The ePub-FormatePub-Format is an XML-based packaging format for eBooks, like SCORM or IMS CP but with a differnt manifest file. It is currently supported by most popular eBook readers (except for Amazon Kindle!) and it became even more popular with Apple's announcement to support it on its iPad. Therefore in 2010 the eLML team decided to create an ePub-converter for eLML.
The iPad allows also a two-page view If you are interested in the ePub standard, you should check out the ePub-Wikipedia entry and then head over to openebook.org for the full standard specification. For an easy introduction into creating eBooks we recommend having a look at this ePub-tutorial. The ePub-standard is based on XHTML 1.1 Strict and therefore the same configuration settings as when you would transform your lesson into plain HTML apply. Some settings like the HTML-Version or the prohibition of JavaScripts like lightwindow are already set in the transformation file and cannot be changed (thus if you change those values in the configuration file, eLML will simply ignore it). Please note that the default layout is white background with black default font. If you want, you can also create your custom layout similar as you do it with your online version.
../../../../core/presentation/epub/elml.xsl
file as "XSL URL" XSLT file.To create an eBook of the whole eLML website I use the following terminal commands after having transformed the file:
cd elml/website/en/
zip elmlwebsite.epub mimetype
zip -r elmlwebsite.epub content.opf toc.ncx META-INF/ html/ image/ multimedia/
As mentioned above, you can also ignore the two-step zipping because most browser dont care (only epubcheck will regonize the difference) and simply ZIP using the following command:
zip -r elmlwebsite.epub *
Please considering the following comments when creating eBooks:
The eLML-website-eBook viewed in Calibre eBooks can be viewed with any regular computer or with special devices like eBook-readers or smartphones. Here is an overview:
More Hard- and Software for eBooks are popping up every week. You might want to check this list or consult Wikipedia or Google for up-to-date information.