Hussein Shafie
XMLmind Software
35 rue Louis
Leblanc,
78120 Rambouillet,
France,
Phone: +33 (0)9 52 80 80
37,
Web: www.xmlmind.com/ebookc
Email:
ebookc-support@xmlmind.com
appendices
appendix
backmatter
body
book
chapter
content
frontmatter
head
headcommon
index
loe
lof
lot
lox
part
related
section
title
toc
ebookc
command-line utilityXMLmind Ebook Compiler (ebookc for short) is a free, open source tool which can turn a set of HTML (or Markdown) pages into a self-contained ebook[1]. Supported output formats are: EPUB, Web Help, PDF[2], RTF, WML, DOCX (MS-Word) and ODT (OpenOffice/LibreOffice)[3].
You can of course use ebookc to create books having a simple structure like novels, but this tool also has all the features needed to create large, complex, reference manuals:
Being based on HTML, ebookc relies on CSS to create nicely formatted books and this, even for output formats like PDF and DOCX which are not directly related to HTML and CSS.
All in all, ebookc is an authoring and publishing tool nearly as powerful as DITA or DocBook and their advanced conversion toolkits, but being based on HTML and on CSS, it is much easier to learn, use and customize. Moreover you can create with it ebooks which are more interactive (audio, video, slide shows, multiple-choice questions, etc) than those created using DITA or DocBook.
The
basic idea is simple. You author a set of HTML pages and then you create an
ebook specification assigning a role —part, chapter, section, appendix, etc—
to each page. Example: primer/book1.ebook
:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | <book xmlns="http://www.xmlmind.com/schema/ebook" href="titlepage.html"> <frontmatter> <toc/> </frontmatter> <chapter href="ch1.html"/> <chapter href="ch2.html"/> <appendix href="a1.html"/> </book> |
The HTML pages comprising a book may contain anything
you want including CSS styles and links between the pages (e.g.
<a href="ch2.html#fig1">
). However make sure that this
content is valid XHTML[4].
Once the ebook specification has been created, you can compile it using XMLmind Ebook Compiler and generate EPUB, Web Help, PDF[5], RTF, ODT, DOCX[6], etc. Examples:
ebookc book1.ebook out/book1.epub ebookc book1.ebook out/book1.pdf
If you look at out/book1.pdf
,
you'll see that chapter and appendix titles are numbered and that these
titles are copied verbatim from the html/head/title
of the
corresponding input HTML page.
It's of course possible to specify how
book components should be numbered (if at all). It's also possible to
replace the plain text titles of chapters and appendices by “rich”
titles[7] by adding ebook:head
child
elements to the book divisions. Example: primer/book2.ebook
:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | <book xmlns="http://www.xmlmind.com/schema/ebook" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" href="titlepage.html" appendixnumber="A%1."> <frontmatter> <toc/> </frontmatter> <chapter href="ch1.html"/> <chapter href="ch2.html"> <head> <title>“<html:em>Rich</html:em>” title of second chapter</title> </head> </chapter> <appendix href="a1.html"/> </book> |
The content of a ebook:head
element
specified this way is added to the html/head
of the
corresponding output HTML page, except for the ebook:title
element which replaces html/head/title
.
We have already seen that it's possible to add a
ebook:head
child to elements like book
[8],
chapter
, appendix
, etc. Likewise, it's also
possible to add a ebook:body
child to any book division.
Example: primer/book3.ebook
:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 | <book xmlns="http://www.xmlmind.com/schema/ebook" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" appendixnumber="A%1"> <head> <title>Title of this sample book</title> </head> <body> <content href="titlepage.html"/> </body> <frontmatter> <toc/> </frontmatter> <chapter href="ch1.html"/> <chapter href="ch2.html"> <head> <title>“<html:em>Rich</html:em>” title of second chapter</title> </head> </chapter> <appendix href="a1.html"/> </book> |
In the above example, the content of the
html/body
element of file titlepage.html
is
“pulled” and added to the book. Several ebook:content
child
elements are allowed in an ebook:body
element.
When you generate multi-page HTML (e.g. Web Help) out of an ebook specification, it may be important to specify the names of the generated pages. It may also be useful to group several consecutive book divisions into the same output page.
This is specified using the pagename
and
samepage
attributes of any book division. Example: primer/book4.ebook
:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | <book xmlns="http://www.xmlmind.com/schema/ebook" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" appendixnumber="A%1"> <head> <title>Title of this sample book</title> </head> <body> <content href="titlepage.html"/> </body> <frontmatter> <toc/> <section href="intro.html" pagename="the introduction"/> </frontmatter> <chapter href="ch1.html"> <section href="s1.html"> <section href="s2.html" samepage="true"/> </section> </chapter> <chapter href="ch2.html"> <head> <title>“<html:em>Rich</html:em>” title of second chapter</title> </head> </chapter> <appendix href="a1.html"/> </book> |
By default, each book division is created in its own
file and the name of this file comes the href
attribute of the
book division. Web Help example:
ebookc -f webhelp book4.ebook out/book4
pagename="the introduction"
, the
introduction would have been generated in file
out/book4/intro.html
. With this attribute, the introduction
is generated in file
"out/book4/the introduction.html
".samepage="true"
, the second section
would have been generated in its own file
out/book4/s2.html
. With this attribute, the second section
is appended to file out/book4/s1.html
, also containing
first section.That's right, some semantic elements like
admonitions, footnotes, etc, found in larger XML vocabularies like DITA or DocBook are missing from XHTML5. However, it's easy to
emulate these missing elements by defining semantic values for the
class
attribute of standard HTML elements (typically
span
and div
).
XMLmind Ebook Compiler has special support for the following semantic class names:
Semantic class | Description |
---|---|
<figure class="role-equation"> |
A “displayed equation” having a title
(figcaption ). |
<figure class="role-example"> |
An example —for example a code snippet— having a title
(figcaption ). |
<pre class="role-listing-c-1"> |
A code listing, possibly featuring line numbering and syntax
coloring (class name suffix "-c-1 " means: C language,
first line number is 1). |
<blockquote class="role-note"> |
Admonitions. Supported class names are: role-note ,
role-attention , role-caution ,
role-danger , role-fastpath ,
role-important , role-notice ,
role-remember , role-restriction ,
role-tip , role-trouble ,
role-warning . |
<span class="role-footnote"> |
A short footnote, inline with the rest of the text. |
<a class="role-footnote-ref"
href="#fn1"> |
A call to footnote "fn1 ". |
<div class="role-footnote" id="fn1"> |
Footnote "fn1 ". |
<a class="role-index-term">Cat</a> |
An index term. May be much more elaborate than the very simple example shown here. |
Excerpts from file primer/semantic_classes.html
which has been
added to primer/book5.ebook
as its second
appendix:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | ... <figure class="role-equation"> <figcaption>Figure containing an equation</figcaption> <div> <math display="block" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mrow> <mi>E</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mrow> <mi>m</mi> <mo></mo> <msup> <mi>c</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msup> </mrow> </mrow> </math> </div> </figure> ... <p>Short footnote<span class="role-footnote">Content of short footnote.</span>. ... <p>Simplest index term<a class="role-index-term">Cat</a>. Other index term<a class="role-index-term">Cat<span class="role-term">Siamese</span></a>...</p> ... |
Because primer/semantic_classes.html
contains
figures, tables and index terms, the following book divisions have also been
added to primer/book5.ebook
:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | ... <frontmatter> <toc/> <lof/> <lot/> <lox/> <loe/> <section href="intro.html" pagename="the introduction"/> ... <backmatter> <index/> </backmatter> ... |
<lof/>
specifies that a List of Figures is to
be generated as a front matter. <lot/>
means: List of
Tables. <lox/>
means: List of Examples.
<loe/>
means: List of Equations.
If you compile primer/book5.ebook
, you'll get a very
dull result whatever the output format:
ebookc -f webhelp book5.ebook out/book5 ebookc book5.ebook out/book5.pdf
This is caused by the fact that all
the source HTML pages referenced by book5.ebook
do not specify
any CSS style.
It's a good practice to keep it this way because this allows separation of presentation and content. However, you'll want to create nice books, so the simplest and cleanest is to add CSS styles to the ebook specification (and not to each input HTML page).
If you do it like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | <book xmlns="http://www.xmlmind.com/schema/ebook" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" appendixnumber="A%1"> <head> <title>Title of this sample book</title> <html:link href="css/styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> </head> ... |
The above specification would not work because only the title page would get styled.
You need to use a headcommon
element for that. The child elements of headcommon
are
automatically copied the html/head
of all output HTML pages.
Excerpts from primer/book6.ebook
:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 | <book xmlns="http://www.xmlmind.com/schema/ebook" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" appendixnumber="A%1"> <headcommon> <html:link href="css/styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> </headcommon> <head> <title>Title of this sample book</title> <html:style> div.role-book-title-div { text-align: center; } h1.role-book-title { margin: 4em 0; padding-bottom: 0; border-bottom-style: none; } </html:style> </head> ... |
In the above example:
ebook:head
may contain, not only
ebook:title
, but also any of the HTML elements allowed in
html/head
, namely style
, script
,
meta
, link
. This facility is used here to give
a specific style to the title page.<blockquote class="role-note">
for
example, which is found in the source HTML page,
<div class="role-book-title-div">
and
<h1 class="role-book-title">
are elements
generated by XMLmind Ebook Compiler.Knowing about these
elements is required to be able to give nice looks to the generated
book. These elements and their class names are all listed in template/skeleton.css
, with suggested
CSS styles for some of these elements.
base.css
, the stock
CSS stylesheetAs of version 1.4, the easiest way to add CSS styles
to an ebook specification is to set attribute
includebasestylesheet
of element book
to
"true
". This very simple setting guarantees to effortlessly
create a nicely formatted book.
More precisely , attribute
includebasestylesheet="true"
instructs ebookc
to
include the
ebookc_install_dir/xsl/common/resources/base.css
stock
CSS stylesheet in all the output HTML pages.
In the following
example, we not only use base.css
, but we also customize most
of its colors by including a custom stylesheet called
custom_colors.css
:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | <book xmlns="http://www.xmlmind.com/schema/ebook" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" includebasestylesheet="true"> <headcommon> <html:link href="custom_colors.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> </headcommon> ... |
A sample color customization stylesheet is found in template/custom_colors.css
.
The CSS styles specified in the ebook specification and in the source HTML pages are also used when generating output formats like PDF, RTF, DOCX, even if these formats are not directly related to HTML and CSS.
However in this case, CSS 2.1 support is partial. While there are no
restrictions related to the use of CSS selectors, only the most basic CSS properties are
supported. For example, generated content (e.g. :before
) and floats are not supported at all.
There are two ways to work around this limitation:
@media screen
and @media print
[9] rules. This is done in primer/css/styles.css
:1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 | blockquote.role-warning { font-size: 12px; background-color: #e1f5fe; color: #0288d1; padding: 12px 24px 12px 60px; margin: 16px 0; } blockquote.role-warning:before { float: left; content: url(star.svg); width: 16px; height: 16px; margin-left: -36px; } @media print { /* Floating generated content not supported. No need to leave room for the admonition icon. */ blockquote.role-warning { padding-left: 24px; border-left: solid 5px #0288d1; } } |
ebookc -p use-note-icon yes book6.ebook out/book6.pdf ebookc -f webhelp book6.ebook out/book6
Without XSLT stylesheet
parameter use-note-icon=yes
, admonitions in
out/book6.pdf
would have no icons.
Such parameter is
not needed when generating Web Help (like EPUB, an HTML+CSS-based output
format) because admonition icons are specified in CSS stylesheet primer/css/styles.css
.
An book is specified as an assembly of source HTML pages.
If you want to reuse some of these HTML pages to author other books, it is
recommended to avoid creating links (e.g.
<a href="ch2.html#fig1">
) between these
pages.
