Unable to publish Epub to Google Play due to html issue

ESGrant · 12-14-2023, 12:10 PM

Hello! I am hoping someone can offer me some advice. I am trying to publish my ebook on google play but they are rejecting it due to what seems to be an html issues on two lines in the document. I have checked myself and run an epub checker through amazon and nothing seems to actually be wrong. Does anyone else know about this? I have shared the errors below:

GoogleDoc/TheGoodSamaritan_FINAL_EBook.xhtml:292, 59: Error while parsing file: element "hr" not allowed here; expected the element end-tag, text, element "a", "abbr", "area", "audio", "b", "bdi", "bdo", "br", "button", "canvas", "cite", "code", "data", "datalist", "del", "dfn", "em", "embed", "i", "iframe", "img", "input", "ins", "kbd", "label", "link", "map", "mark", "meta", "meter", "ns1:switch", "ns2:math", "ns3:svg", "object", "output", "picture", "progress", "q", "ruby", "s", "samp", "script", "select", "small", "span", "strong", "sub", "sup", "template", "textarea", "time", "u", "var", "video" or "wbr" (with xmlns:ns1="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops" xmlns:ns2="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:ns3="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg") or an element from another namespace

GoogleDoc/TheGoodSamaritan_FINAL_EBook.xhtml:344, 59: Error while parsing file: element "hr" not allowed here; expected the element end-tag, text, element "a", "abbr", "area", "audio", "b", "bdi", "bdo", "br", "button", "canvas", "cite", "code", "data", "datalist", "del", "dfn", "em", "embed", "i", "iframe", "img", "input", "ins", "kbd", "label", "link", "map", "mark", "meta", "meter", "ns1:switch", "ns2:math", "ns3:svg", "object", "output", "picture", "progress", "q", "ruby", "s", "samp", "script", "select", "small", "span", "strong", "sub", "sup", "template", "textarea", "time", "u", "var", "video" or "wbr" (with xmlns:ns1="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops" xmlns:ns2="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:ns3="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg") or an element from another namespace

Turtle91 · 12-14-2023, 01:38 PM

Welcome to MR!!

It looks like you are putting an <hr/> tag in an incorrect location. It should be all by itself, not embedded inside a <p> or <div> tag.

Code:

Wrong:
<body>

<div>yadda yadda. <hr/></div>

<p>yadda yadda. <hr/></p>

<span>yadda yadda. <hr/></span>

</body>

Correct:
<body>

<div>yadda yadda.</div>

<hr/>

<p>yadda yadda.</p>

<hr/>

</body>

Also, make sure you are properly closing the tag <hr/> not <hr>.

If that doesn’t fix the problem, could you post the section of html that is causing the problem, not just the error code.

Cheers!

nabsltd · 12-14-2023, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Turtle91

It looks like you are putting an <hr/> tag in an incorrect location. It should be all by itself, not embedded inside a <p> or <div> tag.

Although this is likely the issue causing the error message, it's not really an error.

<hr /> can appear where many of the elements listed in the the error can appear, because they are all "flow content":

https://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-html5-...l#flow-content

Google Books seems to be expecting "phrasing content", but there is no explicit rule that says that "flow content" elements cannot appear inside of other "flow content" elements. For example, we all know that div and p can contain other flow content, like blockquote and table.

Essentially, there is nothing special about div and p, according to the HTML standard, and there is no rule that only "phrasing content" can appear within "flow content".

ESGrant · 12-14-2023, 02:47 PM

Thank you both for your responses. I should have mentioned in my original message: I know exactly nothing about html. I have no idea how to access whatever html code is contained within my google doc. Are you able to tell me how to alter the code to resolve this issue?

Jellby · 12-14-2023, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nabsltd

Essentially, there is nothing special about div and p, according to the HTML standard, and there is no rule that only "phrasing content" can appear within "flow content".

That may be true for HTML 5, but there is indeed something special about P in HTML 4.01: https://www.w3.org/TR/html401/struct/text.html#h-9.3.1

"The P element represents a paragraph. It cannot contain block-level elements (including P itself)."

