Go to beginning/start - solved at last

[joenojunk]

I know this is more of an html forum but maybe some can help
With a little jave

I working on a script that will open my book (on my kindle fire)
To a particular location. I am able to open the book with this.

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIE W);
File file = new File("/sdcard/Books/Testbook.prc");
intent.setDataAndType(Uri.fromFile(file), "application/x-mobipocket-ebook");
startActivity(intent);

Catlog doesn’t’ give me a lot of info I can use.

So what would be the commands after the book opens.
THX

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by joenojunk

I know this is more of an html forum but maybe some can help
With a little jave

I working on a script that will open my book (on my kindle fire)
To a particular location. I am able to open the book with this.

Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setAction(android.content.Intent.ACTION_VIE W);
File file = new File("/sdcard/Books/Testbook.prc");
intent.setDataAndType(Uri.fromFile(file), "application/x-mobipocket-ebook");
startActivity(intent);

Catlog doesn’t’ give me a lot of info I can use.

So what would be the commands after the book opens.
THX

Assuming that you're using the book for your own purposes, and not uploading it, which wouldn't make it past the KDP, you can do whatever you want, as it's a personal app, really. Kindle books/mobi's don't use js, only JSON, and even that, in a very limited capacity, so what you do for your own reading pleasure is entirely up to you. It's a lot of extra effort just to get around using the OPF's Guide items, which for the most part, work perfectly.

Hitch

[joenojunk]

I’m not modifying to book or trying to get around OPF's Guide items, we are trying to utilize them.
The issue we are having is that we have a Hard Copy book 679 pages and the Kindle e-book
Has no pages just locations . i.e When we are at pg 450, in the hard copy, our kindle users have a difficult time go To that page .
I created a table that corresponds to Pg to location i.e pg 450 =loc 4479
This is ok but still a little inconvenient.

My app Does open the book and Kindle reader but Im still struggling to
Find the commands that after the book opens to go to a particular location.
Once I can find that command.
I can write a script i.e if pg 450 then go Loc 4479

Joenojnk

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by joenojunk

I’m not modifying to book or trying to get around OPF's Guide items, we are trying to utilize them.
The issue we are having is that we have a Hard Copy book 679 pages and the Kindle e-book
Has no pages just locations . i.e When we are at pg 450, in the hard copy, our kindle users have a difficult time go To that page .
I created a table that corresponds to Pg to location i.e pg 450 =loc 4479
This is ok but still a little inconvenient.

My app Does open the book and Kindle reader but Im still struggling to
Find the commands that after the book opens to go to a particular location.
Once I can find that command.
I can write a script i.e if pg 450 then go Loc 4479

Joenojnk

Joe:

You can't use JS in a book that's going to be put on sale as a MOBI file via Amazon. That's kind of what I was asking you. There are THREE OPF Guide items allowable via Amazon, and they'll grey out any others you add: Start, TOC and Cover. Simply put them in the Guide. After that, you're just expending effort for no return. If you try to upload a mobi file with JS in it at Amazon it will not pass intake.

Hitch

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by joenojunk

I’m not modifying to book or trying to get around OPF's Guide items, we are trying to utilize them.
The issue we are having is that we have a Hard Copy book 679 pages and the Kindle e-book
Has no pages just locations . i.e When we are at pg 450, in the hard copy, our kindle users have a difficult time go To that page .
I created a table that corresponds to Pg to location i.e pg 450 =loc 4479
This is ok but still a little inconvenient.

My app Does open the book and Kindle reader but Im still struggling to
Find the commands that after the book opens to go to a particular location.
Once I can find that command.
I can write a script i.e if pg 450 then go Loc 4479

Sorry, I've no idea about using Java to run the android version of the Kindle app.

As an alternative, I beleive that Amazon do have some way of tying page number into a Kindle ebook. Perhaps looking that up in the documentation for Kindlegen will give a way to accomplish what you want without having to write some separate code, and that will work with any Kindle device.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Joe:

You can't use JS in a book that's going to be put on sale as a MOBI file via Amazon. That's kind of what I was asking you. There are THREE OPF Guide items allowable via Amazon, and they'll grey out any others you add: Start, TOC and Cover. Simply put them in the Guide. After that, you're just expending effort for no return. If you try to upload a mobi file with JS in it at Amazon it will not pass intake.

Hitch

He's talking about a small external java application, not javascript inside the book.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

He's talking about a small external java application, not javascript inside the book.

PDurrant:

I get that, but...not to be dense, how's it getting from here to there? I went back and read the original post, but it seems as though the intent is for a mobi that goes through the usual channels. My comprehension here is that he's trying to create a type of concordance or compendium that x-refs the original page numbers to an (external?) reference material/app?

Hitch

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Hitch

PDurrant:

I get that, but...not to be dense, how's it getting from here to there? I went back and read the original post, but it seems as though the intent is for a mobi that goes through the usual channels. My comprehension here is that he's trying to create a type of concordance or compendium that x-refs the original page numbers to an (external?) reference material/app?

Hitch

He's made the concordance. What he's working on is a script/app to run on his Kindle Fire (an android device) that will tell the Kindle app to open the book at any particular location, so that his app can open the book at (say) page 304, doing the translation from page number to location for him.