Fortunately, there is a simple way to create links between book
divisions, which is using the ebook:related
element. Excerpts
from primer/book7.ebook
:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 | ... <chapter href="ch1.html" xml:id="ch1"> <related ids="ch1 ch2 a1" relation="See also"/> <section href="s1.html"> <section href="s2.html" samepage="true"/> </section> </chapter> <chapter href="ch2.html" xml:id="ch2"> <head> <title>“<html:em>Rich</html:em>” title of second chapter</title> </head> <related ids="ch1 ch2 a1" relation="See also"/> </chapter> <appendix href="a1.html" xml:id="a1"> <related ids="ch1 ch2 a1" relation="See also"/> </appendix> ... |
See links automatically generated in first chapter, second chapter and first appendix by running for example:
ebookc -f webhelp book7.ebook out/book7
This feature called conditional processing or profiling has many uses, the most basic one being to include or exclude some content depending on the chosen output format. For example, some source HTML pages may contain interactive content (e.g. a feedback form) and this interactive content simply cannot be rendered in PDF or DOCX.
In order to conditionally exclude some content from the
generated book, you must first “mark” the conditional sections using
data-*
attributes. Excerpts from primer/book8.ebook
:
1 2 3 4 5 | ... <backmatter data-output-format="docx odt pdf rtf wml"> <index/> </backmatter> ... |
Excerpts from primer/intro.html
:
1 2 3 4 5 6 | ... <blockquote class="role-tip" data-output-format="epub html webhelp"> <p>This document is also available in PDF ... format.</p> </blockquote> ... |
You may specify one or more conditional processing
data-*
attribute on any element. Choose the attribute names you
want. Such conditional processing data-*
attribute may contain
one or more values separated by space characters. Choose the attribute
values you want.
If you generate a single HTML page by running:
ebookc book8.ebook out/book8_no_profile.html
the
marked sections will not be excluded because XMLmind Ebook Compiler
does not associate any special meaning to attribute
data-output-format
. However if you run:
ebookc -p profile.output-format html book8.ebook out/book8.html
then
file out/book8.html
will not have an index. Option
"-p profile.output-format html
" reads as: unless an element has
no data-output-format
attribute or has a
data-output-format
attribute containing "html
",
exclude this element from the generated content.
If you run:
ebookc -p profile.output-format pdf book8.ebook out/book8.pdf
then the introduction will not contain the tip about the availability of the document in PDF format.
How to install XMLmind Ebook Compiler is explained in Chapter 5. Installation.
You have learned in Chapter 2. Primer:
You'll find a template for your ebook specification in ebookc_install_dir/doc/manual/template/template.ebook
.
The recommended extension for these files is
".ebook
".
If you want your ebook to look good, the simplest is to set
attribute includebasestylesheet
of element
to
"book
true
" as explained in Leveraging base.css
,
the stock CSS stylesheet.
Alternatively, you may want to
use a custom CSS stylesheet developed from scratch, starting from the
template found in ebookc_install_dir/doc/manual/template/skeleton.css
.
In this case, as explained in Nicely
formatted books, make sure to add this kind of link to the headcommon
element of your root book
element:
1 2 3 4 | <headcommon> <html:link href="my_custom_stylesheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> </headcommon> |
An ebook
specification is compiled using a command-line tool called
ebookc
.
Run ebookc_install_dir/bin/ebookc.bat
on Windows and
ebookc_install_dir/bin/ebookc
on the Mac and on
Linux.
Example, convert this manual to EPUB:
C:\ebookc_1_11_1\docsrc\manual> ..\..\bin\ebookc.bat manual.ebook out\manual.epub
Example,
convert this manual to Web Help (output directory being
"out\manual_webhelp\
"):
C:\ebookc_1_11_1\docsrc\manual> ..\..\bin\ebookc.bat -f webhelp¬ manual.ebook out\manual_webhelp
Example, convert this manual to DOCX
using a copy of XMLmind XSL-FO Converter installed in
"C:\xfc\
":
C:\ebookc_1_11_1\docsrc\manual> ..\..\bin\ebookc.bat¬ -xfc C:\xfc\bin\fo2rtf.bat¬ manual.ebook out\manual.docx
XMLmind
XSL-FO Converter Evaluation Edition (download page) generates output containing
random duplicate letters. This makes this edition useless for
any purpose other than evaluating XMLmind XSL-FO Converter. Of course,
this does not happen with XMLmind XSL-FO Converter Professional
Edition!
Example, convert this manual
to PDF using a copy of RenderX XEP installed in "C:\xep\
":
C:\ebookc_1_11_1\docsrc\manual> ..\..\bin\ebookc.bat¬ -xep C:\xep\xep.bat¬ manual.ebook out\manual.pdf
To avoid specifying options
-xep
and-xfc
each time you runebookc
, the simplest if to create once for all anebookc.options
file in theebookc
user preferences directory. This directory is:
$HOME/.ebookc/
on Linux.$HOME/Library/Application Support/XMLmind/ebookc/
on the Mac.%APPDATA%\XMLmind\ebookc\
on Windows. Example:C:\Users\john\AppData\Roaming\XMLmind\ebookc\
.Your
ebookc.options
file would contain:-xep C:\xep\xep.bat -xfc C:\xfc\bin\fo2rtf.bat
In addition to HTML, an ebook page may be written in Markdown. However for this to work, the file extension of the page written in Markdown must be md
, markdown
, mdown
, mkdn
, mdwn
, mkd
, rmd
, text
or txt
.
The encoding of a Markdown file is, by default, the system encoding (e.g.
window-1252
on a Western PC).If you want to explicitly specify the encoding of a Markdown file, please save your file with a
UTF-8
orUTF-16
BOM (Byte Order Mark) or add an encoding directive inside a comment anywhere at the beginning of your file. Example:<!-- -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*- --> Heading ======= ## Sub-heading Paragraphs are separated by a blank line.The above example should work fine because ebookc understands the GNU Emacs file variable called
coding
.
Out of the box, the Markdown parser is configured to support the commonmark 0.28 “Markdown dialect” plus all the following extensions:
However, thanks to the flexmark-java software component used by ebookc
to implement Markdown support, all this can be configured by passing some load.markdown.XXX
options to ebookc
.
For example, pass
-p load.markdown.profile GITHUB
-p load.markdown.less-extensions true
-p load.markdown.gfm-tasklist true
to ebookc
in order to parse the Github-flavored Markdown dialect and to enable a minimal set of extensions plus the task lists syntax extension.
Supported “Markdown dialects” are COMMONMARK
, COMMONMARK_0_26
, COMMONMARK_0_27
, COMMONMARK_0_28
, FIXED_INDENT
, KRAMDOWN
, MARKDOWN
, GITHUB_DOC
, GITHUB
, MULTI_MARKDOWN
, PEGDOWN
, PEGDOWN_STRICT
. See Markdown Processor Emulation.
Parameter -p load.markdown.less-extensions true
is a shorthand parameter instructing ebookc
to reset its extensions to the following minimal set of extensions:
The above minimal set of extensions corresponds to what’s described in the Markdown Cheatsheet.
All supported Markdown syntax extensions are documented in Section 4.1.1. Supported Markdown extensions.
Converts plain text abbreviations (e.g. IBM) to <abbr>
elements.
This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.abbreviation false
to ebookc
.
Example:
The HTML specification is maintained by the W3C. *[HTML]: Hyper Text Markup Language *[W3C]: World Wide Web Consortium
is converted to:
<p>The <abbr title="Hyper Text Markup Language">HTML</abbr> specification is maintained by the <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>.</p>
which is rendered as:
The HTML specification is maintained by the W3C.
Syntax for creating admonitions such as notes, tips, warnings, etc.
This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.admonition false
to ebookc
.
After the "!!!
" tag, the admonition type must be one of "note
", "attention
","caution
", "danger
", "fastpath
", "important
", "notice
", "remember
", "restriction
", "tip
","trouble
", "warning
".
A note example not having a title:
!!! note "" Support is limited to bug reports.
is converted to:
<blockquote class="role-note"> <p>Support is limited to bug reports.</p> </blockquote>
which is rendered as:
Support is limited to bug reports.
A tip example having a title:
!!! tip "How do you do a hard reboot on an iPad?" Press and hold both the **Home** and **Power** buttons until your iPad® reboots. You can release both buttons when you see Apple® logo.
is converted to:
<blockquote class="role-tip"> <h4 class="role-admonition-title">How do you do a hard reboot on an iPad?</h4> <p>Press and hold both the <strong>Home</strong> and <strong>Power</strong> buttons until your iPad® reboots.</p> <p>You can release both buttons when you see Apple® logo.</p> </blockquote>
which is rendered as:
How do you do a hard reboot on an iPad?
Press and hold both the Home and Power buttons until your iPad® reboots.
You can release both buttons when you see Apple® logo.
Syntax for adding attributes to the generated HTML elements:
attributes -> '{' attribute_spec ( S attribute_spec)* '}' attribute_spec -> name=value | name='value' | name="value" | #id |.class
An easy rule to remember
If an
{...}
specification is separated by space characters from some plain text (e.g.some plain text {...}
) then the attributes are added to the parent element of the text.
This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.attributes false
to ebookc
.
Example:
The *circumference { .first-term }* is the length of one circuit along the circle, or the distance around the circle. {#circumference title="See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle"}
is converted to:
<p id="circumference" title="See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle">The <em class="first-term">circumference</em> the length of one circuit along the circle, or the distance around the circle.</p>
which is rendered as:
The circumference is the length of one circuit along the circle, or the distance around the circle.
Pitfall
By default, heading IDs are not “rendered” in HTML (which is somewhat counterintuitive). You must pass
-p load.markdown.renderer.RENDER_HEADER_ID true
toebookc
get them “rendered”.
Turns plain text URLs and email addresses into <a href="...">
elements.
This Markdown syntax extension is disabled by default. In order to enable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.autolink true
to ebookc
.
Example:
Please send your bug reports to ebookc-support@xmlmind.com, a public, moderated, mailing list. More information in http://www.xmlmind.com/ebookc/support.html.
is converted to:
<p>Please send your bug reports to <a href="mailto:ebookc-support@xmlmind.com">ebookc-support@xmlmind.com</a>, a public, moderated, mailing list. More information in <a href="http://www.xmlmind.com/ebookc/support.html" >http://www.xmlmind.com/ebookc/support.html</a>.</p>
which is rendered as:
Please send your bug reports to ebookc-support@xmlmind.com, a public, moderated, mailing list. More information in http://www.xmlmind.com/ebookc/support.html.
Syntax for creating definition lists, that is <dl>
, <dt>
and <dd>
elements.
This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.definition false
to ebookc
.
Example:
Glossary: LED : Light emitting diode. ABS : Antilock braking system. ESC ESP : Electronic stability control, also known as Electronic Stability Program. : On motorcycles, ESC/ESP is called *Traction Control*. > Ducati was one of the first to introduce a true competition-level > traction control system (**DTC**) on a production motorcycle. EBA : Emergency brake assist.
is converted to:
<p>Glossary:</p> <dl> <dt>LED</dt> <dd><p>Light emitting diode.</p></dd> <dt>ABS</dt> <dd><p>Antilock braking system.</p></dd> <dt>ESC</dt> <dt>ESP</dt> <dd><p>Electronic stability control, also known as Electronic Stability Program.</p></dd> <dd><p>On motorcycles, ESC/ESP is called <em>Traction Control</em>.</p> <blockquote><p>Ducati was one of the first to introduce a true competition-level traction control system (<strong>DTC</strong>) on a production motorcycle.</p></blockquote></dd> <dt>EBA</dt> <dd><p>Emergency brake assist.</p></dd> </dl>
which is rendered as:
Glossary:
Light emitting diode.
Antilock braking system.
Electronic stability control, also known as Electronic Stability Program.
On motorcycles, ESC/ESP is called Traction Control.
Ducati was one of the first to introduce a true competition-level traction control system (DTC) on a production motorcycle.
Emergency brake assist.
Remember that:
- The leading "
:
" character of a definition must be followed by one or more space characters.- Terms must be separated from the previous definition by a blank line.
- A blank line is not allowed between two consecutive terms.
- A blank line is allowed before a definition.
Syntax for creating footnotes and footnote references.
This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.footnotes false
to ebookc
.
