Getting started, but how?

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by SkookumPete

Thanks for the tip about the CSS.

The endnote thing is very strange. I finally put all my HTML files into one huge file and brought that into Sigil. Notes worked fine. Then I had Sigil split it into chapters. Notes still work in Sigil and in the browser when I unzip the epub, but not in Azardi or a couple of readers I've tried on Android.

Worse, if I try different things like stripping the "../Text/" from the URLs, Sigil helpfully reverts all my changes when I reload the epub.

Epubcheck detects no problems.

Skook:

Howdy; nice to see you in civilized surroundings. You can't "strip" the "../Text" from the URL's; you're not grasping the structure. Look at the left-hand side of Sigil. See how things are organized? Text, Images, Styles? Those are, in reality, when you build the ePUB, sub-folders (sub-directories). If you attempt to strip the foldername, it shan't work at all.

Which Droid Readers? We've had issues with some of them, but not quite like this. If you send the file to a friend, to open in his/her browser, do the footnotes work there? I'm wondering if your paths are bollixed, and they work on your computer only? I haven't thought that all the way through yet, but it seems somehow the only thing that leaps to mind....

Hitch

[DiapDealer]

Notes still work in Sigil and in the browser when I unzip the epub, but not in Azardi or a couple of readers I've tried on Android.

Azardi seems to have some special requirements when it comes to zip structure and css. It has trouble properly displaying many a perfectly compliant ePub... not just those built with Sigil.

[SkookumPete]

Hitch,

I do grasp the concept of relative paths. "../Text/foo.html" is equivalent to "foo.html" in a link to another file in the same folder.

I've tried three or four Droid readers, including Cool Reader and Aldiko.

Also loaded a working third-party epub into Sigil, saved, and the links no longer work in readers outside Sigil, with the exception of Adobe Digital Editions on Win7.

Will investigate further.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by SkookumPete

Hitch,

I do grasp the concept of relative paths. "../Text/foo.html" is equivalent to "foo.html" in a link to another file in the same folder.

I've tried three or four Droid readers, including Cool Reader and Aldiko.

Also loaded a working third-party epub into Sigil, saved, and the links no longer work in readers outside Sigil, with the exception of Adobe Digital Editions on Win7.

Will investigate further.

Didn't say you didn't, but it's an odd problem, and from what you've said, we don't have a lot of the parameters--so I'm guessing. All we know is that literally all of your epubs--both yours and apparently others'--are not working after you load them to and save them in Sigil. That hasn't been my experience, nor, generally, the experience of others here, so I'm very curious as to what the issue is.

Let me ask you this: If you DL Jellby's Prince and Pauper ePUB from here in MR, open it, save and close it on your computer, do the links still work in ADE (Adobe Digital Editions)?

Hitch

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Didn't say you didn't, but it's an odd problem, and from what you've said, we don't have a lot of the parameters--so I'm guessing. All we know is that literally all of your epubs--both yours and apparently others'--are not working after you load them to and save them in Sigil. That hasn't been my experience, nor, generally, the experience of others here, so I'm very curious as to what the issue is.

Let me ask you this: If you DL Jellby's Prince and Pauper ePUB from here in MR, open it, save and close it on your computer, do the links still work in ADE (Adobe Digital Editions)?

Hitch

What we know is Sigil will move the files around and create the directory structure consistently. Since ADE works fine with this we can expect that there is not a problem with the ePub but the OP may be using reading programs that do not support directory structures in the ePub. If it works in ADE and passes ePub check then it should work anywhere. If it does not then the reader is likely at fault.

Dale

[SkookumPete]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Didn't say you didn't

Well, you did, but never mind. ;-) I was attempting to find out whether Sigil's insistence on putting in the longer path was confusing certain epub-readers.

Results with The Prince and the Pauper:

Adobe Digital Editions enables internal links in both versions (and in the last build of my own project).

Azardi enables them in the original, but not in the Sigil-saved version.

Cool Reader (Android) doesn't enable them in either version.

