Page Map Problems

[seanbob]

I'm new to using Sigil (v0.5.3), which I'm using to correct typos and create nested TOCs in some commercial ePubs that I've purchased and DRM-stripped. But the resulting ePubs will not open in ADE afterwards.

Validating the ePub in Sigil indicates that the page map references in content.opf need to be changed, along with a host of error messages for every XML in the ePub (missing required attribute 'content' and attribute 'value' is not declared for element meta).

I've also noticed that the _page_map_.xml file has had all its data removed, which originally looked like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<page-map xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
  <page name="1" href="titlepage.xml" />
  ...etc...

This behavior even occurs prior to making any edits to the ePub. Opening and saving the file in Sigil gives the same results on multiple eBooks. Although I can remove references to the page map in content.opf to get the ePub working again, I'd prefer to retain the page map information.

What am I doing wrong that is causing Sigil to overwrite the page map XML and cause these errors? And what can I do to work in Sigil and properly retain the page map file when I'm done?

[DaleDe]

I do not believe page-map is supported in Sigil. It is a non-standard Adobe only extension. I think you will need to repair the file after editing in Sigil, using the original as a guide.

Dale

[seanbob]

Thanks for the info, DaleDe!
If true, that's a bit of a bummer, but good to know.

To repair the file afterwards, would I rename the ePub to a zip file, insert the original page-map xml, and then rename it back to an ePub?

I tested that method and it appeared to work (it opened again in ADE), but I don't know if it has any side effects that I should be aware of or if there is a better/easier way to repair it.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by seanbob

Thanks for the info, DaleDe!
If true, that's a bit of a bummer, but good to know.

To repair the file afterwards, would I rename the ePub to a zip file, insert the original page-map xml, and then rename it back to an ePub?

I tested that method and it appeared to work (it opened again in ADE), but I don't know if it has any side effects that I should be aware of or if there is a better/easier way to repair it.

Yes, that will work or 7zip can open the ePub directly and you can fix it. That is what I use when I need to fix an ePub manually. You will need to ensure the map is still valid for the changes you made. Adding fixes to an existing ePub (zip) is better than rebuilding the zip from scratch as there are some special requirements in how an ePub is built.

Dale

Dale