FiC (FLAG iPhone Companion)

ilovejedd · 08-09-2009, 02:38 AM

For people who like to read fanfiction on their iPhones and prefer to do so using Stanza instead of Safari...

FLAG iPhone Companion is a collection of PHP scripts that creates XML feeds compatible with Stanza iPhone/iPod Touch for the FanFiction.Net website. The story retrieval system uses FLAG by erayd. The format of the catalog was heavily patterned on the output of Calibre's Stanza server. The ePUB conversion module (FLAG component) also makes use of the html2epub command-line utility in Calibre (0.5 & earlier).

Download and installation:
There are two files available for download. Please refer to the included readme.txt for further instructions.

ffnet.zip (104KB, md5: dd32671fc93349992f8b2cc8c05098a1) - For those who already have Apache and PHP set-up, this is a zip file containing just the PHP scripts themselves.

Extract the contents of the zip file to an empty folder inside your document root. (e.g. C:\xampp\htdocs\ffnet)
If you didn't extract it to ffnet, edit the settings.ini file and change dir to the folder (relative to document root) where you extracted the files.
Edit catalog.xml to add your favorite categories.

xampplite-fic.exe (19.7MB, md5: 68bb12b6c98f8c9d16908a587883d882) - A ready-made Apache+PHP environment with the FiC scripts included. The php.ini has already been modified to load cURL and Tidy, and the pcre.backtrack.limit has been increased for compatibility with very long chapters. Apache configuration was also modified to enable mod_deflate. Uses XAMPPLite and can be installed on a flash drive.

Extract the archive to the root directory (e.g. C:\, D:\, E:\, etc). Doesn't matter which drive letter, but it has to be in the root directory.
Open \xampplite\xampp-control.exe, and click on the "Start" button for Apache. If you get a message from your firewall, select "Unblock".
Edit catalog.xml (\xampplite\htdocs\ffnet\catalog.xml) to add your favorite categories. You can find the readme.txt in \xampplite\htdocs\ffnet\ for additional information.

Adding the catalog to Stanza:

Go to Online Catalog
Click on the plus (+) sign on the bottom right portion of the screen
Select "Add Stanza Catalog"
Type the Name and select the icon you want to assign
For the URL, use http://your_ip_address/dir/ where your_ip_address is your computer's IP address (to get IP address on XP, click Start >> click Run >> type cmd.exe >> type ipconfig) and dir is the name of the folder where the FiC scripts are located (default for xampplite-fic.exe is ffnet). This only works if you're connected to your local network via wifi, though. For access over the internet, you're going to need to do some research on port forwarding. Getting a DynDNS or similar account would also be useful.

Notes:

Calibre 0.5.14 or earlier must be installed for the script to work. You can download earlier versions here. Remember to restart your computer after installing Calibre so the environment path is updated.
The Apache and PHP settings used are very lax since XAMPP was meant for development. If you plan on making the server available over the internet, I suggest you read up on Apache and PHP hardening. This seems to be a fairly good resource. You can't enable safe mode, though, since that would break scripts that require Calibre. Again, I'm not responsible if something bad happens.
I highly suggest running this under a virtual machine. Not only is that potentially less harmful to your computer, it's also pretty much a requirement if you've already moved to Calibre 0.6.

Please post questions, suggestions and bug reports on this thread. Fair warning, I'm just a PHP beginner. Please be gentle.

Mnementh · 08-09-2009, 01:17 PM

Let me be the first to thank you for your efforts once again ilovejedd.

I'll download both versions and test them this week, I already have xampp set up but I'll be reinstalling Windows this week so will be able to test the full version then.

Again many thanks for all your hard work and props to Erayd for the original version of FLAG.

Achilles · 08-09-2009, 01:33 PM

One word: AMAZING. This set of scripts is everything I was hoping it would be. It works brilliantly. My wife is going to flip out - she reads fanfiction.net practically every night on her iPhone using Safari, but now it'll be like an actual book.

Thank you so much for releasing this ilovejedd!

Now we just have to hope that the Stanza people fix the category search feature... then it'll be perfect.

ilovejedd · 08-09-2009, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Achilles

Now we just have to hope that the Stanza people fix the category search feature...

They didn't exactly break it. It just so happened if the page has ebook downloads, the search button that used to be there pre-Stanza 1.9 got replaced with a "Download All" button. I love the "Download All" feature and I use it a lot on author pages.

Unfortunately, it made filtering searches a pain in the neck.

@Mnementh
I just remembered I used mod_rewrite for the catalog links. If you're installing just the scripts, remember to enable the mod_rewrite module in Apache. Oh, and keep your fflag directory. This release only contains portions of FLAG. It doesn't have the scripts needed for running via command-line.