Turtle91 · 12-14-2023, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ESGrant

Thank you both for your responses. I should have mentioned in my original message: I know exactly nothing about html. I have no idea how to access whatever html code is contained within my google doc. Are you able to tell me how to alter the code to resolve this issue?

I would recommend getting a basic understanding of html and css. There are some good tutorials here in the MR wiki. You don’t need to learn how to be a "coder" but a basic understanding will make life much easier.

In the meantime I would recommend installing one of the free ePub editors: Sigil or Calibre - they have their own threads here on MR. Then you can open the ePub with that software and see the different parts and pieces. From there you can search for <hr and see where the problem is.

Edit: I would start looking at lines 292 and 344 in the html file titled: TheGoodSamaritan_FINAL_EBook.xhtml

nabsltd · 12-15-2023, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jellby

That may be true for HTML 5, but there is indeed something special about P in HTML 4.01:

That doesn't matter, because HTML "versions" no longer exist...it's all version 5 now, even if there are changes and new features.

And, the EPUB spec says that specifically:

Quote:

The benefit of this approach for EPUB is that EPUB publications always keep pace with changes to the web without the need for new revisions. EPUB creators, however, must keep track of the various changes to HTML and the technologies it references to ensure they keep their processes up to date.

https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-33/#sec-o...relations-html

Jellby · 12-15-2023, 12:56 PM

If you're stuck with EPUB2, you're stuck with XHTML 1.1 too (or with whatever subset the reading application supports).

Anyway, about HTML 5:

Quote:

Originally Posted by nabsltd

Google Books seems to be expecting "phrasing content", but there is no explicit rule that says that "flow content" elements cannot appear inside of other "flow content" elements.

The p element says (https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipa...he-p-element): "Content model: Phrasing content.", where "Content model" means (https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#concep...ontent-model): "A normative description of what content must be included as children and descendants of the element."

Whereas the div element says (https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipa...-div-element): "Content model: [...] If the element is not a child of a dl element: flow content."

So it seems to me there's still something special about the p element, it can only contain "phrasing content" and not "flow content", as the div element can.

Doitsu · 12-16-2023, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ESGrant

Thank you both for your responses. I should have mentioned in my original message: I know exactly nothing about html. I have no idea how to access whatever html code is contained within my google doc. Are you able to tell me how to alter the code to resolve this issue?

Shameless plug: install my EPUBCheck plugin for Sigil or Calibre and run it. Then click the error messages and post the HTML code, including the line before and after the line with <hr /> or <hr> in it.

Notjohn · 12-28-2023, 07:06 AM

In my experience, Google Play sells so few books that a heroic effort to comply with its rather odd uploading requirements isn't justified by the income a book generates. If it goes smoothly, I don't mind following Google's little rituals, but if it doesn't go smoothly, I forget it and move on.

When Google first began offering e-publication, there was great alarm on the Kindle message board that Google would end Kindle's dominance. Didn't quite work out that way! For me, it ranks down there with Hoopla as a money-maker.

JSWolf · 12-28-2023, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nabsltd

That doesn't matter, because HTML "versions" no longer exist...it's all version 5 now, even if there are changes and new features.

And, the EPUB spec says that specifically:

https://www.w3.org/TR/epub-33/#sec-o...relations-html

But that's pure BS. ePub does not keep up. That would mean all the programs for your computer, phones, Readers, etc. would have to be updated to keep up with the latest HTML spec. That doesn't happen. Look at a lot of programs for iOS and Android. They don't even keep up with the ePub 2 spec nevermind something new.

When you create an eBook, the way to do it is to keep it simple. For example, in CSS for ePub 3, you can use rem instead of em. But don't when em works in so many more cases and it's the same thing.

There are times when you will want to use something that won't work in older software (or some software). So in that case, you use fallbacks where possible. The way to do it (IMHO) is to install ADE 2.0.1 and look at your eBook with that and see how it looks. That way you'll know it's good enough for older software. You don't want your book to fail on older software. Look at Standard EBooks. They use the most convoluted code on eBooks where the formatting is very simple. They problem is that their eBooks fail to display properly a lot of the time. And in the case of older ADE such as on Kobo and Sony Readers, they fail completely. There's no need for this.