Example:
The differences between the programming languages C++[^1] and Java can be traced to their heritage. [^1]: The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup. C++[^1] was designed for systems and applications programming, extending the procedural programming language C[^2]. [^2]: The C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie. Originally published in 1978.
is converted to:
<p>The differences between the programming languages C++<a class="role-footnote-ref" href="#__FN1"></a> and Java can be traced to their heritage.</p> <div class="role-footnote" id="__FN1"> <p>The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup.</p> </div> <p>C++<aclass="role-footnote-ref" href="#__FN1"></a> was designed for systems and applications programming, extending the procedural programming language C<a class="role-footnote-ref" href="#__FN2"></a>.</p> <div class="role-footnote" id="__FN2"> <p>The C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie.</p> <p>Originally published in 1978.</p> </div>
which is rendered as:
The differences between the programming languages C++[11] and Java can be traced to their heritage.
C++[11] was designed for systems and applications programming, extending the procedural programming language C[12].
Converts tagged text "++something new++
" to <ins>something new</ins>
, which is rendered as: something new
This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.ins false
to ebookc
.
Converts
~~something deleted~~
" to <del>something deleted</del>
, which is rendered as: ~a subscript~
" to <sub>a subscript<sub/>
, which is rendered as: a subscriptThis Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.gfm-strikethrough false
to ebookc
.
Converts tagged text "^a superscript^
" to <sup>a superscript</sup>
, which is rendered as: a superscript
This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.superscript false
to ebookc
.
!A[Text](links)
- audio. Links is one or more links separated by character “|
”.!E[Text](links)
- embed.!P[Text](links)
- picture.!V[Text](links)
- video.Audio example:
Audio example: !A[Falcon calling](media/falcon.mp3|media/falcon.wav).
is converted to:
<p>Audio example: <audio controls="" title="Falcon calling"> <source src="media/falcon.mp3" type="audio/mpeg"> <source src="media/falcon.wav" type="audio/wav"> Your browser does not support the audio element. </audio>.</p>
which is rendered as:
Audio example: .
Video example:
Video example: !V[Funny big bunny](media/bbb.mp4).
is converted to:
<p>Video example: <video controls="" title="Funny big bunny"> <source src="media/bbb.mp4" type="video/mp4"> Your browser does not support the video element. </video>.</p>
which is rendered as:
Video example: .
This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.media-tags false
to ebookc
.
Converts pipe "|
" delimited text to <table>
elements.
This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.tables false
to ebookc
.
Simple table example:
| Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 | | -------- | -------- | -------- | | Cell 1,1 | Cell 1,2 | Cell 1,3 | | Cell 2,1 | Cell 2,2 | Cell 2,3 |
is converted to:
<table border="1"> <thead> <tr> <th>Header 1</th> <th>Header 2</th> <th>Header 3</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Cell 1,1</td> <td>Cell 1,2</td> <td>Cell 1,3</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cell 2,1</td> <td>Cell 2,2</td> <td>Cell 2,3</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
which is rendered as:
Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 |
---|---|---|
Cell 1,1 | Cell 1,2 | Cell 1,3 |
Cell 2,1 | Cell 2,2 | Cell 2,3 |
Table example having centered and right-aligned columns:
| Header 1 | Header 2 | Table Header 3 | | -------- | :-------------: | -------------: | | Cell 1,1 | Table cell 1,2 | Cell 1,3 | | Cell 2,1 | Cell 2,2 | Cell 2,3 |
is converted to:
<table border="1"> <thead> <tr> <th>Header 1</th> <th style="text-align: center;">Header 2</th> <th style="text-align: right;">Table Header 3</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>Cell 1,1</td> <td style="text-align: center;">Table cell 1,2</td> <td style="text-align: right;">Cell 1,3</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cell 2,1</td> <td style="text-align: center;">Cell 2,2</td> <td style="text-align: right;">Cell 2,3</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
which is rendered as:
Header 1 | Header 2 | Table Header 3 |
---|---|---|
Cell 1,1 | Table cell 1,2 | Cell 1,3 |
Cell 2,1 | Cell 2,2 | Cell 2,3 |
Table example having cells spanning several columns and a caption:
| Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 | | -------- | -------- | -------- | | Cell 1,1 + 1,2 || Cell 1,3 | | Cell 2,1 + 2,2 + 2,3 ||| | Cell 3,1 | Cell 3,2 | Cell 3,3 | [Table caption here]
is converted to:
<table border="1"> <caption>Table caption here</caption> <thead> <tr> <th>Header 1</th> <th>Header 2</th> <th>Header 3</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="2">Cell 1,1 + 1,2</td> <td>Cell 1,3</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="3">Cell 2,1 + 2,2 + 2,3</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Cell 3,1</td> <td>Cell 3,2</td> <td>Cell 3,3</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
which is rendered as:
Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 |
---|---|---|
Cell 1,1 + 1,2 | Cell 1,3 | |
Cell 2,1 + 2,2 + 2,3 | ||
Cell 3,1 | Cell 3,2 | Cell 3,3 |
Converts
'
" to apostrophe ’
, which is rendered as in word: "don’t"...
" and ". . .
" to ellipsis …
, which are both rendered as: …--
" to en dash –
, which is rendered as: –---
" to em dash —
, which is rendered as: —'some text'
to ‘some text’
, which is rendered as: ‘some text’"some text"
to “some text”
, which is rendered as: “some text”<<some text>>
to «some text»
, which is rendered as: «some text»This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.typographic false
to ebookc
.
If you don’t want some of the above plain text sequences to be processed, specify:
-p load.markdown.typographic.ENABLE_QUOTES false
-p load.markdown.typographic.ENABLE_SMARTS false
'
", "...
", ". . .
", "--
", "---
".Syntax for adding metadata to the generated HTML document, that is, for adding <head>/<title>
and/or <head>/<meta>
elements.
These metadata are specified by key/value pairs written using a subset of the YAML (see also http://yaml.org/) syntax.
This Markdown syntax extension is enabled by default. In order to disable it, pass parameter -p load.markdown.yaml-front-matter false
to ebookc
.
Example:
--- title: The C Programming Language author: - Brian W. Kernighan - Dennis Ritchie description: | One of the best-selling programming books published in the last fifty years, "K&R" has been called everything from the "bible" to "a landmark in computer science" and it has influenced generations of programmers. date: 1988-03-22 ---
is converted to:
<head> <title>The C Programming Language</title> <meta content="Brian W. Kernighan" name="author" /> <meta content="Dennis Ritchie" name="author" /> <meta content="One of the best-selling programming books published in the last fifty years, "K&R" has been called everything from the "bible" to "a landmark in computer science" and it has influenced generations of programmers." name="description" /> <meta content="1988-03-22" name="date" /> </head>
The following Markdown syntax extensions are also supported:
All the above extensions are disabled by default. In order to enable an extension, pass parameter -p load.markdown.EXTENSION_NAME true
to ebookc
. For example: -p load.markdown.emoji true
Any extension listed in this section may be parameterized by passing parameter -p load.markdown.EXTENSION_NAME.PARAMETER_NAME PARAMETER_VALUE
[13] to ebookc
. Examples:
-p load.markdown.emoji.ATTR_IMAGE_SIZE 16
-p load.markdown.emoji.ATTR_ALIGN ""
-p load.markdown.emoji.USE_IMAGE_TYPE IMAGE_ONLY
-p load.markdown.emoji.USE_SHORTCUT_TYPE ANY_GITHUB_PREFERRED
With the above emoji parameters, ":smile:
" is rendered as:
More generally, the Markdown parser (pseudo EXTENSION_NAME is "parser
") and the HTML renderer (pseudo EXTENSION_NAME is "renderer
") may also be parameterized this way. For example, automatically generate an ID for all headings not already having an ID and “render” all heading IDs in HTML[14]:
-p load.markdown.renderer.GENERATE_HEADER_ID true
-p load.markdown.renderer.RENDER_HEADER_ID true
.
More information about extensions and their parameters in Extensions (flexmark-java is the software component used by ebookc to parse Markdown and convert it to HTML).
XMLmind Ebook Compiler automatically copies all the resources referenced by the ebook specification and the input HTML pages to the output directory in order to create a self-contained deliverable. Creating self-contained deliverables is generally desirable and for some output formats, like EPUB, this is really required.
For example, if you run (single-page HTML output format):
ebookc doc.ebook out/doc.html
all
the resources of doc.ebook
are copied to
out/doc_files/
.
Other example, if you run:
ebookc -f webhelp doc.ebook out/webhelp/
all
the resources of doc.ebook
are copied to
out/webhelp/_res/
.
By default, XMLmind Ebook Compiler considers that any file [15] referenced by the ebook specification or an input HTML page using a relative URI is a resource. This is generally the case of images, audio and video files, CSS stylesheets, scripts files referenced by the ebook specification and the input HTML pages.
In this example, image
"cc-by-sa.png
" is obviously a resource and file
"creativecommons.html
" not being an input HTML page, is also
considered to be a resource:
1 2 3 4 5 | <p>All the above tutorials are licensed under the <a href="creativecommons.html"><img src="cc-by-sa.png" alt="CC BY-SA"/>Creative Commons License</a>, which means that everyone is welcome to distribute, modify, translate, etc, any of them.</p> |
The automatic resource
management of ebookc may be turned off globally by setting option
proc.ignoreresources
to "true
".
If you want to specify that only some of the resources of an ebook are external and as such, should not be processed by ebookc, please use
external-resource
"
for standard attribute rel
(HTML link elements have this
attribute);data-external-resource
for
elements like img
which do not have attribute
rel
.Example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <p>All the above tutorials are licensed under the <a href="creativecommons.html" rel="external-resource"><img src="cc-by-sa.png" alt="CC BY-SA" data-external-resource=""/>Creative Commons License</a>, which means that everyone is welcome to distribute, modify, translate, etc, any of them.</p> |
In the above example, files
"cc-by-sa.png
" and "creativecommons.htm
l" are not
processed as resources.
Option
externalresourcebase
may be used to specify an absolute or relative URI to be prepended to external resources having a relative URI. Example:-p proc.externalresourcebase "../../samples/"
.
By default, XMLmind Ebook Compiler considers that any file referenced by the ebook specification or an input HTML page using an absolute URI is not a resource. Example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <p>All the above tutorials are licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/creativecommons.html"> <img src="https://creativecommons.org/cc-by-sa.png" alt="CC BY-SA"/>Creative Commons License</a>, which means that everyone is welcome to distribute, modify, translate, etc, any of them.</p> |
In the above example, files
"https://creativecommons.org/creativecommons.html
" and
"https://creativecommons.org/cc-by-sa.png
" are not processed as
resources.
If you want to specify that some files having absolute URIs are in fact resources and as such, should be processed by ebookc, please use
resource
" for standard attribute rel
(HTML link elements have this
attribute);data-resource
for elements like
img
which do not have attribute rel
.Example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | <p>All the above tutorials are licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/creativecommons.html" rel="resource"> <img src="https://creativecommons.org/cc-by-sa.png" data-resource="" alt="CC BY-SA"/>Creative Commons License</a>, which means that everyone is welcome to distribute, modify, translate, etc, any of them.</p> |
In the above example, files
"https://creativecommons.org/creativecommons.html
" and
"https://creativecommons.org/cc-by-sa.png
" are processed as
resources.
In the following example, files
"styles.css
", "creativecommons.html
" and
"cc-by-sa.png
" are automatically processed as
resources:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | ... <head> ... <link href="css/styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> </head> ... <p>All the above tutorials are licensed under the <a href="creativecommons.html"><img src="cc-by-sa.png" alt="CC BY-SA"/>Creative Commons License</a>, which means that everyone is welcome to distribute, modify, translate, etc, any of them.</p> |
Moreover, if file
"creativecommons.html
" contains XHTML —that is, can be parsed
by XMLmind Ebook Compiler— its resources are processed too as if
"creativecommons.html
" were an input HTML page.