Mnementh · 08-09-2009, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

@Mnementh
I just remembered I used mod_rewrite for the catalog links. If you're installing just the scripts, remember to enable the mod_rewrite module in Apache. Oh, and keep your fflag directory. This release only contains portions of FLAG. It doesn't have the scripts needed for running via command-line.

Ok thanks for that, I'm gonna have to use the scripts in a VM anyway as I forgot I installed Calibre 0.6 last week. First time I've upgraded Calibre in months as this was the first update that actually had something I needed/wanted.

Just out of interest do you know what's broken/changed in Calibre 0.6 to prevent the scripts from working? I have to admit I haven't kept up with the changelogs as up until recently everything worked, the only reason I've updated is because Calibre can now read prc/pdb files natively.

Mnementh

Edit: Woohoo just noticed this made the frontpage, way to go ilovejedd, should definitely get more people using it now

ilovejedd · 08-09-2009, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mnementh

Just out of interest do you know what's broken/changed in Calibre 0.6 to prevent the scripts from working? I have to admit I haven't kept up with the changelogs as up until recently everything worked, the only reason I've updated is because Calibre can now read prc/pdb files natively.

The scripts call the old command-line utilities (html2epub, any2mobi, etc). Calibre re-factored the ebook conversion to use only a single command line for all formats: ebook-convert

Also, I believe there were some features added to the conversion routines. Until I've tested the new command line utility to work with the settings used by the modified FLAG scripts, I didn't want to upgrade it to the new version. I've also moved my primary Calibre library to 0.6. The virtual machine running FiC, however, remains at 0.5.14 until I can do some testing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mnementh

Edit: Woohoo just noticed this made the frontpage, way to go ilovejedd, should definitely get more people using it now

Whoops. Makes me think I should have added category entries for Harry Potter and Twilight instead of leaving my old entries in there. Those two would probably the most visited.

Hmm, I really should modify the ready-made environment to be at least a little more secure.

erayd · 08-10-2009, 03:01 AM

Wow, thanks for this ilovejedd - serious kudos

.

ilovejedd · 08-10-2009, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by erayd

Wow, thanks for this ilovejedd - serious kudos

.

Hmm, got yourself an iPhone/iPod Touch, then?

A big thanks to you, too. Couldn't have done it if you hadn't made FLAG and shared it with us.

erayd · 08-10-2009, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Hmm, got yourself an iPhone/iPod Touch, then?

I have an iPod Touch, although I don't use it for reading stuff that often - I much prefer the PRS-505 ;-).

Mnementh · 09-11-2009, 03:49 AM

Hi ilovejedd,

I've just got round to trying out your readymade environment in a VM (finally persuaded work to get a VMWare license for me

) I've not been able to before because of running Calibre 6. I've run into a few problems which I'm hoping you might be able to shed some light on.

I've done a completely fresh install using Calibre 5.14 and xampplite-fic.exe. Calibre currently has no books installed and the server is switched off (I have also tried it with the content server running).

I've not modified the catalog.xml yet as I wanted to ensure it was working before playing about with that.

When I try to open the catalog in stanza 1.9 I just timeout every time (I believe this may be down to me needing to find a way of port forwarding from the Host to the Guest OS in VMWare, I may have made a mistake in using NAT for the VMWare network instead of just using Host based networking).

I've also tried connecting to the local server in the VM using Opera and IE8 both instances list the categories in catalog.xml but there are no clickable links, it's literally just a list (ie the title with no story id's to download/convert) . As I don't use RSS/XML feeds I'm not sure if this is normal or if there's a problem?

Any assistance you can render will as usual be gratefully received.

Mnementh

ilovejedd · 09-11-2009, 08:49 AM

It only uses Calibre for ePUB conversion. The only requirement is that the Calibre directory has been added to the environment path which should happen after installing Calibre and a restart.

I'm not sure how Opera and IE8 handles RSS/Atom feeds. Perhaps you can try using Firefox 3.5.2? You should be able to navigate the feed using Firefox.

If working from within the VM, the url should be:
http://localhost/ffnet/ or http://127.0.0.1/ffnet/

No idea how to handle the networking, though. I use "Bridged" mode for mine so the VM gets a separate IP address. I don't think "Host Only" would work. "NAT" would probably do if you can figure out how to do the port forwarding.

Mnementh · 09-11-2009, 08:58 AM

I'll download Firefox and try that (then I will delete it rapidly as I can't stand the program!)

I've borrowed a laptop from work (both mine are currently running linux and I don't really want to mess with them) that needs to be re-imaged so I'm gonna do a fresh install on that to test as well.

If all goes well with the laptop and I'm unable to figure out the VM networking I'll bite the bullet and install WinXP on one of my laptops and serve from that.

Thanks again for your help and I'll let you know how it all goes.

ilovejedd · 09-11-2009, 10:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mnementh

I'll download Firefox and try that (then I will delete it rapidly as I can't stand the program!)