So keep the code as simple as possible so it works in most cases. Don't use the latest and greatest code just because the program you are using to view may support it. If you find it works best, create an ePub 2 and convert to ePub 3 for the accessibility. But always make any ePub 3 backwards compatible with ePub 2 and make sure the eBook works well enough (even if not perfect) with ePub 2.

12-14-2023, 12:10 PM	#1
ESGrant Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2023 Device: Iphone	Unable to publish Epub to Google Play due to html issue Hello! I am hoping someone can offer me some advice. I am trying to publish my ebook on google play but they are rejecting it due to what seems to be an html issues on two lines in the document. I have checked myself and run an epub checker through amazon and nothing seems to actually be wrong. Does anyone else know about this? I have shared the errors below: GoogleDoc/TheGoodSamaritan_FINAL_EBook.xhtml:292, 59: Error while parsing file: element "hr" not allowed here; expected the element end-tag, text, element "a", "abbr", "area", "audio", "b", "bdi", "bdo", "br", "button", "canvas", "cite", "code", "data", "datalist", "del", "dfn", "em", "embed", "i", "iframe", "img", "input", "ins", "kbd", "label", "link", "map", "mark", "meta", "meter", "ns1:switch", "ns2:math", "ns3:svg", "object", "output", "picture", "progress", "q", "ruby", "s", "samp", "script", "select", "small", "span", "strong", "sub", "sup", "template", "textarea", "time", "u", "var", "video" or "wbr" (with xmlns:ns1="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops" xmlns:ns2="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:ns3="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg") or an element from another namespace GoogleDoc/TheGoodSamaritan_FINAL_EBook.xhtml:344, 59: Error while parsing file: element "hr" not allowed here; expected the element end-tag, text, element "a", "abbr", "area", "audio", "b", "bdi", "bdo", "br", "button", "canvas", "cite", "code", "data", "datalist", "del", "dfn", "em", "embed", "i", "iframe", "img", "input", "ins", "kbd", "label", "link", "map", "mark", "meta", "meter", "ns1:switch", "ns2:math", "ns3:svg", "object", "output", "picture", "progress", "q", "ruby", "s", "samp", "script", "select", "small", "span", "strong", "sub", "sup", "template", "textarea", "time", "u", "var", "video" or "wbr" (with xmlns:ns1="http://www.idpf.org/2007/ops" xmlns:ns2="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:ns3="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg") or an element from another namespace

12-14-2023, 01:38 PM	#2
Turtle91 A Hairy Wizard Posts: 3,097 Karma: 18727053 Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: Charleston, SC today Device: iPhone 11/X/6/iPad 1,2,Air & Air Pro/Surface Pro/Kindle PW & Fire	Welcome to MR!! It looks like you are putting an <hr/> tag in an incorrect location. It should be all by itself, not embedded inside a <p> or <div> tag. Code: Wrong: <body> <div>yadda yadda. <hr/></div> <p>yadda yadda. <hr/></p> <span>yadda yadda. <hr/></span> </body> Correct: <body> <div>yadda yadda.</div> <hr/> <p>yadda yadda.</p> <hr/> </body> Also, make sure you are properly closing the tag <hr/> not <hr>. If that doesn’t fix the problem, could you post the section of html that is causing the problem, not just the error code. Cheers!

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12-14-2023, 02:47 PM	#4
ESGrant Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2023 Device: Iphone	Thank you both for your responses. I should have mentioned in my original message: I know exactly nothing about html. I have no idea how to access whatever html code is contained within my google doc. Are you able to tell me how to alter the code to resolve this issue?

12-28-2023, 07:06 AM	#10
Notjohn mostly an observer Posts: 1,515 Karma: 987654 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: Kindle	In my experience, Google Play sells so few books that a heroic effort to comply with its rather odd uploading requirements isn't justified by the income a book generates. If it goes smoothly, I don't mind following Google's little rituals, but if it doesn't go smoothly, I forget it and move on. When Google first began offering e-publication, there was great alarm on the Kindle message board that Google would end Kindle's dominance. Didn't quite work out that way! For me, it ranks down there with Hoopla as a money-maker.