This is
also the case for resource "styles.css
". The resources found in
a CSS stylesheet (e.g. file "texture.png
" in
"background-image: url(images/texture.png);
" or file
"core_styles.css
" in "@import
url(lib/core_styles.css);
") are automatically detected and processed
by XMLmind Ebook Compiler.
However, if she/he finds this clearer, the
ebook author may also explicitly specify the sub-resources of CSS
stylesheets using extra link
elements in the headcommon
of the
ebook specification or in the head
of an input HTML page.
Example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 | ... <head> ... <link href="css/images/" rel="resource" type="inode/directory" /> <link href="css/styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" /> </head> ... <p>All the above tutorials are licensed under the <a href="creativecommons.html"><img src="cc-by-sa.png" alt="CC BY-SA"/>Creative Commons License</a>, which means that everyone is welcome to distribute, modify, translate, etc, any of them.</p> |
Notice attribute rel="resource"
which
makes even clearer the purpose of this link. Also notice
type="inode/directory"
which is needed because "css/images/
" is a folder and not a
simple file.
XMLmind Ebook Compiler can conditionally exclude some contents found in the ebook specification or in the input HTML pages. To put this feature into use, the ebook author must:
data-*
attributes on the elements
to be conditionally excluded. Examples:
data-edition="complete"
, data-output-format="docx odt
pdf rtf wml"
.These data-*
attributes are often called
profiling attributes because they are used to define several
profiles for the same document.
It's up to the ebook author to choose the names and allowed values for the profiling attributes.
The ebook author may allow only a single value for a
given profiling attribute. Example: attribute data-edition
may contain only a single value, one of "complete
" or
"abridged
".
Or, on the contrary, the ebook author
may allow a given profiling attribute to contain several values
separated by space characters. Example: attribute
data-output-format
may contain one or more of
"docx
", "epub
", "frameset
",
"html
", "odt
", "pdf
",
"rtf
", "webhelp
", "wml
".
profile.*
parameters to the
ebookc
command-line option. These profile.*
parameters must match the chosen profiling attributes. Example:
-p profile.edition abridged
-p profile.output-format pdf
.Note that unless you pass a
profile.*
parameter, the corresponding data-*
attribute is not given any special meaning by XMLmind Ebook Compiler.
For example, without -p profile.output-format VALUE
,
attribute data-output-format
is considered to be just an
ordinary attribute.
How some elements are conditionally excluded by XMLmind Ebook Compiler is best explained by an example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | <p>See YouTube demo:</p> <p data-edition="complete" data-output-format="epub frameset html webhelp"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6MgZBZ4XHzU" height="360" width="640"></iframe></p> <p data-edition="complete" data-output-format="docx odt pdf rtf wml"> <img src="images/YouTube_play_icon.svg" alt="..."/> <a href="https://youtu.be/6MgZBZ4XHzU" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/6MgZBZ4XHzU</a>.</p> |
See YouTube demo:
For an
element to be excluded, suffice for a single profiling attribute to
be “excluded”. A profiling attribute data-X
is
“excluded” if none of the values it contains matches a value contained in
the profile.X
parameter passed to
ebookc
.
For example, with
-p profile.edition complete
-p profile.output-format pdf
, the embedded video
1 2 3 | <p data-edition="complete" data-output-format="epub frameset html webhelp"> <iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6MgZBZ4XHzU" height="360" width="640"></iframe></p> |
is excluded
because despite the fact that data-edition="complete
" is
“included”, data-output-format="epub frameset html webhelp"
is
“excluded”.
Other examples, if you pass ebookc
profile.*
parameter at all, the above example will
contain both the embedded video and the YouTube link to the video.-p profile.edition abridged
, the above example will
contain neither the embedded video nor the YouTube link to the
video.-p profile.edition complete
, the above example will
contain both the embedded video and the YouTube link to the video.-p profile.output-format epub
, the above example will
contain just the embedded video.-p profile.output-format pdf
, the above example will
contain just the YouTube link to the video.-p profile.edition abridged
-p profile.output-format pdf
, the above example will
contain neither the embedded video nor the YouTube link to the
video.-p profile.edition complete
-p profile.output-format pdf
, the above example will contain just
the YouTube link to the video.-p profile.edition complete
-p profile.output-format "epub pdf"
, the above example will
contain both the embedded video and the YouTube link to the video.XMLmind Ebook Compiler has good support for transclusion, that is the ability to include contents found in an input HTML page into another input HTML page. This feature is implemented using a standard mechanism called XInclude.
Example,
"page1.html
" contains paragraph having
id="notice"
:
1 2 | <p id="notice" class="important">Interest rates are subject to fluctuation without notice.</p> |
Because this paragraph has an
id
, it's possible to include it in
"page2.html
":
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <p>Paragraph found in page2.html.</p> <xi:include href="page1.html" xpointer="notice" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" />[16] <p>Other paragraph found in page2.html.</p> |
The corresponding output HTML page will then contain:
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <p>Paragraph found in page2.html.</p> <p id="notice" class="important">Interest rates are subject to fluctuation without notice.</p> <p>Other paragraph found in page2.html.</p> |
Note that transclusion works fine not only between two input HTML pages, but also:
However transclusion does not work between an input HTML page and an ebook specification.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | <p id="notice" class="important">Interest rates are subject to fluctuation without notice.</p> ... ELSEWHERE in page1.html ... <xi:include href="" xpointer="notice" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" /> |
Notice
href=""
to refer to the same file.
Transclusion is most often used between the input HTML pages and a “utility HTML page” which is not an input HTML page but which contains useful “snippets”.
Example, excerpts from
"snippets.html
":
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | <ul> <li><span id="ebookc">XMLmind Ebook Compiler</span>.</li> <li><span id="xxe">XMLmind XML Editor</span>.</li> <li><a href="http://www.xmlmind.com/" id="xmlmind" target="_blank">XMLmind</a>.</li> </ul> |
Now, including snippets in an input HTML page:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | <p><xi:include href="snippets.html" xpointer="ebookc" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" /> is free, open source software developed by <xi:include href="snippets.html" xpointer="xmlmind" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" />.</p> <p><xi:include href="snippets.html" xpointer="xxe" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" /> is a commercial product developed by <xi:include href="snippets.html" xpointer="xmlmind" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" />.</p> |
Make sure to have a Java™ 1.8+ runtime
installed on your machine. To check this, please open a command window and
type "java -version
" followed by Enter. You should
get something looking like this:
C:\> java -version openjdk version "23.0.1" 2024-10-15 OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 23.0.1+11-39) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.0.1+11-39, mixed mode)
Simply
unzip ebookc-X_Y_Z.zip
in any directory.
After
that, you can run command-line utility ebookc
by simply executing
ebookc_install_dir/bin/ebookc.bat
(ebookc_install_dir/bin/ebookc
on the Mac and on
Linux).
C:\> mkdir XMLmind C:\> cd XMLmind C:\XMLmind> unzip ebookc-1_11_1.zip C:\XMLmind> dir ebookc-1_11_1 ... <DIR> bin ... <DIR> doc ... <DIR> docsrc ... <DIR> LEGAL ... C:\XMLmind> ebookc-1_11_1\bin\ebookc.bat ebookc: ERROR: Usage: ebookc [option]* in_ebook_file out_file_or_directory ...
bin/
, bin/ebookc
,
bin/ebookc.bat
ebookc
command-line utility. Use shell script
ebookc
on Linux and on the Mac. Use ebookc.bat
on Windows.doc/
, doc/index.html
docsrc/
, docsrc/manual.xml
docsrc/manual.ebook
contains an ebook specification. You may want to use this sample ebook
specification to experiment with the ebookc
command-line
utility.LEGAL/
, LEGAL.txt
lib/*.jar
lib/ebookc.jar
contain the code of XMLmind
Ebook Compiler.plus/
ebookc-X_Y_Z-plus-fop.zip
distribution. It contains
most recent Apache FOP (including hyphenation and MathML
support). This
XSL-FO processor is automatically declared and thus, ready to be used to
generate PDF or PostScript.schema/
schema/catalog.xml
contains an XML
catalog which points to
these schemas.src/
, src/build.xml
src/build.xml
is an ant build file which allows to rebuild
lib/ebookc.jar
.whc_template/
xsl/
Your source HTML pages must contain valid[17] XHTML (“plain HTML” cannot be parsed by ebookc) and preferably valid XHTML5, because ebookc anyway generates XHTML5 markup.
The html
root element must have 1
head
and 1 body
child elements. The
head
child element must have 1 title
child
element.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | <!DOCTYPE html> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8" /> <title>...</title> </head> <body> ... </body> </html> |
If you plan to use XMLmind XML Editor as your ebook authoring tool, do not forget to add attribute
class="role-ebook-page"
to thehtml
root element of your source HTML pages. XMLmind XHTML Editor detects this attribute and this will cause the editor to replace its stock "XHTML" menus and toolbars by extended "XHTML" menus and toolbars.
You may use headings (h1
, h2
,
h3
, etc) normally, without worrying about the role as a book
division (chapter, section, etc) that will be given to your input HTML
page.
By default, book
attribute adjustuserheadings="true!article"
specifies that the levels of your headings are to be automatically adjusted
(except inside article
elements, which are considered to be
independent, self-contained content) to make them consistent with the level
of the title of the book division.
Example, input HTML page contains:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8" /> <title>Troubleshooting</title> </head> <body> <h1>Symptoms</h1> ... <h2>Intermittent symptoms</h2> ... <h1>Most common causes</h1> ... </body> </htm> |
The above input HTML is referenced as a subsection of a
chapter in the book. Therefore the title of the subsection is represented by
an h3
element. The output HTML page containing the subsection
then looks like:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | <section class="role-section2"> <h3 class="role-section2-title">Troubleshooting</h3> <h4>Symptoms</h4> ... <h5>Intermittent symptoms</h5> ... <h4>Most common causes</h4> ... |
If you want to prevent this from happening, please add attribute
adjustuserheadings="false"
to your root book
element or add a class
attribute to some or all of your
headings. A heading having a class
attribute is understood by
XMLmind Ebook Compiler as being “not an ordinary heading which could be
modified”.
An example is a figure
element which has a
class
attribute containing "role-example
". This kind of
figure is listed in the "List of Examples" (that is,
book
element
lox
) only if it also has a figcaption
child element. Example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | <figure class="role-example"> <figcaption>"Hello World" program in the C language</figcaption> <pre>/* Hello World */ #include <stdio.h&ght; int main() { printf("Hello World\n"); return 0; }</pre> </figure> |
is rendered as:
A program
listing can have its lines automatically numbered and/or can feature syntax
highlighting. This is done by adding
"role-listing-NUMBER-LANGUAGE-tabWIDTH
" to the
class
attribute of a pre
element. Options NUMBER,
LANGUAGE, tabWIDTH
, may be specified in any
order. Moreover some or all of these options may be omitted.
NUMBER
, a strictly positive integer, specifies
the number of the first line of the program listing. This option may be
omitted if you don't want automatic line numbering.LANGUAGE
, one of (case-insensitive):
"bourne
" (or "shell
" or "sh
"),
"c
", "cmake
" (or "make
" or
"makefile
"), "cpp
", "csharp
",
"css21
" (or "css
"), "delphi
",
"ini
", "java
", "javascript
",
"lua
", "m2
" (Modula 2),
"perl
", "php
", "python
",
"ruby
", "sql1999
", "sql2003
",
"sql92
" (or "sql
"), "tcl
",
"upc
" (Unified Parallel C),
"html
", "xml
", specifies the programming
language or markup language used in the program listing. This option may
be omitted if you don't want syntax highlighting.tabWIDTH
where WIDTH is a positive
integer, specifies whether tab characters should be expanded to a number
of space characters. WIDTH is the maximum number of space
characters for an expanded tab character, hence this value specifies the
location of “tab stops”. Example:
<pre class="role-listing-1-java-tab4">
means expand
tabs to up to 4 space characters in this line-numbered Java listing.