Why not use FirefoxPortable? It's self-contained so it shouldn't mess with any of your settings. It would also be useful for the occasional troubleshooting.

By the way, I've updated ffnet.source.php. I don't have easy access to my webhost FTP (bloody difficult to remember the username), but I do have it on a shared folder on my Dropbox account and that one, I can very easily keep up to date. For those interested, just drop me your Dropbox email/username (via PM or post here) so I can add you to the shared folder.

If you don't already have a Dropbox account, it would help me if you use this referral link.

https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTE2Mjk1OTE5

Mnementh · 09-11-2009, 10:33 AM

I've used your link to create a dropbox account. What do you get for doing that by the way?

I've never considered using firefox portable I just really don't like firefox so the thought never even crossed my mind but you're right it would be useful for troubleshooting.

I'll pm you my dropbox email so you can add me to the shared folder please, that would be really usefull.

I've managed to get everything working perfectly on the laptop from work, haven't bothered playing around with the VM yet though I will at some point.

I'm especially liking the "other titles by this author" and "download to calibre" links. More karma is definitely on the way for this

Edit: Bah still won't let me give you any Karma... /me goes to look for information on why...

ilovejedd · 09-11-2009, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mnementh

I've used your link to create a dropbox account. What do you get for doing that by the way?

250MB of additional storage for every referral, up to a maximum of 3GB.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mnementh

I'm especially liking the "other titles by this author" and "download to calibre" links. More karma is definitely on the way for this

Glad you like it.

I love the author link, too. With Stanza's new "Download All" feature, it makes it easy to get all the works of favorite authors.

I can't recall the exact behavior of the "Download to Calibre" link. I'm not sure if it creates a new library or adds the books to your existing library. I rather think it's the former, though.

08-09-2009, 02:38 AM	#1
ilovejedd hopeless n00b Posts: 5,111 Karma: 19597086 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: in the middle of nowhere Device: PW4, PW3, Libra H2O, iPad 10.5, iPad 11, iPad 12.9	FiC (FLAG iPhone Companion) For people who like to read fanfiction on their iPhones and prefer to do so using Stanza instead of Safari... FLAG iPhone Companion is a collection of PHP scripts that creates XML feeds compatible with Stanza iPhone/iPod Touch for the FanFiction.Net website. The story retrieval system uses FLAG by erayd. The format of the catalog was heavily patterned on the output of Calibre's Stanza server. The ePUB conversion module (FLAG component) also makes use of the html2epub command-line utility in Calibre (0.5 & earlier). Download and installation: There are two files available for download. Please refer to the included readme.txt for further instructions. ffnet.zip (104KB, md5: dd32671fc93349992f8b2cc8c05098a1) - For those who already have Apache and PHP set-up, this is a zip file containing just the PHP scripts themselves. Extract the contents of the zip file to an empty folder inside your document root. (e.g. C:\xampp\htdocs\ffnet) If you didn't extract it to ffnet, edit the settings.ini file and change dir to the folder (relative to document root) where you extracted the files. Edit catalog.xml to add your favorite categories. xampplite-fic.exe (19.7MB, md5: 68bb12b6c98f8c9d16908a587883d882) - A ready-made Apache+PHP environment with the FiC scripts included. The php.ini has already been modified to load cURL and Tidy, and the pcre.backtrack.limit has been increased for compatibility with very long chapters. Apache configuration was also modified to enable mod_deflate. Uses XAMPPLite and can be installed on a flash drive. Extract the archive to the root directory (e.g. C:\, D:\, E:\, etc). Doesn't matter which drive letter, but it has to be in the root directory. Open \xampplite\xampp-control.exe, and click on the "Start" button for Apache. If you get a message from your firewall, select "Unblock". Edit catalog.xml (\xampplite\htdocs\ffnet\catalog.xml) to add your favorite categories. You can find the readme.txt in \xampplite\htdocs\ffnet\ for additional information. Adding the catalog to Stanza: Go to Online Catalog Click on the plus (+) sign on the bottom right portion of the screen Select "Add Stanza Catalog" Type the Name and select the icon you want to assign For the URL, use http://your_ip_address/dir/ where your_ip_address is your computer's IP address (to get IP address on XP, click Start >> click Run >> type cmd.exe >> type ipconfig) and dir is the name of the folder where the FiC scripts are located (default for xampplite-fic.exe is ffnet). This only works if you're connected to your local network via wifi, though. For access over the internet, you're going to need to do some research on port forwarding. Getting a DynDNS or similar account would also be useful. Notes: Calibre 0.5.14 or earlier must be installed for the script to work. You can download earlier versions here. Remember to restart your computer after installing Calibre so the environment path is updated. The Apache and PHP settings used are very lax since XAMPP was meant for development. If you plan on making the server available over the internet, I suggest you read up on Apache and PHP hardening. This seems to be a fairly good resource. You can't enable safe mode, though, since that would break scripts that require Calibre. Again, I'm not responsible if something bad happens. I highly suggest running this under a virtual machine. Not only is that potentially less harmful to your computer, it's also pretty much a requirement if you've already moved to Calibre 0.6. Please post questions, suggestions and bug reports on this thread. Fair warning, I'm just a PHP beginner. Please be gentle.

