reader/displayer that will show epub3 documents to visitors WITHOUT requiring the visitor to install anything or download anything. The server side administrator will have to unzip the epub3 inside the DOCUMENT_ROOT of a website. The rest will happen automagically. TOC navigation will appear as needed. Text and images will flow around it.

I'm pretty close. Perhaps in another two months of part time work I'll have a freeware version to look at. I see this as a marketing tool. It will allow casual visitors to read all or perhaps a selected set of pages only. If they like what they see they can buy and download the full epub. And then view it with what ever software they choose to install.

Or they can continue to read it online. As they wish. This will be particularly useful to me, as I publish lengthy how-to-do-it boat building pages on the net. epub3 format will enhance my reader's experience.

=====================
I have a question. I've been poking around the net and I've been reading. Haven't found the answer yet. My TOC generation codes start by parsing the package.opf file, which is present and required for all epub3 compliant documents.

However. I downloaded about two dozen public domain epub3 example documents to work with. And package.opf is sometimes found in OPF/package.opf and sometimes as EPUB/package.opf.

My codes can test both paths and work with where ever package.opf is found. But something is going on I don't understand yet.

I'll have to spend a few nights reading the OPF specs I guess. Help me with this if you can. Why is epub3 sometimes organized one way, and other times the other?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by pittendrigh

I have a question. ...
And package.opf is sometimes found in OPF/package.opf and sometimes as EPUB/package.opf. ...
Why is epub3 sometimes organized one way, and other times the other?

Every EPUB must have a file named "/META-INF/container.xml". The location of the OPF file is found there.

You should definitely read the specifications!

[pittendrigh]

:=))

I do tend to shoot from the hip. And I'm reasonably good at it. Always have been.

Thank you. I should have figured that one out on my own.

A no downloads no install first epub3 reader will be interesting. I'm having fun too. I think I've past half way on this project.

I'm already displaying chaper.xhtml output. The TOC is still broken. But getting there. I spent five years working with Java xpath and XML databases (Exist, SleepyCat etc) so it is up my alley.

The bibi (https://github.com/satorumurmur/bibi) ebook reader mentioned earlier is vaguely similar and interesting. With Bibi an ebook can be unzipped on the server and displayed to all without requiring the user to manually download anything and without installing software. But Bibi cannot be made to work without sending html head and body elements, so it cannot be displayed as part of a global CMS layout. It cannot be shown as the contents of a div. Not without using an IFRAME anyway.

IFRAME is ok for video players but for mixed HTML output they bring too much baggage. What I'm doing is almost ready to put on sourceforge. And it will be useful.

[harriska2]

Thanks, looking forward to it.

[pittendrigh]

Days away at this point. I can now find the package.opf dynamically and then build navigation hashes from the manifest and spine that maintain next and previous buttons (no screen swipes on desktops) and build a TOC by recursively xpathing OL lists in the nav element. And show *.xhtml output.

It's working now but too buggy to show. One more month and it will be on sourceforge. This will be a TOC and page content as the contents of any arbitrary block element in a larger Content Management System context, so the end user can read any unzipped epub3 without losing more global navigation to other pages in the surrounding website, like Home, Contact Us, Search etc.

..........I have not even started an index-like keyword search. That's a bit of a project in its own right, probably using PHP Plucene. Google Site Search isn't really an option because this system needs to be able to keep the epub pages hidden behind a form-driven password login barrier.

Anyway. In a month or so from now.

[Apache]

Wrong Forum

[harriska2]

Why is this a wrong forum?

[Apache]

I meant to post in a different thread. In a different section.
Apache

[pittendrigh]

No problem. Progress is slow. 68. Had two eye surgeries this year. One more coming up. Can't stare at the computer for more than 20 minutes at a time now.

My development is way past half way. The hard part is the TOC and I have it, using a recursive read of both the manifest and the spine, building a pair of object hashes in the process.


They only chore left, before RoboEpub3_1.0, is to munge the links a bit, as defined by the manifest, so they work right for main page display with my content management system. The TOC was by far the hardest part.

Predicted highly beta release expected in January. If anyone is.......interested. I am. It's a fun project. I'm looking forward to using this system for my online boat building instructions. Ebooks as digital mirrors of print technology miss the best part.

Books with embedded video, at least in the how-to-do-it genre, are the crest of the wave I think.

=====
A later release will build an epub2 toc.ncx. Perhaps.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by pittendrigh

Ebooks as digital mirrors of print technology miss the best part.

All depends on what you consider "the best part," I guess. For me, the best part about ebooks is the immediate availability of just about any novel I'd ever want to read (and having tons of offline reading available at my fingertips). I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of readers don't do much reading of material that the mirroring of print technology doesn't already handle quite admirably.

Not to say there's no advantage/benefit to your efforts. It's just going to have a fairly niche audience is all. I wish you the best of luck with it.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

All depends on what you consider "the best part," I guess. For me, the best part about ebooks is the immediate availability of just about any novel I'd ever want to read (and having tons of offline reading available at my fingertips). I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of readers don't do much reading of material that the mirroring of print technology doesn't already handle quite admirably.

Not to say there's no advantage/benefit to your efforts. It's just going to have a fairly niche audience is all. I wish you the best of luck with it.

The same can be said of any technology I think. There are those who will use it and those who won't. How big a niche market a given technology has depends on many things I would think. How easy it is to use, how good it looks, advertising of the technology, how useful it is in a given environment, etc. All the past advances in print technology were probably thought to be niche markets at one time or another. For example clay tablets were used first as a method of bookkeeping. i.e. how many jars of oil, barley, etc. were on hand, and who they belonged to.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by crich70

The same can be said of any technology I think. There are those who will use it and those who won't. How big a niche market a given technology has depends on many things I would think. How easy it is to use, how good it looks, advertising of the technology, how useful it is in a given environment, etc. All the past advances in print technology were probably thought to be niche markets at one time or another. For example clay tablets were used first as a method of bookkeeping. i.e. how many jars of oil, barley, etc. were on hand, and who they belonged to.

I don't disagree. I only disagree that "the best thing about ebooks" has been missed thus far. I could be wrong, of course. There may be millions just waiting to read/buy multi-media ebooks with an internet-connected browser. But the truth of the matter is: it's not that novel a concept. Someone would already be leveraging it for all it was worth if it were viable.

The future of multi-media ebooks is iOS/Android apps (with offline capabilities). Not browser-based, server-side php/asp that requires full-time connectivity. *shrug*

It sounds lke a fun hobby-project, though. So like I said; I wish them luck with it.