ePub Zip/Unzip AppleScript application for Mac OS X

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I just tried it it. The 3.0 64-bit version works on Catalina.

After downloading, make sure it will launch by double-clicking the icon. You may have to option-right-click-open it, since it's not signed by a known developer. once it'll launch OK, quit, and drag an epub onto it. It will ask for more permissions, to do with the Finder.

Once all permission have been given, it should just work as normal.

Jon writes:

Most likely it's a 32-bit program and will not run on a 64-bit only MacOS.

Apparently there is a 64 bit version, so it's some other issue?

[KevinH]

The 64 bit version works just fine for me on Monterey. No problems at all once permissions are given.

[bsilvamm]

Hi,
This app isn't working for me. I've Macos Ventura. Basically it doensn't do anything when dragging a book from ibooks. Any idea?

[KevinH]

Works for me. Did you read this post written by its author and perform those steps?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=130

[pdurrant]

added the info to the first post.

[phillipgessert]

I’m admittedly a little fuzzy on this, but aren’t ebooks dragged from Books not the actual epub, but rather some sort of package that happens to have the exact filename as the epub?

Edit: Yes, just confirmed that an "epub" dragged from Books to Desktop is a package that you can navigate into using Terminal, and what's inside is essentially already an unzipped epub. So likely the application doesn't know what to do with it, since it's not an actual zipped epub.

[bsilvamm]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Works for me. Did you read this post written by its author and perform those steps?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...&postcount=130

I've started with this steps, but nothing...
Should I drag it directly from iBooks or for Finder first?

If I drag it directly it only save on Finder...

If I save in Finder and afterwards drag it in the app it asks me if I want to replace and then returns the following error:
"sh: line 0: cd: /Users/bruno/Downloads/Ponha o Seu Dinheiro a Trabalhar para Si.epub/: No such file or directory"

If I add the book to calibre continues to return errors...

Thanks for the help.

[KevinH]

Move this App to your Desktop first. Then once there, double click on it to set permissions to use.

If you then drag an unzipped epub folder from your Desktop to it, it will create the zipped up epub on the Desktop.

As for iBooks, if these are purchased books from the Apple store they will have DRM and can not be edited or viewed in calibre or anyplace else.

[bsilvamm]

Originally Posted by KevinH

Move this App to your Desktop first. Then once there, double click on it to set permissions to use.

If you then drag an unzipped epub folder from your Desktop to it, it will create the zipped up epub on the Desktop.

As for iBooks, if these are purchased books from the Apple store they will have DRM and can not be edited or viewed in calibre or anyplace else.

Ok! Thanks. I thought it was possible to do it in purchased ebook in Apple. I will try other solution then...

[KevinH]

You can zip up a iBooks epub folder even for drm books with this App, You can store/manage that book in your calibre database. You just will not be able to edit or view the book in any other ereader than Books due to the drm.

[eroux]

On iPadOS 16 Apple's "Books" app is a somewhat... suboptimal?... experience.

I have decided to get all of my books out of it, which of couse means I wasn't keen to drag-'n-drop more than a thousand times. So I have taken pdurrant's Apple script and extracted the commands into the following Shell Script, which I called ePubFolder2File and saved into my path:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

main_loop()
{
    opts=':';
    while getopts ${opts} opt; do
        case "${opt}" in
            [?]|*)
                echo "usage: $(basename "$0") EPUB_FOLDER" >&2
                exit 1;
            ;;
        esac
    done
    shift $((OPTIND - 1));

    while [[ "$1" != "" ]]; do
        build_epub "${1}"
        shift;
    done
}

build_epub ()
{
    local source_folder="$1"
    local dest_file
    local current_dir=$(pwd)

    dest_file="$(basename "${source_folder%.epub}").epub"

    if [[ $(dirname "${source_folder}") == "." ]] && [[ "${source_folder}" != "${source_folder%.epub}" ]]; then
        source_folder="${source_folder%.epub}"
        mv "${source_folder}.epub" "${source_folder}"
    fi

    cd "${source_folder}" || exit 1
    zip --quiet -X0 "${current_dir}/${dest_file}" mimetype
    zip --quiet -rDX9 "${current_dir}/${dest_file}" * -x "*.DS_Store" -x mimetype
}

main_loop "$@"

I used it like follows from my shell to get all of my ePubs into a sane format:

$ find "/Users/eroux/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents" -type d -name \*.epub | 
    while read epubdir; do 
        if [[ ! -f  $(basename "$epubdir") ]]; then 
            echo "Processing $(basename $epubdir)"; 
            ePubFolder2File "$epubdir"; 
        fi;
    done

It took a couple of minutes, but now I can move them to a new reader.

[Nilswille]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

added the info to the first post.

Thanks a ton for making this utility!

Is there any chance to make this Apple silicon native? Or point me in a direction on how to extract the AppleScript and use them on an Apple Silicon Mac to use without Rosetta2 emulation?

[KevinH]

It is an AppleScript and therefore interpreted. It should not need Rosetta2 emulation. Maybe something "compiles" or "jit compiled" it somehow. If so just run from the original script.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Nilswille

Thanks a ton for making this utility!

Is there any chance to make this Apple silicon native? Or point me in a direction on how to extract the AppleScript and use them on an Apple Silicon Mac to use without Rosetta2 emulation?

You extract the AppleScript just by opening the application with the Script Editor application, which should be somewhere in your Applications folder, possibly inside a Utilities folder.

[Nilswille]

Originally Posted by KevinH

It is an AppleScript and therefore interpreted. It should not need Rosetta2 emulation. Maybe something "compiles" or "jit compiled" it somehow. If so just run from the original script.

Thanks for your quick reply. Much appreciated…