09-11-2009, 10:33 AM	#14
Mnementh Groupie Posts: 184 Karma: 3633418 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo Libra	I've used your link to create a dropbox account. What do you get for doing that by the way? I've never considered using firefox portable I just really don't like firefox so the thought never even crossed my mind but you're right it would be useful for troubleshooting. I'll pm you my dropbox email so you can add me to the shared folder please, that would be really usefull. I've managed to get everything working perfectly on the laptop from work, haven't bothered playing around with the VM yet though I will at some point. I'm especially liking the "other titles by this author" and "download to calibre" links. More karma is definitely on the way for this Edit: Bah still won't let me give you any Karma... /me goes to look for information on why... Last edited by Mnementh; 09-11-2009 at 10:36 AM.

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08-09-2009, 01:17 PM	#2
Mnementh Groupie Posts: 184 Karma: 3633418 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo Libra	Let me be the first to thank you for your efforts once again ilovejedd. I'll download both versions and test them this week, I already have xampp set up but I'll be reinstalling Windows this week so will be able to test the full version then. Again many thanks for all your hard work and props to Erayd for the original version of FLAG.

08-09-2009, 01:33 PM	#3
Achilles Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 32 Join Date: Aug 2009 Device: Kindle 2	One word: AMAZING. This set of scripts is everything I was hoping it would be. It works brilliantly. My wife is going to flip out - she reads fanfiction.net practically every night on her iPhone using Safari, but now it'll be like an actual book. Thank you so much for releasing this ilovejedd! Now we just have to hope that the Stanza people fix the category search feature... then it'll be perfect.

08-10-2009, 03:01 AM	#7
erayd Zealot Posts: 134 Karma: 146 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Onyx Boox Poke 2	Wow, thanks for this ilovejedd - serious kudos .

09-11-2009, 03:49 AM	#10
Mnementh Groupie Posts: 184 Karma: 3633418 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo Libra	Hi ilovejedd, I've just got round to trying out your readymade environment in a VM (finally persuaded work to get a VMWare license for me ) I've not been able to before because of running Calibre 6. I've run into a few problems which I'm hoping you might be able to shed some light on. I've done a completely fresh install using Calibre 5.14 and xampplite-fic.exe. Calibre currently has no books installed and the server is switched off (I have also tried it with the content server running). I've not modified the catalog.xml yet as I wanted to ensure it was working before playing about with that. When I try to open the catalog in stanza 1.9 I just timeout every time (I believe this may be down to me needing to find a way of port forwarding from the Host to the Guest OS in VMWare, I may have made a mistake in using NAT for the VMWare network instead of just using Host based networking). I've also tried connecting to the local server in the VM using Opera and IE8 both instances list the categories in catalog.xml but there are no clickable links, it's literally just a list (ie the title with no story id's to download/convert) . As I don't use RSS/XML feeds I'm not sure if this is normal or if there's a problem? Any assistance you can render will as usual be gratefully received. Mnementh

09-11-2009, 08:49 AM	#11
ilovejedd hopeless n00b Posts: 5,111 Karma: 19597086 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: in the middle of nowhere Device: PW4, PW3, Libra H2O, iPad 10.5, iPad 11, iPad 12.9	It only uses Calibre for ePUB conversion. The only requirement is that the Calibre directory has been added to the environment path which should happen after installing Calibre and a restart. I'm not sure how Opera and IE8 handles RSS/Atom feeds. Perhaps you can try using Firefox 3.5.2? You should be able to navigate the feed using Firefox. If working from within the VM, the url should be: http://localhost/ffnet/ or http://127.0.0.1/ffnet/ No idea how to handle the networking, though. I use "Bridged" mode for mine so the VM gets a separate IP address. I don't think "Host Only" would work. "NAT" would probably do if you can figure out how to do the port forwarding.

09-11-2009, 08:58 AM	#12
Mnementh Groupie Posts: 184 Karma: 3633418 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: UK Device: Kobo Libra	I'll download Firefox and try that (then I will delete it rapidly as I can't stand the program!) I've borrowed a laptop from work (both mine are currently running linux and I don't really want to mess with them) that needs to be re-imaged so I'm gonna do a fresh install on that to test as well. If all goes well with the laptop and I'm unable to figure out the VM networking I'll bite the bullet and install WinXP on one of my laptops and serve from that. Thanks again for your help and I'll let you know how it all goes.

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