Other example: <pre class="role-listing-tab0-shell">
means: do not replace tabs in this Bourne shell listing. When
tabWIDTH
is omitted, it is equivalent to having an
implicit tab8
.Example 1 (in the following C program, lines are indented using tab characters):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | <pre class="role-listing-1-c-tab4">/* Hello World */ #include <stdio.h&ght; int main() { printf("Hello World\n"); return 0; }</pre> |
is rendered as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | /* Hello World */ #include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("Hello World\n"); return 0; } |
Superfluous indentation is removed too
Note that in addition to replacing tab characters by a number of space characters, the
tabWIDTH
facility also removes the space characters which are common to the beginning of all text lines. That is, it removes the superfluous “indentation” in the program listing, if any.Moreover, the
tabWIDTH
facility also removes the (useless) space characters found just before a newline character.See example 2 below in which the indentation is automatically removed.
Example 2 (implicit
role-listing-1-tab8
; first line " /tmp/
"
starts with 4 space characters):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | <pre class="role-listing-1"> /tmp/ /usr/ bin/ lib/ <b>local/</b> <b>bin/</b> <b>lib/</b> <b>src/</b> src/ /var/ </pre> |
is rendered as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | /tmp/ /usr/ bin/ lib/ local/ bin/ lib/ src/ src/ /var/ |
An example is a figure
element which has a
class
attribute containing "role-equation
". This kind of
figure is listed in the "List of Equations" (that is,
book
element
loe
) only if it also has a figcaption
child element. Example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 | <figure class="role-equation"> <figcaption>Special relativity</figcaption> <div> <math display="block" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mrow> <mrow> <mi>t</mi> <mo>’</mo> </mrow> <mo>=</mo> <mrow> <mi>t</mi> <mo>⁢</mo> <mfrac> <mn>1</mn> <msqrt> <mrow> <mn>1</mn> <mo>-</mo> <mfrac> <msup> <mi>v</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msup> <msup> <mi>c</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msup> </mfrac> </mrow> </msqrt> </mfrac> </mrow> </mrow> </math> <div> </figure> |
is rendered as:
Few web browsers natively support MathML, so it's recommended to add a link to the MathJax script to your input HTML pages containing equations[18]. This typically done as follows (this loads latest 3.x version of the MathJax
mml-chtml
component):<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8" /> <title>...</title> <script async="async" id="MathJax-script" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3/es5/mml-chtml.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </head> ...
An admonition, that is, a warning, a tip, a notice, etc, is a blockquote
element which has a
class
attribute containing
"role-ADMONITION
", where
role-ADMONITION
is one of the following class
names:
Class name | Description |
---|---|
role-note |
This is just a note. |
role-attention |
Please pay extra attention to this note. |
role-caution |
Care is required when proceeding. |
role-danger |
Important! Be aware of this before doing anything else. |
role-fastpath |
This note will speed you on your way. |
role-important |
This note is important. |
role-notice |
Indicates a potential situation which, if not avoided, might result in an undesirable result or state. |
role-remember |
Don't forget to do what this note says. |
role-restriction |
You can't do what this note says. |
role-tip |
This is a fine little tip. |
role-trouble |
Provides information about how to remedy a trouble situation. |
role-warning |
Indicates a potentially hazardous situation. |
Example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | <blockquote class="role-important"> <h4>How to check your oil</h4> <p>You need to check your car’s oil before any long trip to avoid major damage.</p> <p>The process for how to check your oil is simple and involves using the dip stick to see levels and test quality.</p> </blockquote> |
is rendered as:
How to check your oil
You need to check your car’s oil before any long trip to avoid major damage.
The process for how to check your oil is simple and involves using the dip stick to see levels and test quality.
This first and simplest form for a
footnote is a span
element which has a class
attribute containing "role-footnote
".
Example:
1 2 3 | <p>Yoko<span class="role-footnote">Written with kanji <i>ko</i>, meaning "child". The syllable <i>ko</i> is not generally found at the end of masculine names.</span> is a Japanese feminine given name.</p> |
is rendered as:
Yoko[19] is a Japanese feminine given name.
When you need a footnote to contain paragraphs, lists or tables or when you need to reuse the same footnote at different locations in your document, you'll have to use the second, more general, form for a footnote.
This second form is a div
element which has a class
attribute containing "role-footnote
" and an id attribute.
Moreover, you'll also have to insert an a
element at the location where you want
the footnote marker to be displayed. This a
element, which
points to the footnote div
, must have a class
attribute containing "role-footnote-ref
".
Example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <p>Yoko<a class="role-footnote-ref" href="#ko"></a>is a Japanese feminine given name.</p> <div class="role-footnote" id="ko">Written with kanji <i>ko</i>, meaning "child". The syllable <i>ko</i> is not generally found at the end of masculine names.</div> |
is rendered as:
Yoko[20] is a Japanese feminine given name.
No need to specify the text of a link when this link points to a book division (chapter, section, etc) or to a table, figure, example, or equation having a caption.
Example, the following empty links point respectively to section "Admonitions" and to table "Admonition classes" found in this section:
<p><a href="admonitions.html"></a> contains <a href="admonitions.html#admonition_classes"></a>.</p>
are rendered as:
Section 6.5. Admonitions contains Table 6-1. Admonition classes.
The text which is automatically
generated for these empty links may be configured using attribute
xreflabels
of element book
.
data-xml-id-ref
It's also
possible to create links using the a
element and proprietary attribute
data-xml-id-ref
rather than (or in addition to) standard
attribute href
.
Attribute data-xml-id-ref
must contain the value of the xml:id
attribute of a book division found in the ebook specification. This
allows the creation of links to locations that do not exist in the input
HTML pages, but which will be created in the output HTML
pages.
Example, <a data-xml-id-ref="ch04"/>
points
to the following chapter:
1 2 3 4 5 | <chapter xml:id="ch04"> <head><title>...</title></head> <section href="ch4/s1.html"/> <section href="ch4/s2.html"/> </chapter> |
In input HTML page "ch4/s2.html
", you
may refer to the first section of the chapter by writing
<a href="s1.html"/>
. But how to refer to the chapter
itself? Notice that this chapter has no input HTML page to refer
to.
The solution to this problem is to add proprietary attribute
data-xml-id-ref
to an a
element. For the above
example, it's <a data-xml-id-ref="ch04"/>
.
Note
that writing <a href="s1.html" data-xml-id-ref="ch04"/>
is an even better option because href="s1.html"
is used as a
fallback link target in case xml:id="ch04"
is not defined in
the ebook specification.
Creating index terms by hand (other than copying an index term to paste it elsewhere) is tedious and error prone. It's strongly recommended to use the specialized dialog box of XMLmind XML Editor to do that.
An index term is represented by
a a
element having attribute
class="role-index-term"
containing
text —the primary word or phrase in an index term— and possibly nested span
elements having the following roles:
"role-term
", "role-see
", "role-see-also
".
index_term -> end_of_range | term end_of_range -> <a class="role-index-term" data-end-range="range_name"/> term -> <a class="role-index-term" term_attributes>term_content</a> term_attributes -> [ data-sort-as="text" ]? [ data-start-range="range_name" ]? term_content -> rich_text term_childs term_childs -> [ sub_term ]? | [ see ]* | [ see_also ]* sub_term -> <span class="role-term" term_attributes>term_content</span> see -> <span class="role-see">see_content</span> see_also -> <span class="role-see-also">see_content</span> see_content -> rich_text see_child see_child -> [ <span class="role-term">rich_text see_child</span> ]?
In the above grammar:
b
, i
, em
, etc) allowed in
a
and span
elements.<span class="role-term"
> to be nested to an arbitrary
depth, a <a class="role-index-term">
may contain only
up two nested <span class="role-term">
,
corresponding respectively to the secondary word and tertiary word of an
index term. The same limit applies to
<span class="role-see">
and to
<span class="role-see-also">
.Examples:
<a class="role-index-term">Dog, man's best friend</a>
1 2 | <a class="role-index-term" data-sort-as="percent">%</a> |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 | <a class="role-index-term"><b>Pet</b> <span class="role-term">Cat</span> </a> ... <a class="role-index-term"><b>Pet</b> <span class="role-term">Cat <span class="role-term">Siamese</span> </span> </a> ... <a class="role-index-term"><b>Pet</b> <span class="role-term">Cat <span class="role-term">Burmese</span> </span> </a> |
dogs
" range:1 2 3 | <a class="role-index-term"><b>Pet</b> <span class="role-term" data-start-range="dogs">Dog</span> </a> |
dogs
" range. The end of a range must
be found after the corresponding start of range in the same
input HTML page or in a different input HTML page:<a class="role-index-term" data-end-range="dogs"></a>
Notice
that an end of range index term does not contain text nor any child
element. It just has a "data-end-range
" attribute.
1 2 3 4 5 | <a class="role-index-term"><i lang="la">Felis catus</i> <span class="role-see">Pet <span class="role-term">Cat</span> </span> </a> |
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <a class="role-index-term"><i lang="la">Canis lupus</i> <span class="role-see-also">Dog, man's best friend</span> <span class="role-see-also">Pet <span class="role-term">Dog</span> </span> </a> |
appendices
Specifies the group of appendices of the ebook.
(head? , body? , related* , appendix+)
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
href |
anyURI min. length: 1 |
|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: XHTML5 global attributes, including any attribute having
a name starting with "data-
".
The following elements contain appendices: book.
The following elements occur in appendices: appendix, body, head, related.
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <appendices pagename="Appendixes"> <appendix href="pages/known_problems.html"/> <appendix href="pages/error_list.html"> <section href="pages/report_error.html"/> </chapter> </part> |
appendix
Specifies an appendix of the ebook.
(head? , body? , related* , section*)
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
href |
anyURI min. length: 1 |
|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: XHTML5 global attributes, including any attribute having
a name starting with "data-
".
The following elements contain appendix: appendices, book.
The following elements occur in appendix: body, head, related, section.
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <appendices pagename="Appendixes"> <appendix href="pages/known_problems.html"/> <appendix href="pages/error_list.html"> <section href="pages/report_error.html"/> </chapter> </part> |
backmatter
Specifies the back matter of the ebook.
(toc | index | lot | lof | loe | lox | section)+
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: any attribute having a name starting
with "data-
".
The following elements
contain backmatter
: book
.
The
following elements occur in backmatter
: index
, loe
, lof
, lot
, lox
, section
, toc
.
1 2 3 4 | <backmatter> <section href="glossary.html"/> <index/> </backmatter> |
body
Specifies the content of a book division (part, chapter, section, etc).
When the
parent of body
is element book
then
body
specifies the content of the “title page” of the
book.
It's possible for a book division to have both an
href
attribute and a body
child element. In such
case, the content “pulled” using the href
attribute is inserted
before the content specified by the body
child
element.
content+
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: XHTML5 global attributes, including any attribute having
a name starting with "data-
".
The
following elements contain body
: appendices
, appendix
, book
, chapter
, part
, section
.
The
following elements occur in body
: content
.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | <chapter> <head> <title>Using Widget</title> </head> <body> <content href="using1.html"/> <content href="using2.html"/> </body> </chapter> |
book
(headcommon? , head? , body? , related* , frontmatter? , ((part+ , appendices?) | (chapter+ , appendix*)) , backmatter?)
