Apple Validation Error

[rrosenwald]

I recently sent an ePub file generated by Calibre to be validated by Apple to meet the requirements for the iPad and it failed.

Failed
Info for: Desert Run - Betty Webb.epub
Title: Desert Run (Lena Jones Mysteries)
Unmanifested File: META-INF/calibre_bookmarks.txt

I don't know what this means.

[WillAdams]

I believe that they're complaining of the file calibre_bookmarks.txt in a sub-folder META-INF _not_ being included in the manifest (list of files) for the .epub.

Unzip it, delete that file and re-zip

or

Unzip it, find the manifest, add that file to the list, re-zip

William

(Neat that you like OS/2! I was very fond of it, and found that the machines which I sold w/ it back when I worked in a computer shop needed very little in the way of support 'cause of the clean-ness and consistency of the interface --- wish I could find a copy of OS/2 for Pens)

[kovidgoyal]

When you view an EPUB file using calibre's viewer it will insert that file into the EPUB. Apparently, the good folks at Apple have even less of a clue as to how to validate EPUB files, so they complain about it. If you want to use the calibre viewer to check your EPUB files before submission, I suggest doing it on a copy of the EPUB.

[rrosenwald]

Thank you all for the feedback. I deleted the file calibre_bookmarks.txt and have resubmitted it to make sure it passes Apple validation for the iPad. I'll post results here when I get them.

Is this the appropriate forum to discuss how I am using Calibre to see if others have ideas of how to better use it or make suggestions to me to improve my work flow?

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by rrosenwald

Is this the appropriate forum to discuss how I am using Calibre to see if others have ideas of how to better use it or make suggestions to me to improve my work flow?

Yes..

[WillAdams]

Is it explicitly allowed in the .epub specification that files which are not listed in the manifest are to be allowed?

If not, I can understand why a vendor which will be ultimately providing _billions_ of file downloads would want to dis-allow any extra bits.

William

[kovidgoyal]

Quoting from the OCF spec

"The semantics of the following files that MAY be present at the “META-INF/” level are specified. All other files found at the “META-INF/” level MUST be ignored by conformant OCF Reading Systems."

[WillAdams]

Interesting. I take it the allowance of un-manifested files was intended to facilitate things like Calibre's bookmarks? Why wasn't a general mechanism which wouldn't be reader-program-specific worked out?

The possibilities for tracking files as they move around networks has possible privacy implications, no?

At the very least, won't a file get ever larger as it's moved around, opened in different programs, each one adding its own bookmarks file?

William

[kovidgoyal]

Who knows, I have no involvement with the EPUB standards process. EPUB lacks standards for things like annotations/bookmarks/dictionaries. It really needs some work, but I have absolutely no patience for convincing standards bodies, so ...

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by WillAdams

Interesting. I take it the allowance of un-manifested files was intended to facilitate things like Calibre's bookmarks? Why wasn't a general mechanism which wouldn't be reader-program-specific worked out?

Isn't that what allowing un-manifested files does? It's about as flexible as one can imagine. Put any extra file you want in there and it gets ignored.

The possibilities for tracking files as they move around networks has possible privacy implications, no?

Yes. But at least the files are obvious. You could easily hide data in manifested files so allowing un-manifested files wouldn't seem to increase the privacy problem.

At the very least, won't a file get ever larger as it's moved around, opened in different programs, each one adding its own bookmarks file?

Yes. Would you rather prohibit adding bookmarks? I like being able to share bookmarks.

[Tamazon]

Hi rrosenwald,

Can you tell us what service you used to submit your ePub to Apple?

I've tried through LuLu.com.

My files Validate fine through the net validators...but Apple is failing my ePub for validation problems...but LuLu just says to purchase their service and doesn't give the validation error messages to me.

It's great that you were able to get the error information direct so you could update your files. LuLu looks like they are trying to push people to purchase a product instead of giving them the error messages.

I'm sure what ever the problem is it's a simple fix...they just want to charge for a fix I can do myself.

Best!

[rrosenwald]

We are working with Ingram Digital Content and they ran the file through a validator. I will try to find out how that error message was generated and where it came from and report back.

BTW, I see I failed to report back that WillAdams had the right solution to my original problem. The file validated perfectly after removing the calibre_bookmarks.txt

[Mike2753]

Hi,

Yes I also do got in the same situation for 3-4 times. It is really a big pain to go through the Apple's validator process, as they get back with unmanifested file issues and at that point of time, other than resolving the issue manually there is no other way, which is quite time consuming process.

Mike

[itimpi]

Does the new epub-fix utility fix the Apple validation issues? I thought that was its main purpose.

[mwbiggs]

I'm trying to upload to Lulu and I am also getting unmanifested file issues. It passes epucheck (after starting with 1200+ errors and working hard with Calibre and Sigil). I've looked and looked. I can't see any unmanifiested files.

I tried adding the mimetype and container.xml to the manifest with media-type "text/plain". It did not help. Then I tried the following:

<item id="mimetype" href="../mimetype" media-type="text/plain"/>
<item id="container.xml" href="../META-INF/container.xml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"/>
<item id="content.opf" href="content.opf" media-type="application/oebps-package+xml"/>
</manifest>

Now I get from epubcheck, now get
1.ERROR: TCFL 1st ed v021 epub11 sigil 4876 - Cal - sigilv6x.epub/META-INF/container.xml(2): elements from namespace "urnasis:names:tcpendocument:xmlns:contain er" are not allowed

The total container.xml is:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<container version="1.0" xmlns="urnasis:names:tcpendocument:xmlns:conta iner">
<rootfiles>
<rootfile full-path="OEBPS/content.opf" media-type="application/oebps-package+xml"/>
</rootfiles>
</container>

Any ideas on how to fix above? Any ideas on what file Lulu is complaining about? I tried to remove folders. Could folders be the problem?