I suspect he'd be better off looking into how Amazon handles their 'real page numbers' instead.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

He's made the concordance. What he's working on is a script/app to run on his Kindle Fire (an android device) that will tell the Kindle app to open the book at any particular location, so that his app can open the book at (say) page 304, doing the translation from page number to location for him.

I suspect he'd be better off looking into how Amazon handles their 'real page numbers' instead.

Ok, yes, I think we are talking apples and oranges. From my perspective, what I think of is: how does this get sold through Amazon? I guess the answer is, it gets sold/vended as an appurtenant app to the actual mobi, as it can't be sold via the KDP process. That's where my trolley was leaving the tracks.

Yes, I know why he's working on it. We get requests like this from groups (ACA, particularly) that has a handbook in both forms, and has study groups that have this issue; when the group moderator wants to refer to a given passage (5th paragraph on page 221), etc.; what we've stuck with is, quote the first 4 words. That always works, even though I'd be the first to agree that searching on a K2 is pretty slow going. ;-) The typing part, rather than the search itself. I don't see easy answers for this on any digital media that isn't PDF, myself.

Hitch

[joenojunk]

Originally Posted by Hitch

Ok, yes, I think we are talking apples and oranges. From my perspective, what I think of is: how does this get sold through Amazon? I guess the answer is, it gets sold/vended as an appurtenant app to the actual mobi, as it can't be sold via the KDP process. That's where my trolley was leaving the tracks.

Yes, I know why he's working on it. We get requests like this from groups (ACA, particularly) that has a handbook in both forms, and has study groups that have this issue; when the group moderator wants to refer to a given passage (5th paragraph on page 221), etc.; what we've stuck with is, quote the first 4 words. That always works, even though I'd be the first to agree that searching on a K2 is pretty slow going. ;-) The typing part, rather than the search itself. I don't see easy answers for this on any digital media that isn't PDF, myself.

Hitch

I do have the Cross reference table for the ACA BRB , If you Have a use for it, Its a bit faster than searching for a word pattern.

[st_albert]

From what I can tell, matching the page number of a print edition to a position in a Kindle e-book file is a mysterious process that can only be accomplished by Amazon, if and only if it has access to both the e-book (mobi+) and the print version (via create space?). Now, Adobe has a straightforward and published way to do this via a mapping file inserted into the epub, but said file will not (as I understand it) translate to Amazon mapping of the Mobi file.

In other words, if you want to do this with a Kindle book, give Amazon both the mobi format and the print book (as PDF?) in create space, and let them do it. Otherwise, you may be SOL.

This is NOT the final word on the subject, but just what I have heard.

YMMV.

Albert
(Corrections to the above are most welcome!)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by joenojunk

I do have the Cross reference table for the ACA BRB , If you Have a use for it, Its a bit faster than searching for a word pattern.

Joe:

My clients would be most grateful for it; can you PM me your contact info, which I will give to them?

Hitch

[nanourbina]

I know this is a somewhat dormant thread, but I'd like to detail how I solved this exact issue.

When emailing my kindlegen-produced MOBI file to a Kindle Touch or a Kindle Fire HD, the book would open to somewhere in the Table of Contents, instead of to my Prologue. I had, of course, specified the Prologue as the "text" item in the guide in the opf file. Selecting "Beginning" on the Touch also went to the middle of the table of contents.

As it turns out, my problem was caused because I was using an HTML file as the Cover page (which only referenced the JPEG file). I noticed that kindlegen was complaining about it. I then changed the opf file to only reference the jpeg file and the problem went away (this had to be done in the metadata, in the manifest, in the spine, and in the guide).

Just one more data point in case someone runs into this as well and you happen to have a cover as an HTML file.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by nanourbina

I know this is a somewhat dormant thread, but I'd like to detail how I solved this exact issue.

When emailing my kindlegen-produced MOBI file to a Kindle Touch or a Kindle Fire HD, the book would open to somewhere in the Table of Contents, instead of to my Prologue. I had, of course, specified the Prologue as the "text" item in the guide in the opf file. Selecting "Beginning" on the Touch also went to the middle of the table of contents.

As it turns out, my problem was caused because I was using an HTML file as the Cover page (which only referenced the JPEG file). I noticed that kindlegen was complaining about it. I then changed the opf file to only reference the jpeg file and the problem went away (this had to be done in the metadata, in the manifest, in the spine, and in the guide).

Just one more data point in case someone runs into this as well and you happen to have a cover as an HTML file.

We don't make books with html cover pages in them; we build our MOBIs from kindlegenned specially-altered ePUBS, with the OPF pointing at the cover.jpg (or cover.xxx image file). That makes no change to the SRL that we've found.

FWIW.

Hitch

[Notjohn]

FWIW, most of us who write books with citations are quite accustomed to treating e-books as if each chapter were an article in a professional journal: you don't cite a page, you just cite the article (or in this case, the chapter title).

Obviously this would not work in A la recherche du temps perdu, with its multi-hundred-page chapters, but in most cases -- given the limitless search capabilities of Kindles -- it's just as quick as flipping through the pages of the print edition.