Welcome HTML5 Beta Users

Paolo A

Here is what you will find in this first Beta release:

package multiple workspaces in one single HTML5 widget. This means you can have an optimized output for desktops and an optimized output for smarthpones, for instance. Please note that the output is not responsive (a part from the actual reader - I will talk about this later) as your content will respect the fixed-layout ratio defined in your workspace. Sizes of your content will adapt either to the iframe container, when embedded, or to the window, when in fullscreen. Just like the native App outputs, the user will be presented with the corresponding content you have determined according to the device, screensize, orientation and language set in the browser.
insert links to where your content is available for sale/download: links to App Stores (App Store and Google Play Store) and Book Stores (iBookStore, Google Play Books, Barnes & Nobles, Kobo) are available
activate social sharing buttons to let your users share your content through major social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn) and/or embed your content into their website through an iframe
make a sample of your content available through a direct download button to a sample EPUB
activate the interface menu where all of these features are available: a top bar wil lcontain links to chapters, links to your bookstores, download an EPUB sample, language choice menu, a button link to your content's general informations, a button to activate/disactivate readaloud, a button to activate/disactivate the soundtrack, and buttons for social sharing. A bottom bar will contain image thumbnails with direct links to single pages of your content. The interface menu is responsive to different screen ratios, as it exploits bootstrap stylesheets and javascript.
exploit the default swipe to navigate option for a great User Experience on tablets and smartphones. You can also activate the show arrows option, or create customized arrows of your own, to let your user move from one page to another easily also on Desktop.

Here is a list of features we are currently developing and issues you may find testing the output:

the content may take a while to load the first time is viewed. After that it will be cached and it will be as fast as hell. We are working on a special buffer, in order to have more pages preloaded, but even in this case first load will take a while. Like any other website, file size matters. We will do anything to lower a page’s size - minification of files, reduction of code redundancy, etc. - on your side please, please, please pay attention to your asset files. PubCoder proceed with optimization of your image files, but for instance if you have selected a 2x Pixels Density in your General Settings, override this to 1x for your HTML5 workspace optimized for Desktops.
audio and video files that are intended to play automatically will not work on tablets and smarthpones. This is due to a Safari for iOS and Chrome for Android limitation that prevents heavy preloading on your users’ network devices, and forces the user to trigger manually multimedia resources. I am sure this matches your experience - but we are aware this may undermine severely your content. We are working to make sure that at least soundtracks and read-aloud will be fully working also on mobile devices.

There is no official documentation yet on our website, but please refer to this page to see how to package a multi-workspace App and to this page to have a taste of what the HTML5 Viewer’s UI/UX will look like.

Patrizia P

Hello!
I have tried to publish a project to the HTML5 format, but unfortunately, something doesn't work properly: the subfolders containing scripts and styles are not present in the main folder.
How could I solve it?

NOTE
In alternative I can use the temporary output generated by the overview. If you could tell me where is stored I would use it while I am waiting for the bug to be fixed. 🙂

Many thanks
Patrizia

Angelo S

Hello Patrizia,
you're right, there is a bug in the Windows beta that prevents the folder to be moved correctly to the final destination - that's why we call it a beta ;-)
Of course we will issue an update as soon as possible, in the meanwhile, you can find the output generated by the preview on this path:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\PubCoder\Caches\2.0.0.484\Projects\1\Compiler\SCWebCompiler\18.1.1\C1\web-reader\webapp

Please replace USERNAME with your actual user folder name, also some numbers may vary.

Best Regards,
Angelo

Angelo S

43:@Patrizia P wrote
Hello!
I have tried to publish a project to the HTML5 format, but unfortunately, something doesn't work properly: the subfolders containing scripts and styles are not present in the main folder.
How could I solve it?

Please update to the latest beta release. Problem should be fixed now.

Carolina Z

when I export and try to open the index.html file on another computer I get an error:

Unable to parse file: BookPayload/info.xml

but the file is contained in the package.

note: the problem arises when opened in windows

Carolina

Giancarlo N

Hello Carolina,
a working webserver is needed to display it. HTML output is designed to work over Internet where a webserver is always present.
When you preview locally, PubCoder automatically run a "PubCoder Web Server" before displaying the output and so everything works.
If you would like to display it on another computer, you need to run and configure a local webserver on it.

Ran C

I had the same issue even after installing IIS on my Windows 10. It does, however, work when stored on my homepage at goDaddy, so it must be something to do with IIS compatibility (??)

Giancarlo N

We verified that it does not work under Microsoft IIS.
I am not an IIS expert, we will investigate about it.
I suspect IIS does not serve files of unrecognized mime type, such as content.opf. It is an XML indeed, only with a different file extension.

Ran C

It seems that is the problem. I dig into it a bit and it seems that .opf should be added as a new mime type. Have no idea how to do it, though... 🙂

Giancarlo N

From IIS manager just select "Mime Types" then add:

extension: .opf
mime type: text/xml

extension: .smil
mime type: text/xml

Ran C

Great, thanks. I did it and now it works !!! Problem solved!

Carolina Z

If I want to send it to another person, how can I configure a local webserver in the computer of someone else?