Do not understand error message: epub-pagelist-missing-pagebreak

[tomtomtom]

Hello,
I ran ACE on an epub. I get two instances of a Serious problem that says "epub-pagelist-missing-pagebreak." The message tells me these two errors are in the nav.xhtml file.

Ace's website says, "Authored page list does not reference all elements that are page breaks in HTML documents (impact = serious): epub-pagelist-missing-pagebreak."

This implies that there are two references in the nav document that are not in the body. But I have checked everything and all the links are good.

I do start with page 7 from the printed version, excluding page breaks for the cover, back cover (I put that second because it is important), title page, copyright and toc. I also exclude two pages at the end which are ads. All these excluded pages are in the Landmarks.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Tom

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by tomtomtom

Hello,
I ran ACE on an epub. I get two instances of a Serious problem that says "epub-pagelist-missing-pagebreak." The message tells me these two errors are in the nav.xhtml file.

Does your nav file contain a page list section? E.g.

<nav epub:type="page-list" id="pages" hidden="hidden">
			<h2>Pages</h2>
			<ol>
				<li id="pg_1">
					<a href="ch01.xhtml#Page_1">1</a>
				</li>
...
...

If so, is there a page break marker for each page reference in the book. E.g.

<span epub:type="pagebreak" title="1" id="Page_1">1</span></div>

Shameless plugs:
If you're a Sigil user you might find my Sigil ACE plugin helpful. My EpubCheck Sigil plugin might also help you narrow down the problem.

[tomtomtom]

Hi Doitsu,
Yes to both your questions. Here is the line in the book:
<span epub:type="pagebreak" role="doc-pagebreak" id="page22" aria-label="Page 22"></span>

I am attaching a screenshot of what the TOC looks like in Sigil and what I would like it look like in Kindle (minus the numbering). I am also attaching the nav file.

Tom

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by tomtomtom

Yes to both your questions. Here is the line in the book:
<span epub:type="pagebreak" role="doc-pagebreak" id="page22" aria-label="Page 22"></span>

If EPUBCheck didn't report any problems, maybe ACE got confused by the following commented-out list item:

    <li><a href="Index.xhtml#_idParaDest-22">Index</a></li>

 <!--<li><span>**Figures and Landmarks—</span></li>-->

		<li><a href="Body.xhtml#_idTextAnchor132">—Figure 1 Population of France</a></li>

because some parsers expect a space after <!-- and before -->. Try adding spaces or delete the comment.

[Quoth]

Also note that some platforms only do pagebreaks at the start of a file (especially Amazon conversions from epub to mobi). So really it's better to split files at all pagebreaks and have no such directives.

This can be automatically done.
I've been uploading to Amazon for nearly 10 years and had problems with pagebreaks sometimes vanishing. No problem when each source pagebreak starts a new file on the conversion to epub. Epub upload to Amazon KDP works best.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

because some parsers expect a space after <!-- and before -->. Try adding spaces or delete the comment.

That's also true.

[tomtomtom]

The only way I can make this work so that it passes ACE, EpubCheck and Kindle Previewer is if I comment out the entire section of landmarks, numbers 9-18 in the screenshot.

But should I not have Landmarks in the navigator on Kindle? I do have links to landmarks in the internal TOC but I'd also like them in the side navigator. The main error I get when I have the Landmarks is that the links in Nav are out of order with the Spine in the contents.opf. But of course they would be.

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by tomtomtom

But should I not have Landmarks in the navigator on Kindle? I do have links to landmarks in the internal TOC but I'd also like them in the side navigator.

Landmarks are usually defined in a special landmarks section that is missing in your nav doc.

Try wrapping them in a separate landmarks nav section:

Spoiler:

<nav epub:type="landmarks">
    <ol>
        <li><a epub:type="cover" href="FrontCover.xhtml">—Front cover</a></li>
        <li><a epub:type="cover" href="BackCover.xhtml">—Back cover</a></li>
        <li><a epub:type="titlepage" href="TitlePage.xhtml">—Title page</a></li>
        <li><a epub:type="copyright-page" href="Datapage.xhtml">—Copyright</a></li>
        <li><a epub:type="bodymatter" href="cover.xhtml">—Start of Introduction</a></li>
        <li><a epub:type="bodymatter" href="LongDescription.xhtml#_idParaDest-23">—Extended image description</a></li>
        <li><a epub:type="backmatter" href="POPad.xhtml">—Ad for Power of Peasants</a></li>
        <li><a epub:type="backmatter" href="BriefAd.xhtml">—Ad for a Brief History of England</a></li>
  </ol>
</nav>

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by tomtomtom

But should I not have Landmarks in the navigator on Kindle? I do have links to landmarks in the internal TOC but I'd also like them in the side navigator. The main error I get when I have the Landmarks is that the links in Nav are out of order with the Spine in the contents.opf. But of course they would be.

The Kindle platform expects the logical table of contents (nav or ncx) to follow the same sequence as the spine of the book. When user calls up the TOC the current chapter will highlighted and it provides the user a visual presentation of progress though the book. Putting in extraneous entries such as landmarks and illustrations breaks that sequential flow.

As Doitsu stated, landmarks should appear in a separate nav element, as was done for your page-list.

[tomtomtom]

As you suggested, Doitsu, I wrapped the landmarks in <nav>. That works, in so far as I get no error messages. However, the landmarks do not appear in the Navigator. Nor in Apple Books, but it looks beautiful in Thorium. Attached is a screen shot of what Kindle shows. The landmarks should appear after the Index.
Tom

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by tomtomtom

However, the landmarks do not appear in the Navigator. Nor in Apple Books, but it looks beautiful in Thorium.

Since landmarks are the equivalent of guide items in epub2 books, many apps don't show them.

[KevinH]

They are not required to be hidden in the nav. So you can of course add the nav to spine and make both the table of contents, and the landmarks visible. You could do the same for the page-list if direct page hopping is desired.

[tomtomtom]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. They only thing that worked was a simple ordered list with two levels that follows the spine order. I wanted to add a span in the list so that I had a header where the body of the book begins. Doesn't work. The attached is how it looks in the Kindle navigator. Thanks again. Tom