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
adjustuserheadings |
'false '|'true ' [ S
'! ' ( S exclusion )+
]exclusion -> HTML_element_name [ ' . ' class ]class -> class_value | class_prefix ' * ' |
"true!article " |
appendicestocdepth |
nonNegativeInteger |
"0 " |
appendixnumber |
normalizedString |
"%A " |
appendixtocdepth |
nonNegativeInteger |
"0 " |
booklistlabels |
none | all |( part |
chapter | appendix | section
| figure | table | example |
equation )+ |
"none " |
chapternumber |
normalizedString |
"%1 " |
chaptertocdepth |
nonNegativeInteger |
"0 " |
equationnumber |
normalizedString |
"%n-%1 " |
examplenumber |
normalizedString |
"%n-%1 " |
figurenumber |
normalizedString |
"%n-%1 " |
footnotenumber |
normalizedString |
"[%1] " |
headoverridedefault |
boolean |
"false " |
href |
anyURI min. length: 1 |
|
includebasestylesheet |
boolean |
"false " |
labelseparator |
normalizedString |
". " |
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
partnumber |
normalizedString |
"%I " |
parttocdepth |
nonNegativeInteger |
"0 " |
preventlonelyheading |
boolean |
"true " |
section1number |
normalizedString |
"%n.%1 " |
section2number |
normalizedString |
"%n.%1 " |
section3number |
normalizedString |
"%n.%1 " |
section4number |
normalizedString |
"%n.%1 " |
section5number |
normalizedString |
"%n.%1 " |
section6number |
normalizedString |
"%n.%1 " |
section7number |
normalizedString |
"%n.%1 " |
section8number |
normalizedString |
"%n.%1 " |
section9number |
normalizedString |
"%n.%1 " |
tablenumber |
normalizedString |
"%n-%1. " |
titlelabels |
none | all |( part |
chapter | appendix | section
| figure | table | example |
equation )+ |
"part chapter appendix figure table example
equation " |
tocdepth |
positiveInteger |
"10 " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
xreflabels |
none | all |( part |
part-number | chapter |
chapter-number | appendix |
appendix-number | section |
section-number | figure |
figure-number | table |
table-number | example |
example-number | equation |
equation-number )+ |
"all " |
Other attributes: XHTML5 global attributes, including any attribute having
a name starting with "data-
".
adjustuserheadings
true
, change the level of user-specified
headings (h1
, h2
, h3
, etc) to be
consistent with the level of automatically generated headings. If set to
false
, do not change any user-specified headings.
Example:1 2 3 4 | <chapter href="ch01.html" pagename="first_chapter"> <section href="s01.html" pagename="first_section"> <section href="s01_01.html" pagename="nested_section"> ... |
where input HTML file "s01_01.html
" starts with a
user-specified h1
.
With
adjustuserheadings="false"
, output HTML file
"nested_section.html
" contains:
1 2 3 4 5 | <section class="role-section2> <h3 class="role-section2-title">Title of the section copied from "s01_01.html"<h3> <h1>User-specified heading found in "s01_01.html"</h1> ... |
With adjustuserheadings="true"
, output HTML file
"nested_section.html
" contains:
1 2 3 4 5 | <section class="role-section2> <h3 class="role-section2-title">Title of the section copied from "s01_01.html"<h3> <h4>User-specified heading found in "s01_01.html"</h4> ... |
Note that
adjustuserheadings="true"
has no effect on headings having aclass
attribute. A heading having a user-specifiedclass
attribute is understood by XMLmind Ebook Compiler as being “not an ordinary heading which could be modified”.
Value
"true
" of attribute adjustuserheadings
may be
followed by "!
" and a list of exceptions. An exception is
either the local name of an HTML element (e.g. article
,
aside
) or the local name of an HTML element followed by a
dot and a value[21] of the
class
attribute (e.g. blockquote.role-warning
,
blockquote.role-*
). When this is the case, the level of
user-specified headings is not changed inside specified
elements.
Note that the default value of attribute
adjustuserheadings
is "true!article
" and not
simply "true
" because article
elements are
considered to be independent, self-contained content.
appendicestocdepth
appendixnumber
appendixtocdepth
booklistlabels
part
,
chapter
, appendix
, section
) and
numbered figure objects (figure, table, equation, example) for which to
add labels. This option applies to book list entries
(toc
, lof
, lot
, loe
, lox
).A label is a localized message
containing the type of the book division or figure object. For example,
with chapternumber="%1"
, labelseparator=") "
,
booklistlabels="none"
, a TOC entry for a
chapter looks like: "1) Introduction". With
booklistlabels="chapter"
(or
booklistlabels="all")
, this TOC entry looks
like: "Chapter 1) Introduction".
Note that labels are added
only to numbered book divisions or figure objects. For example,
with chapternumber="%1"
, booklistlabels="
", a
TOC entry for a chapter will look like:
"Introduction".
chapternumber
chaptertocdepth
equationnumber
examplenumber
figurenumber
footnotenumber
<span class="role-footnote">
or
<div class="role-footnote">
) and footnote callouts
(<a class="role-footnote-ref">
).includebasestylesheet
true
", include
ebookc_install_dir/xsl/common/resources/base.css
in
all the output HTML pages.base.css
stock CSS stylesheet is the
simplest, easiest, mean to create a nicely formatted book. More
information about this attribute in Leveraging
base.css
, the stock CSS stylesheet.When
includebasestylesheet="true"
,base.css
is included before the other CSS stylesheets referenced in theheadcommon
(if any).If you want to control where
base.css
is included, do not setincludebasestylesheet
to "true
", instead add aheadcommon
similar to the one in the following example:<headcommon> <html:link href="corporate_styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> <html:link href="ebookc-home:xsl/common/resources/base.css" rel="stylesheet resource" type="text/css"/> </headcommon>The "
ebookc-home:
" prefix works because stock XML catalogebookc_install_dir/schema/catalog.xml
contains:<rewriteURI uriStartString="ebookc-home:" rewritePrefix="../"/>
.
headoverridedefault
override
of
element head
.labelseparator
part
, chapter
, appendix
,
section
) or figure object (figure, table, equation,
example). Example: with labelseparator=") "
, the output
HTML element generated for the following chapter is:<chapter href="ch01.html">
is:
1 2 3 4 5 | <section class="role-chapter> <h1 class="role-chapter-title"> <span class="role-label">Chapter <span class="role-number">1</span>) </span> Title of the chapter copied from "ch01.html"<h1> |
partnumber
parttocdepth
preventlonelyheading
true
, prevent an output HTML page from
containing only a title. Example:1 2 3 4 5 6 | <chapter pagename="chapter1"> <head> <title>First chapter</title> </head> <section href="s01.html"/> ... |
With preventlonelyheading="false"
, output HTML page
"output_directory/chapter1.html
" contains just the
title of the chapter "First chapter", which may be surprising for
the reader of the book.
With
preventlonelyheading="true"
, output HTML page
"output_directory/chapter1.html
" contains the title
of the chapter "First chapter" and also the content of input HTML
page "s01.html
"[22].
section1number
section2number
section3number
section4number
section5number
section6number
section7number
section8number
section9number
tablenumber
titlelabels
part
,
chapter
, appendix
, section
) and
numbered figure objects (figure, table, equation, example) for which to
add labels. This option
applies to titles or captions.For example, with
chapternumber="%1"
, labelseparator=") "
,
titlelabels="none"
, the title of a chapter looks like:
"1) Introduction". With titlelabels="chapter"
(or
titlelabels="all")
, this title looks like: "Chapter
1) Introduction".
tocdepth
toc
element).xml:lang
Unlike
lang
, which is a XHTML5 global attribute,xml:lang
is not copied to the output HTML element corresponding to thebook
element.However, explicitly setting attribute
xml:lang
on thebook
element is a convenient way to ensure that all the output HTML pages have alang
attribute.
xreflabels
part
,
chapter
, appendix
, section
) and
numbered figure objects (figure, table, equation, example) for which to
add labels. This option
applies to automatically generated link text.For example, with
chapternumber="%1"
, labelseparator=") "
,
xreflabels="none"
, the text automatically generated for
empty link to chapter <a href="intro.html"/>
looks
like: "1) Introduction". With xreflabels="chapter"
(or xreflabels="all")
, this text looks like: "Chapter
1) Introduction".
With
xreflabels="chapter-number"
, this text looks like:
"Chapter 1", that is, no chapter title, just the label without
any label separator. Note that this "-number
" suffix is
supported only by xreflabels
.
The following elements occur
in book
: appendices
, appendix
, backmatter
, body
, chapter
, frontmatter
, head
, headcommon
, part
, related
.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | <book appendixtocdepth="100" chaptertocdepth="100" section7number="" section8number="" section9number="" labelseparator=" " booklistlabels="chapter appendix" xreflabels="chapter appendix section figure-number table-number equation-number example-number" xml:lang="en-US" xmlns="http://www.xmlmind.com/schema/ebook" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <title>Widget User Guide</title> <html:meta content="John Smith" name="author"/> <html:meta content="2017-08-25" name="dc.date"/> </head> ... </book> |
chapter
Specifies a chapter of the ebook.
(head? , body? , related* , section*)
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
href |
anyURI min. length: 1 |
|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: XHTML5 global attributes, including any attribute having
a name starting with "data-
".
The following elements contain chapter: book, part.
The following elements occur in chapter: body, head, related, section.
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <part> <chapter href="pages/install.html"> <section href="pages/requirements.html" samepage="true"/> </chapter> <chapter href="pages/quick_start.html"/> </part> |
content
Instructs
XMLmind Ebook Compiler to copy to the output HTML page all the elements
found in the html:body
of the input HTML page pointed to
by the href
attribute.
EMPTY
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
href |
anyURI min. length: 1 |
REQUIRED |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: any attribute having a name starting
with "data-
".
The following elements
contain content
: body
.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | <chapter> <head> <title>Using Widget</title> </head> <body> <content href="using1.html"/> <content href="using2.html"/> </body> </chapter> |
frontmatter
Specifies the front matter of the ebook.
(toc | index | lot | lof | loe | lox | section)+
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: any attribute having a name starting
with "data-
".
The following elements
contain frontmatter
: book
.
The
following elements occur in frontmatter
: index
, loe
, lof
, lot
, lox
, section
, toc
.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | <frontmatter> <toc/> <lof/> <lot/> <lox/> <loe/> <section href="intro.html"/> </frontmatter> |
head
Specifies the content of the html:head
element of an output HTML
page.
By default, this html:head
element is simply a copy
of the html:head
element found in the content “pulled” using
the href
attribute of a book division. But when a
head
child element of a book division is specified,
title
child element is used to specify the html:title
of the output HTML
page.html:head
of the output HTML page.(title? , (html:base | html:link | html:meta | html:script | html:style | html:template)*)
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
override |
boolean |
Specified by attribute
headoverridedefault of element
book . |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: XHTML5 global attributes, including any attribute having
a name starting with "data-
".
override
true
, the child elements and XHTML5 global
attributes found in the head
element completely
replace the child elements and XHTML5 global attributes found in
the html:head
element of an input HTML page.When set to
false
, the child elements and XHTML5 global attributes
found in the head
element are merged with the child
elements and XHTML5 global attributes found in the
html:head
element of an input HTML page.
The following elements contain head
:
appendices
, appendix
, book
, chapter
, part
, section
.
The
following elements occur in head
: html:base
, html:link
, html:meta
, html:script
, html:style
, html:template
, title
.
Element
head
is most often used to give a “rich” title to a book
division.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | <appendix href="ssh_key.html"> <head> <title>Generating Your <html:b>SSH</html:b> Public Key</title> <html:style> .error { font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; color: #800000; } </html:style> </head> </appendix> |
headcommon
Specifies some common content for the html:head
elements of all the output HTML
pages.
Note that the XHTML5 global attributes found on element
headcommon
are also copied to the html:head
elements of all the output HTML pages.
(html:base | html:link | html:meta | html:script | html:style | html:template)*
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: XHTML5 global attributes, including any attribute having
a name starting with "data-
".
The
following elements contain headcommon
: book
.
The
following elements occur in headcommon
: html:base
, html:link
, html:meta
, html:script
, html:style
, html:template
.
Element
headcommon
is typically used to give a common CSS stylesheet to
all the output HTML pages.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | <book> <headcommon> <html:link href="../resources/styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> </headcommon> ... </book> |
index
Instructs XMLmind Ebook Compiler to automatically generate an index.
- The language used to automatically sort generated index entries is taken from the
xml:lang
attribute of thebook
element.- An index term is a
a
element without anhref
attribute havingclass
attribute containing "role-index-term
". See Section 6.8. Index terms.
EMPTY
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: any attribute having a name starting
with "data-
".
The following elements
contain toc
: backmatter
, frontmatter
.
1 2 3 4 | <backmatter> <section href="glossary.html"/> <index/> </backmatter> |
loe
Instructs XMLmind Ebook Compiler to automatically generate a List of Equations (LOE).
An equation listed in the LOE is a
html:figure
element having ahtml:figcaption
and aclass
attribute containing "role-equation
". See Section 6.4. Equations.
