Sigil unable to open a file

[Andjety]

Hello

I use sigil on a regular basis (please excuse my tourist english), weekly). I am editing very oft my documents, because i use it for teaching.

It happens always, that sigil is unable to open a file, and then i'm stuck and perplexed.

How do i fixe it: i open the file with calibre; do a html cleaning, save it under another name, and this file i can open with sigil (and give him his previous name).

I have no idea why, but i guess it is a bug, so i tell you, so you know it.
I am happy to be abble to save my work with that trick, but it is quite annoying (i have have such an amount of backupfile...)

I could use calibre to edite my file, but i'm not happy with html editing.

I would be glade to help if you have question about detail.
This is the last version of sigil, the ubuntu build found here in this forum. (a repository would be great).

Thank you again for this software, and ciao.

[DiapDealer]

Without a sample epub (no copyrighted material please) that exhibits the behavior, it's going to be pretty hard to diagnose.

Also, "unable to open a file" is not a very helpful description. What exactly is happening? Is there an error message? Does Sigil crash? We need details.

[Notjohn]

Are you trying to open a Word document?

[Andjety]

Sorry for this late answer, i'm not receiving notification.

Without a sample epub (no copyrighted material please) that exhibits the behavior, it's going to be pretty hard to diagnose.

Also, "unable to open a file" is not a very helpful description. What exactly is happening? Is there an error message? Does Sigil crash? We need details.

Sigil says:
Sigil indique un message d'erreur:

Impossible d'ouvrir le fichier EPUB: /media/oz/GROSSOMODO/fr/2/S2/epub/caput/Sequence2-EB.epub

Then it opens a new blank document

I would be happy to send you one example file, which does exactly that (it is my own document, and i have a good collection of this brokens documents), but i would prefere it not appearing publicly (being not so proud of it, and this document being not destined to be read actually, but used in classrooom). How can ii send it to you?

Are you trying to open a Word document?

I'm not that noob^^ .

It is an epub file, wroten with sigil. May be it is worth saying, i'm editing it with linux at home, and opening it at work with calibre in macintosh, where the calibre version are not allways uptodate (but i never edite is with calibre at work).

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Andjety

I would be happy to send you one example file, which does exactly that (it is my own document, and i have a good collection of this brokens documents), but i would prefere it not appearing publicly (being not so proud of it, and this document being not destined to be read actually, but used in classrooom). How can ii send it to you?

The best way is to upload it somewhere safe and then Private Message me a link that I can use to download it.

I'm curious though ... you say the epubs in question were created with Sigil. Yet then you say you can't open them with Sigil. Since Sigil is incapable of creating/saving an epub it can't itself open, what changes/edits are making to the epubs outside of Sigil that makes the issue manifest itself?

Never mind ... I missed the part where you were editing with calibre. While calibre has a fine editor, it is not a good idea to go back and forth between it and Sigil when editing an epub (especially if you use the cleaning/prettying features of calbre's editor). If you're going to use the tidying/fixing/cleaning features of either program, you should probably stick with one program or the other at some point. Or at least work in one direction only: create with Sigil, edit with calibre thereafter (don't go back to Sigil).

Having said that, I don't know of a reason why a calibre-saved/edited epub would be unopenable using Sigil--provided you have clean-source enabled in the preferences so Sigil can enforce the structure it requires.

Bottom line is: if you're going to edit the same epub with Sigil AND calibre, you're going to need to be very careful--and extremely particular--about how you do it.

[Andjety]

That is what i wonder too. I'm not editing the file with another program. I am only opening it with calibre, and the ebook reader within in, in a macintosh, and when i come back home i am unable to open it.

I'm uploading it to owncloud now, and will send you a private message.

[Andjety]

And i have to add: it is not happening everytime i do that. It is happening sometimes (oft enough that it is annoying me).

[theducks]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The best way is to upload it somewhere safe and then Private Message me a link that I can use to download it.

I'm curious though ... you say the epubs in question were created with Sigil. Yet then you say you can't open them with Sigil. Since Sigil is incapable of creating/saving an epub it can't itself open, what changes/edits are making to the epubs outside of Sigil that makes the issue manifest itself?

I wonder if this is a OS filenaming (character set?) related bug. There are 2 OS (neither Windows) involved

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by theducks

I wonder if this is a OS filenaming (character set?) related bug. There are 2 OS (neither Windows) involved

Possible. But if all the OP is doing is viewing the epub with calibre, there shouldn't be any changes to any file names. The only change to the epub should be the calibre bookmark addition to the OPF (if bookmarks aren't disabled), and that shouldn't render the epub unopenable with Sigil to my knowledge.

[Andjety]

Never mind ... I missed the part where you were editing with calibre. While calibre has a fine editor, it is not a good idea to go back and forth between it and Sigil when editing an epub (especially if you use the cleaning/prettying features of calbre's editor). If you're going to use the tidying/fixing/cleaning features of either program, you should probably stick with one program or the other at some point. Or at least work in one direction only: create with Sigil, edit with calibre thereafter (don't go back to Sigil).

No, no, i must insiste. I was only using sigil. I used calibre to edit the file, only because i had no way to open it (so it saved my day that i could open it with calibre's editor)

I would stick only with sigil if there were not this bug, and would only use calibre to read it (not to edit). Anyway, i have sent the file to you.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Andjety

Anyway, i have sent the file to you.

I'm afraid that epub file is quite a bit larger than I'm prepared to download. Any chance you have an example that's much, much ... much smaller than 310Mb?

[Andjety]

I have one like 156?

[DiapDealer]

You never have normal-sized epubs where this problem arises?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Andjety

May be it is worth saying, i'm editing it with linux at home, and opening it at work with calibre in macintosh, where the calibre version are not allways uptodate (but i never edite is with calibre at work)

No, no, i must insiste. I was only using sigil. I used calibre to edit the file, only because i had no way to open it (so it saved my day that i could open it with calibre's editor)

I would stick only with sigil if there were not this bug, and would only use calibre to read it (not to edit).

Let me ask this, then. If you're NOT editing the file when you take it to work (and view it with calibre on a Mac), why are you bringing that unedited copy of the epub back home in the first place? Why not just stick with editing the original at home?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Andjety

I have one like 156?

I'm afraid going to have to bow out of this one. I'm not certain what you've created, but it's not even a remotely valid epub--by any stretch of the epub specs. There's pdfs in the Misc folder (there's another entire EPUB in the Misc folder!!); it has links to those pdfs in the xhtml, and videos with incorrect mimetypes.

It can't really be considered a Sigil bug when you're attempting to create an epub that's utterly non-typical and non-compliant. Sigil is built around the idea of keeping an epub as compliant as possible. It also appears the epub was last edited with v0.7.4 of Sigil. 0.8.2 is the latest version.

I wish you luck, though, and I hope this project is purely for your personal use and not for public consumption.