Aldiko (Android) enables them in both versions (and in my own project).

My Library (Android system app) doesn't enable them in either version.

So it does appear that this is a reader-specific issue.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by SkookumPete

Well, you did, but never mind. ;-) I was attempting to find out whether Sigil's insistence on putting in the longer path was confusing certain epub-readers.

Results with The Prince and the Pauper:

Adobe Digital Editions enables internal links in both versions (and in the last build of my own project).

Azardi enables them in the original, but not in the Sigil-saved version.

Cool Reader (Android) doesn't enable them in either version.

Aldiko (Android) enables them in both versions (and in my own project).

My Library (Android system app) doesn't enable them in either version.

So it does appear that this is a reader-specific issue.

Skook:

No--I naturally inquired when you said that you'd tried removing "../Text/" from the paths. You didn't explain that you had then moved everything around, put it all in the same folder, and rezipped the pub using zip or ePUBpack--so, yes, I asked and/or commented. Since it seems to have gotten up your nose, I apologize.

I'm glad it seems to have come down to the device/reader. I knew we'd had some issues with some Droid readers, but honestly, it's such a rare occurrence, I don't remember which.

My latest is a client who emailed in a state of high dudgeon, wanting to know "when are [we] putting the italics back in?," because he'd opened the ePUB in Calibre, and the italics were gone. {sigh}.

Hitch

[SkookumPete]

Originally Posted by Hitch

No--I naturally inquired when you said that you'd tried removing "../Text/" from the paths. You didn't explain that you had then moved everything around, put it all in the same folder, and rezipped the pub using zip or ePUBpack--so, yes, I asked and/or commented. Since it seems to have gotten up your nose, I apologize.Hitch

I didn't do any of that. I was just trying to simplify the path names in Sigil to see if that would make a difference, but it wouldn't let me. It's not a matter of moving anything around. All the HTML files are and were in the same folder: the Text folder. That being the case, the long path is not necessary in cross-references ("../Text/foo.htm#anchor", "./foo.htm#anchor", and "foo.htm#anchor" should all work).

[DiapDealer]

and I still think it may be this that is breaking the experience on some readers.

You're exactly right. It is.

The problem is it shouldn't be breaking the experience. Even though the long path might be technically unnecessary... it's still a perfectly valid relative link/path. And reading systems shouldn't be choking on perfectly valid paths.

[SkookumPete]

Sorry, I just edited out the bit you quoted. In fact I've done a little more experimentation, and substituting a short path (editing outside of Sigil) doesn't seem to fix the problem.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by SkookumPete

I didn't do any of that. I was just trying to simplify the path names in Sigil to see if that would make a difference, but it wouldn't let me. It's not a matter of moving anything around. All the HTML files are and were in the same folder: the Text folder. That being the case, the long path is not necessary in cross-references ("../Text/foo.htm#anchor", "./foo.htm#anchor", and "foo.htm#anchor" should all work).

Ah. All the text files. Sorry, my brain was just thinking more about ncx and OPF, not inter-text files like footnotes. Mea culpa.

This is a very odd problem, indeed. As Diap says, these shouldn't be breaking, regardless. I assume that they're two-way links? I wonder if the jump BACK is somehow breaking the ePUB? What's your BACK coding? (Yes, this is grasping at straws, but the rest doesn't seem to make sense).

Hitch

[SkookumPete]

I've posted the project, for better or worse, at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=181221

[SkookumPete]

Footnote reference:

<a class="ref" href="../Text/Notes4.xhtml#noteC4_3" id="refC4_3">3</a>

Footnote target:

<a class="ref" href="../Text/Chapter4.xhtml#refC4_3" id="noteC4_3">3</a>

But remember it's not just my syntax that's affected, since a couple of other epubs I've tested have also failed to be rendered properly in some readers.

Update: I've tested several more free readers in Android; some of them handle the internal links in my project, some don't. Among those that do are FB Reader and Mantano. The Asus MyLibrary reader does not.