EMPTY
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: any attribute having a name starting
with "data-
".
The following elements
contain loe
: backmatter
, frontmatter
.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | <frontmatter> <toc/> <lof/> <lot/> <lox/> <loe/> <section href="intro.html"/> </frontmatter> |
lof
Instructs XMLmind Ebook Compiler to automatically generate a List of Figures (LOF).
A plain figure listed in the LOF is a
html:figure
having ahtml:figcaption
and noclass
attribute or aclass
attribute not containing "role-equation
" or "role-example
".
EMPTY
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: any attribute having a name starting
with "data-
".
The following elements
contain lof
: backmatter
, frontmatter
.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | <frontmatter> <toc/> <lof/> <lot/> <lox/> <loe/> <section href="intro.html"/> </frontmatter> |
lot
Instructs XMLmind Ebook Compiler to automatically generate a List of Tables (LOT).
A table listed in the LOT is a
html:table
having ahtml:caption
.
EMPTY
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: any attribute having a name starting
with "data-
".
The following elements
contain lot
: backmatter
, frontmatter
.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | <frontmatter> <toc/> <lof/> <lot/> <lox/> <loe/> <section href="intro.html"/> </frontmatter> |
lox
Instructs XMLmind Ebook Compiler to automatically generate a List of Examples (LOX).
An example listed in the LOX is a
html:figure
element having ahtml:figcaption
and aclass
attribute containing "role-example
". See Section 6.3. Examples.
EMPTY
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: any attribute having a name starting
with "data-
".
The following elements
contain lox
: backmatter
, frontmatter
.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | <frontmatter> <toc/> <lof/> <lot/> <lox/> <loe/> <section href="intro.html"/> </frontmatter> |
part
Specifies a part —a group of chapters— of the ebook.
(head? , body? , related* , chapter+)
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
href |
anyURI min. length: 1 |
|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: XHTML5 global attributes, including any attribute having
a name starting with "data-
".
The following elements contain part: book.
The following elements occur in part: body, chapter, head, related.
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <part> <chapter href="pages/install.html"> <section href="pages/requirements.html" samepage="true"/> </chapter> <chapter href="pages/quick_start.html"/> </part> |
section
Specifies a section of the ebook.
(head? , body? , related* , section*)
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
href |
anyURI min. length: 1 |
|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: XHTML5 global attributes, including any attribute having
a name starting with "data-
".
The
following elements contain section
: appendix
, backmatter
, chapter
, frontmatter
, section
.
The
following elements occur in section
: body
, head
, related
, section
.
1 2 3 4 5 6 | <part> <chapter href="pages/install.html"> <section href="pages/requirements.html" samepage="true"/> </chapter> <chapter href="pages/quick_start.html"/> </part> |
title
Specifies the “rich” title of a book division (part, chapter, section, etc).
Element title
can contain text and the same XHTML5
child elements as an html:p
element (that is,phrasing
content: html:b
, html:img
, etc) in any order and in any
number.
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: XHTML5 global attributes, including any attribute having
a name starting with "data-
".
The
following elements contain title
: head
.
The
following elements occur in title
: the same XHTML5 child
elements as an html:p
element.
1 2 3 4 5 | <appendix href="ssh_key.html"> <head> <title>Generating Your <html:b>SSH</html:b> Public Key</title> </head> </appendix> |
toc
Instructs XMLmind Ebook Compiler to automatically generate a Table of Contents (TOC).
EMPTY
Name | Data type | Default value |
---|---|---|
pagename |
token min. length: 1 |
|
samepage |
boolean |
"false " |
xml:base |
anyURI |
|
xml:id |
ID |
|
xml:lang |
language or "" (the empty string) |
. |
Other attributes: any attribute having a name starting
with "data-
".
The following elements
contain toc
: backmatter
, frontmatter
.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | <frontmatter> <toc/> <lof/> <lot/> <lox/> <loe/> <section href="intro.html"/> </frontmatter> |
href
href="ch09.html#conclusion"
is not supported).pagename
<chapter href="intro.html" pagename="introduction"/>
By
default, without attribute pagename
, the page generated for
the above chapter would be
output_directory/intro.html
.
After setting
pagename
to "introduction
", the page generated
for the above chapter is
output_directory/introduction.html
.
samepage
1 2 3 4 | <chapter href="ch1.html"> <section href="ch1/s1.html" samepage="true"/> <section href="ch1/s2.html"/> </chapter> |
Attribute samepage="true"
instructs
ebookc to generate the content of the chapter and the
content of the first section in the same HTML file. The second section
having an implied samepage="false"
is created in its own
HTML file.
Note that something like:
1 2 3 4 | <chapter href="ch1.html"> <section href="ch1/s1.html"/> <section href="ch1/s2.html" samepage="true"/> </chapter> |
is an error because there is no way for ebookc to generate two sibling sections in the same output HTML file.
xml:base
xml:lang
book
, for which it specifies the
main language of the book.xml:id
xml:id
attribute is useful in the following
cases:related
element.
Example:1 2 3 | <chapter href="ch1.html" xml:id="ch01"> <related ids="ch01 ch02 ch03" xml:id="rel1"/> </chapter> |
related
element "rel1
" is defined in first
chapter. In the following example, a copy of related
element "rel1
" is included in the second chapter:1 2 3 4 | <chapter href="ch2.html" xml:id="ch02"> <xi:include href="" xpointer="rel1" set-xml-id="" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/> </chapter> |
1 2 3 | <chapter href="ch3.html" xml:id="going_further"> <section href="ch3/s1.html" xml:id="requirements" samepage="true"/> </chapter> |
html
element of the output page containing
the chapter will have id="going_further"
. All the
elements “pulled” from "ch3.html
" will have their
IDs prefixed with "going_further__
".section
element containing the section will
have id="requirements"
. All the elements “pulled”
from "ch3/s1.html
" will have their IDs prefixed
with "requirements__
".xml:id
attribute in
proprietary attribute data-xml-id-ref
may be used to create links to locations that do not exist
in the input HTML pages, but which will be created in the output
HTML pages. Example:1 2 3 4 5 | <chapter xml:id="ch04"> <head><title>...</title></head> <section href="ch4/s1.html"/> <section href="ch4/s2.html"/> </chapter> |
In input HTML page "ch4/s2.html
", you
may refer to the first section of the chapter by writing
<a href="s1.html"/>
. But how to refer to the
chapter itself? Notice that this chapter has no input HTML page to
refer to.
The solution to this problem is to add proprietary
attribute data-xml-id-ref
to an a
element. For the above example,
it's <a data-xml-id-ref="ch04"/>
.
Note that
writing
<a href="s1.html" data-xml-id-ref="ch04"/>
is an
even better option because href="s1.html"
is used as a
fallback link target in case xml:id="ch04"
is not
defined in the ebook specification.
data-
"class
, dir
,
lang
, onclick
, style
) are copied
to the output HTML element corresponding to the book division. Example:
the output HTML element corresponding to the following appendix:<appendix href="a2.html" samepage="true" class="disclaimer" lang="fr-FR"/>
is:
<html:section class="role-appendix disclaimer" lang="fr-FR"/>
Specifying an
id
attribute for a book division is likely to cause broken links in the output HTML files.
_res/
" by default) containing all the
resources referenced by the processed pages.Whatever the file layout of the input HTML pages and their resources, all the files and directories are always created in a single output directory, which makes this output directory self-contained.
In addition to the processed
pages, the Processor automatically creates an HTML page (called
"_toc_frame.html
" by default) containing a table of
contents and the manifest of all the resources found in the resource
directory (in the form of
<link href="XXX" rel="resource" type="YYY"/>
elements).
The Processor also automatically creates an HTML page
(called "_frameset.html
" by default) containing a frameset
. The only purpose of this
frameset
is to be able to quickly navigate the output of
the Processor when testing and debugging.
_toc_frame.html
" and "_frameset.html
" are
discarded._toc_frame.html
" by the means of the
xsl/epub/epub.xsl
stylesheet and then archiving[23] the contents of
the output directory._toc_frame.html
" by the means of the
xsl/webhelp/webhelp.xsl
stylesheet and then processing the
contents of the output directory using XMLmind
Web Help Compiler.xsl/fo/fo.xsl
stylesheet. After
that, it's up to an XSL-FO processor — Apache
FOP, RenderX
XEP or Antenna House Formatter for the PostScript and
PDF formats, XMLmind XSL-FO Converter for the RTF, WML, DOCX
and ODT formats— to create the output file.apply-css-styles
) and stored in
processing-instructions (<?css-styles?>
) prior to be
transformed by the xsl/fo/fo.xsl
stylesheet. This
preparatory step is implemented by the "CSS to XSL-FO properties"
component depicted in the above figure.ebookc
command-line utilityebookc [option]* in_ebook_file out_file_or_directory
Converts specified ebook input file and saves the result of the conversion to specified output file or directory.
An ebook input file may be specified using its URL or its filename.
Output formats webhelp
,
html
and frameset
require
output_file_or_directory to be a directory. Other output formats
require output_file_or_directory to be a file.
The output directory is created if it does not already exist.
Example: convert
userguide.ebook
to Web
Help:
C:\docsrc> ebookc -f webhelp userguide.ebook out\wh
Example:
convert userguide.ebook
to PDF using RenderX
XEP:
C:\docsrc> ebookc -xep C:\xep\xep.bat userguide.ebook out\userguide.pdf
Some options
have both a short name and a long name. Example: -p
is
equivalent to -param
.
-p
param_name
param_value-param
param_name param_valueprofile.
" parametersA
param_name starting with "profile.
" specifies a
profiling attribute. Example:
-p profile.data-output-format html
or more simply
-p profile.output-format html
(the "data-
"
attribute name prefix being implied). See Section 4.3. Conditional processing.
load.page_loader_name.
"
parametersA param_name starting with
"load.page_loader_name.
" specifies an option which
is passed to the alternate page loader called page_loader_name.
For example, -p load.markdown.autolink true
turns on the
autolink extension in the Markdown loader. See Supported Markdown extensions.
proc.
"
parametersA param_name starting with
"proc.
" specifies a low-level option
which is passed to the first pass of ebookc
. This first
pass, called the Processor, compiles the input ebook specification to multi-page
XHTML5 with a frameset
and a “TOC frame”[24], see Chapter 8. How it works. Example:
-p proc.resourcedirname resources
.
Setting these low-level options “by hand” is almost never needed, it's best not to fiddle with these.
Option | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
List of values separated by whitespace. Allowed values
are: Default
value: |
Adds a copiable link to the heading or caption child elements of specified “formal elements”.
This automatically generated link to a formal element is intended to be copied using the "Copy Link" entry found in the contextual menu of all web browsers in order to be shared with others. For example, send this link by email.
|
|
Default:
|
Print low-level debugging info. |
|
Absolute or relative URI ending with
Default: |
Specifies an absolute or relative URI to be prepended to external resources having a relative URI. |
|
File basename without any extension. Default:
" |
Specifies the name of the |
|
A valid charset. Default:
" |
Specifies which charset to use for the generated HTML files. |
|
File extension (without a leading period). Default:
" |
Specifies which file extension to use for the generated HTML files. |
|
Default:
|
If set to |
|
File basename without any extension. Default: none. |
Specifies that the index is to be generated in a separate HTML file. This option specifies the name of this separate file. Setting this option generally also requires setting
Ignored
unless the ebook as specified by the user actually contains an
|
|
Default:
|
Specifies whether page navigation headers and/or footers are to be added to the output HTML pages. The page
navigation headers and footers are styled using CSS stylesheet
|
|
One or more file basenames (without any extension) separated by newline characters. Default: none. |
Do not generate HTML files having any of the specified names. |
|
File basename without any extension. Default:
" |
Specifies the name of the directory where all the resources (e.g. image files, CSS files) referenced in the output HTML pages are stored. |
|
URL or file path. |
Same as |
|
Default:
|
Generate a single HTML page. |
|
Default:
|
Suppress Setting |
|
Default:
|
Suppress <toc/> from the ebook specification before generating the output HTML pages. |
|
File basename without any extension. Default:
" |
Specifies the name of the “TOC frame” file generated by first pass. |
|
Default: |
Validate the ebook specification against the W3C
XML schema found in
|
-t
XSLT_stylesheet_URL_or_file-xslt
XSLT_stylesheet_URL_or_file-f
html1 | html | webhelp | epub |
ps | pdf | rtf | odt | wml | docx | fo | frameset-format
html1 | html | webhelp | epub | ps | pdf | rtf
| odt | wml | docx | fo | framesetOutput format | Description |
---|---|
html1 |
Single XHTML5 page. Automatically detected filename
extensions are: " |
html |
Multiple XHTML5 pages. |
webhelp |
Web Help |
epub |
EPUB 3 |
ps |
PostScript[25] |
pdf |
PDF[25] |
rtf |
RTF (can be opened in Word 2000+)[26] |
wml |
WordprocessingML (can be opened in Word 2003+)[26] |
docx |
Office Open XML (.doc x, can be opened in Word
2007+)[26] |
odt |
OpenOffice (.odt , can be opened in
OpenOffice/LibreOffice 2+)[26] |
fo |
XSL-FO. Mainly used for debugging and testing purposes. |
frameset |
Multi-page XHTML5 with a frameset and a “TOC frame”.
