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.