ePub Zip/Unzip AppleScript application for Mac OS X

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Bonnie_27

hi I just came across this I know its a old post but I was wondering if this works for Windows as well I have version 8

Being AppleScripts, which are specific to Mac OS, they won't work on Windows.

[Bonnie_27]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Being AppleScripts, which are specific to Mac OS, they won't work on Windows.

do you know any Windows ones

[saoir]

I have an ePub output from Scrivener that I want to add a title and copyright page to. I plan to use Dreamweaver.
Q: Does the ePub get structured (for reading by Kindle for example) based on the alphabetical order of the individual .xhtml files zipped into it ?

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by saoir

I have an ePub output from Scrivener that I want to add a title and copyright page to. I plan to use Dreamweaver.
Q: Does the ePub get structured (for reading by Kindle for example) based on the alphabetical order of the individual .xhtml files zipped into it ?

No it does not. It gets the reading order from the spine section in the OPF. Read about ePub in our wiki.

Dale

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by saoir

I have an ePub output from Scrivener that I want to add a title and copyright page to. I plan to use Dreamweaver.
Q: Does the ePub get structured (for reading by Kindle for example) based on the alphabetical order of the individual .xhtml files zipped into it ?

You would be a lot better off using calibre.

[saoir]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

You would be a lot better off using calibre.

Ok .. I'll check that out. I've been using calibre for a while with my Kindle.

Tks

[pdurrant]

New! Version 3.0 for those using iBooks.

[tahach]

A beginner I am not, but I cannot get v3 to do anything, when I run it it keeps asking what type of unzipping I want, and then there is no visible zip/unzip options, and "Edit Script" does nothing. I guess the manual zip instructions in the first posts were also written inaccurately, unless they are supposed to run after I do "cd 79239729.epub", but even then... I don't know, I was expecting this
zip -X0 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> mimetype

to look more like

zip -X0 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> <quoted form of ePubFilePath>/mimetype

Perhaps I am even more ignorant than I thought!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by tahach

A beginner I am not, but I cannot get v3 to do anything, when I run it it keeps asking what type of unzipping I want, and then there is no visible zip/unzip options, and "Edit Script" does nothing. I guess the manual zip instructions in the first posts were also written inaccurately, unless they are supposed to run after I do "cd 79239729.epub", but even then... I don't know, I was expecting this
zip -X0 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> mimetype

to look more like

zip -X0 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> <quoted form of ePubFilePath>/mimetype

Perhaps I am even more ignorant than I thought!

It's a drag&drop application. Just drag the ePub onto the icon to unzip, or drag a folder onto it to zip up into an ePub.

Yes, the command examples are to be run with the ePub folder as the current directory. But you really don't need to do them manually.

Ah - perhaps you haven't realised the <quoted form of ePubFilePath> is the full path to the .ePub zip file to be created. Not the folder from which the ePub is to be created. If you really want to run them from somewhere other than the ePub folder, you'd need

zip -X0 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> <quoted form of mimetype file in the ePubFolderPath>

and similar changes to the command to zip up all the other files.

[tahach]

Thanks, I did try drag and drop too since I had vague recollection of a script working no other way some years back. What must have fooled me is that it all happens instantly and there is no feedback, except for overwriting a .pub. Having said that, I don't know if those .pubs were really created since I can't find them , I hope they are not inserted into iBooks or something that shocking! A few more drag and drops, I answered "Yes please delete old epub" and now I have broken something:

sh: line 0: cd: /Users/s/SwiftLanguage881256329.epub/: No such file or directory

My ambition has been to copy Apples Swift books to my Android device!

[tommymac]

I have tried the version 3 of the App Epub zip-unzip and I like it. With a simple drag 'n drop I had my epub zipped correctly.
I'm wondering how can I obtain the same result with the terminal. I make these instructions but at the ended the epub won't open with Ibooks on my mac:

- unzip a working epub exported with iBooks Author
- zip the folder from terminal with the command zip -r newbook.zip newbook -x *.META-INF -x mimetype
- with kitabu I can open the file but no with iBook

There is some problem with the order of the files in the ZIP? I know that the mimetype must go first but I don't know how ZIP engine works on my mac
Or maybe I wrote badly the recursive instruction for the folder META-INF?

All helps are welcome

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by tommymac

I have tried the version 3 of the App Epub zip-unzip and I like it. With a simple drag 'n drop I had my epub zipped correctly.
I'm wondering how can I obtain the same result with the terminal. I make these instructions but at the ended the epub won't open with Ibooks on my mac:

- unzip a working epub exported with iBooks Author
- zip the folder from terminal with the command zip -r newbook.zip newbook -x *.META-INF -x mimetype
- with kitabu I can open the file but no with iBook

There is some problem with the order of the files in the ZIP? I know that the mimetype must go first but I don't know how ZIP engine works on my mac
Or maybe I wrote badly the recursive instruction for the folder META-INF?

All helps are welcome

You need to use two zip commands. One to add the mimetype, uncompressed, and then one to add the other files.

zip -X0 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> mimetype
zip -rDX9 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> * -x "*.DS_Store" -x mimetype

[tommymac]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

You need to use two zip commands. One to add the mimetype, uncompressed, and then one to add the other files.

zip -X0 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> mimetype
zip -rDX9 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> * -x "*.DS_Store" -x mimetype

Huge thanks!
I hadn't realized how the zip command works: Once I set-up the working directory with cd everything goes fine

[dgatwood]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

You need to use two zip commands. One to add the mimetype, uncompressed, and then one to add the other files.

zip -X0 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> mimetype
zip -rDX9 <quoted form of ePubFilePath> * -x "*.DS_Store" -x mimetype

In practice, that's completely unnecessary on OS X. The following produces identical results:

zip -Xr9D /path/to/filename.epub mimetype * -x .DS_Store

If you dig through OS X's zip source code (it is open source), you'll see that unless you either A. pass the -Z flag to force a particular compression method or B. pass the -0 flag to disable compression entirely, the OS X zip tool defaults to "BEST" mode, which means that it uses either STORE (uncompressed) or DEFLATE (compressed), depending on which would produce a smaller file.

Because the mimetype file's contents are so short, it gets larger when compressed with DEFLATE. Therefore, OS X's zip implementation will always store it using STORE rather than DEFLATE.

Your mileage may vary with other zip implementations.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by dgatwood

Your mileage may vary with other zip implementations.

E.g. earlier or later versions of Mac OS X's zip tool. I think I'll leave the AppleScript with the two step process.