Does Apple iBooks support nested TOC.ncx?

[st_albert]

We recently submitted an epub to the Apple iBookstore, and not surprisingly it was "returned for re-grooving."

The stated reason for rejection was

- There are no Table of Contents entries passed Chapter Six. Please inclulde the rest of the Chapters in the Table of Contents. Thank you.

However, the interesting thing is that the epub DOES have a complete Table of Contents. All of the chapter entries are displayed properly in ADE, Calibre's ebook-viewer, and the Firefox epub add-in. The book passes epubcheck 1.2 as well as Flight Crew.

However, the TOC is a 2-level nested structure. And, coincidentally the first six chapters mentioned in the quote are all sub-entries under the first main entry.

So, does anyone know whether for some reason iBooks will not support nested TOCs, or has our friend from Cupertino been smokin' some more of them funny cigarettes?

BTW I searched MR and consulted Elizabeth Castro's book but found nothing relevant.

Thanks in advance!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by st_albert

We recently submitted an epub to the Apple iBookstore, and not surprisingly it was "returned for re-grooving."

The stated reason for rejection was



However, the interesting thing is that the epub DOES have a complete Table of Contents. All of the chapter entries are displayed properly in ADE, Calibre's ebook-viewer, and the Firefox epub add-in. The book passes epubcheck 1.2 as well as Flight Crew.

However, the TOC is a 2-level nested structure. And, coincidentally the first six chapters mentioned in the quote are all sub-entries under the first main entry.

So, does anyone know whether for some reason iBooks will not support nested TOCs, or has our friend from Cupertino been smokin' some more of them funny cigarettes?

BTW I searched MR and consulted Elizabeth Castro's book but found nothing relevant.

Thanks in advance!

Who is the lame one at Apple that wrote that message?
It is Past chapter Six so the EPUB gets PASSED.

[st_albert]

Originally Posted by theducks

Who is the lame one at Apple that wrote that message?
It is Past chapter Six so the EPUB gets PASSED.

Ouch!

[eping]

I think the other chapters and first six ones being not at the same level or in different parent(except in Part I, Part II) is confusing, not good design.
(There are too much such bad examples in books from gutenberg.org)

iBooks doesn't support tree node control like ADE, all nodes are listed expanded, different levels being expressed with indent. So heavy nested TOC will be shown as a large list.

Further more, long TOC list and complex TOC tree will make it difficult for users to browse on iPad and other eReaders.
A simple TOC list within 30 items is better, if necessary, a simple two level TOC tree is enough.

BTW, this is also the reason why ePub Maker still doesn't support TOC tree.

[st_albert]

Well, the book in question had only a 2-level TOC (divided into four Acts, with several chapters in each Act). That shouldn't be too complex even for an Apple tech.

Nevertheless, I guess we'll just flatten it and re-submit.

Thanks for your input!

[DaleDe]

The iBook reader certainly support multi-level TOC. I side loaded one with the entire old testament Bible and it worked just fine.