Mainly used for debugging and testing purposes. |
-o
options_URL_or_file-option
options_URL_or_fileebookc.options
file.Example:
$ ebookc -v -o go.options go.ebook go.epub
If
go.options
contains:
-p epub-identifier urn:isbn:0451450523 -p cover-image /home/john/artwork/playing_go.png
then this is equivalent to running:
$ ebookc -v -p epub-identifier urn:isbn:0451450523 \ -p cover-image /home/john/artwork/playing_go.png \ go.ebook go.epub
-v
-vv
-vvv
ebookc
-fop
executable_filefop
shell script
(fop.bat
on Windows).Shorthand for:
-foconverter FOP pdf '"executable_file" -q -r -fo "%I" -pdf "%O"' -foconverter FOP ps '"executable_file" -q -r -fo "%I" -ps "%O"'
No matter the order of command-line options, option
-foconverter
has priority over options-fop
,-xep
,-ahf
,-xfc
, which is turn have priority over bundled XSL-FO converters (such as the Apache FOP contained inebookc-N_N_N-plus-fop.zip
distributions).
-fopconf
configuration_file-fop
is also specified.-xep
executable_filexep
shell script
(xep.bat
on Windows).Shorthand for:
-foconverter XEP pdf '"executable_file" -quiet -valid -fo "%I" -pdf "%O"' -foconverter XEP ps '"executable_file" -quiet -valid -fo "%I" -ps "%O"'
-ahf
executable_fileAHFCmd.exe
(run.sh
on platforms other than Windows).Shorthand for:
-foconverter AHF pdf '"executable_file" -x 3 -p @PDF -d "%I" -o "%O"' -foconverter AHF ps '"executable_file" -x 3 -p @PS -d "%I" -o "%O"'
-ahfconf
configuration_file-ahf
is also specified.-xfc
executable_filefo2rtf
shell script
(fo2rtf.bat
on Windows).Suffice to specify the location of fo2rtf
.
Using this location, ebookc
infers the locations of
fo2wml
, fo2docx
and fo2odt
.
Shorthand for:
-foconverter XFC rtf '"fo2rtf_executable_file" "%I" "%O"' -foconverter XFC wml '"fo2wml_executable_file" "%I" "%O"' -foconverter XFC docx '"fo2docx_executable_file" "%I" "%O"' -foconverter XFC odf '"fo2odt_executable_file" "%I" "%O"'
XMLmind XSL-FO Converter Evaluation Edition (download page) generates output containing random duplicate letters. This makes this edition useless for any purpose other than evaluating XMLmind XSL-FO Converter. Of course, this does not happen with XMLmind XSL-FO Converter Professional Edition!
-foconverter
processor_name target_format command-xep
, -fop
, -ahf
or
-xfc
. Example: -foconverter XFC rtf '/opt/xfc/bin/fo2rtf "%I" "%O"'
Note that this option can be specified several times with different values in the same command-line.
This low-level option may be used for example to specify a configuration file for Apache FOP:
-foconverter FOP pdf \ '/opt/fop/fop -c /home/john/docs/fop.conf -q -r -fo "%I" -pdf "%O"'
No matter the order of command-line options, option
-foconverter
has priority over options-fop
,-xep
,-ahf
,-xfc
, which is turn have priority over bundled XSL-FO converters (such as the Apache FOP contained inebookc-N_N_N-plus-fop.zip
distributions).
ebookc
-dryrun
ebookc
as a validator, and most notably check
cross-references. That is, do not generate any file; just report errors
if any.-errout
stdout
.-ignoreoptionsfile
ebookc.options
options file. See below
The ebookc.options
file.-keepfo
-keepforesources
true
|yes
|on
|1
|
false
|no
|off
|0
-version
ebookc.options
file
It is also possible to specify command-line options in the
ebookc.options
options file. The content of
this plain text file, encoded in the native encoding of the platform (e.g.
Windows-1252 on a Western Windows PC), is automatically loaded
by ebookc
each time this command is executed. The content of
this file, command-line options separated by whitespace, is prepended
to the options specified in the command-line.
Example: If
ebookc.options
contains:
-v -xep C:\xep\xep.bat
Running:
~/docsrc$ ebookc userguide.ebook out\userguide.pdf
is equivalent to running:
~/docsrc$ ebookc -v -xep C:\xep\xep.bat userguide.ebook out\userguide.pdf
The
ebookc.options
options file is found in the ebookc
user preferences directory. This directory is:
$HOME/.ebookc/
on Linux.$HOME/Library/Application
Support/XMLmind/ebookc/
on the Mac.%APPDATA%\XMLmind\ebookc\
on Windows.
Example:
C:\Users\john\AppData\Roaming\XMLmind\ebookc\
.The ebookc.options
options file is mainly useful to
configure ebookc
once for all by specifying values for the -fop
, -xep
, -xfc
, -ahf
options.
Example:
-v -xep E:\opt\xep\xep.bat -fop E:\opt\fop-2.10\fop\fop.bat -xfc "E:\opt\xfc_eval_java-6_4_3\bin\fo2rtf.bat"
- Relative filenames found in this file are relative to the current working directory, and not to the
ebookc.options
options file. Therefore it is recommended to always specify absolute filenames.- No comments (e.g. lines starting with '#') are allowed in
ebookc.options
. Options must be separated by whitespace.- In the above example, FOP is declared after XEP. This implies that it is FOP and not XEP, which will be used by ebookc to generate PDF and PostScript®.
- An XSL-FO processor tend to consume a lot of memory. If the ebook compilation fails with an out-of-memory error, you need to edit the
xep
(xep.bat
),fop
(fop.bat
),fo2xxx
(fo2xxx.bat
) scripts in order to increase the maximum amount of memory that the Java™ runtime may allocate. This is done by using the-Xmx
option of the Java™ command-line. Example: "java ... -Xmx512m ...
".- Starting from Java™ 1.6.0_23, converting XML documents to PDF using RenderX XEP randomly fails with false XSL-FO errors (e.g. attribute "space-before" may not be empty). This problem seems specific to the 64-bit runtime.
The workarounds for the above bug ("renderx #22766") are:
- Use a 32-bit Java™ runtime.
- OR Use a 64-bit Java™ runtime older than 1.6.0_23.
- OR Specify option
-valid
in thexep
command-line. Note that this workaround is automatically used when you specify which RenderX XEP executable to use by the means of the-xep
command-line option.
Parameters starting with "
wh-
" are pseudo-parameters. They may or may not be passed to the XSLT stylesheets, but the important thing to remember is that they are also interpreted by ebookc itself. Consequently you cannot specify them in an XSLT stylesheet which customizes the stock ones.
Parameter | Value | Default Value | Description |
---|---|---|---|
omit-toc-root |
'no' | 'yes' |
'yes' |
Specify 'yes' if you want the title of the book to
be the root of the Web Help TOC. |
wh---CSS_VAR_NAME |
String. A valid CSS property value. | No default. | This kind of parameter may be used to override any of the
default values of the CSS variables specified in any of the
For example, the main NNtheme.css template file: body { ... --navigation-width: 33%; ... } The #wh-navigation { ... width: var(--navigation-width); ... } Therefore parameter More examples in "XMLmind Web Help Compiler Manual, Getting started". |
wh-collapse-toc |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether the Web Help TOC should be initially collapsed. |
wh-favicon |
Filename or absolute URI of an image file. A relative filename is relative to the current working directory. | None. | Specifies the favicon
which is to be added to each page of the Web Help. This file is
copied to |
wh-index-numbers |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether words looking like numbers are to be
indexed. Examples of such number-like words: |
wh-inherit-font-and-colors |
'no' | 'yes' |
'yes' |
When Setting
So basically this parameter is a shorthand for: -p wh---navigation-font-family inherit¬ -p wh---navigation-font-size inherit¬ -p wh---navigation-color inherit¬ -p wh---navigation-background-color inherit See above wh---CSS_VAR_NAME parameters. |
wh-jquery |
Relative or absolute URI. A relative URI is relative to the URI of a page of the Web Help. | Absolute URI of the corresponding file found on the Google CDN. | Specifies the location of the JavaScript file containing jQuery. Example:
Specifying
an " |
wh-local-jquery |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether all jQuery files should be copied to
_wh/jquery/ , where _wh/ is the directory
containing the other Web Help files.By default, the jQuery files are accessed from the Web (typically from a CDN). Note that this parameter is applied after
jQuery has been possibly customized using parameter
|
wh-layout |
The name of a layout. | 'classic' |
Selects a layout for the generated Web Help. For now, only 3
layouts are supported: |
wh-responsive-ui |
'no' | 'yes' |
'yes' |
Specifies whether the generated Web Help should be “responsive”, that is, whether it should adapt its layout to the size of the screen. |
wh-ui-language |
"browser " or "document " or a language
code conforming RFC 3066. Examples: de ,
fr-CA . |
'browser' |
Specifies which language should be used for the messages (tab labels, button tool tips, etc) of the generated Web Help. Default value " Value " A language code such
as |
wh-use-stemming |
'no' | 'yes' |
'yes' |
Specifies whether stemming
should be used to implement the search facility. By default, stemming is used whenever possible, that is,
The main language of the document is specified by the
|
wh-user-css |
Filename or absolute URI of a CSS file. A relative filename is relative to the current working directory. | None. | Specifies the user's CSS stylesheet which is to be added to an
XHTML page decorated by the compiler. This file is copied to
Sample user's
CSS -p wh-user-header¬ wh_resources/header.html -p wh-user-footer¬ wh_resources/footer.html -p wh-user-css¬ wh_resources/header_footer.css -p wh-user-resources¬ wh_resources/header_footer_files |
wh-user-footer |
Filename or absolute URI of an XHTML file. A relative filename is relative to the current working directory. | None. | Specifies the user's footer which is to be added to each page of
the Web Help. The content of the Same remark as for parameter
Sample user's footer -p wh-user-header¬ wh_resources/header.html -p wh-user-footer¬ wh_resources/footer.html -p wh-user-css¬ wh_resources/header_footer.css -p wh-user-resources¬ wh_resources/header_footer_files More examples in "XMLmind Web Help Compiler Manual, Getting started". |
wh-user-header |
Filename or absolute URI of an XHTML file. A relative filename is relative to the current working directory. | None. | Specifies the user's header which is to be added to each page of
the Web Help. The content of the If a user's header references resources (e.g. image
files), then these resources must either be referenced using
absolute URLs or these resources must be found in a user's resource
directory and parameter Example:
Sample user's header -p wh-user-header¬ wh_resources/header.html -p wh-user-footer¬ wh_resources/footer.html -p wh-user-css¬ wh_resources/header_footer.css -p wh-user-resources¬ wh_resources/header_footer_files More examples in "XMLmind Web Help Compiler Manual, Getting started". |
wh-user-resources |
Filename or absolute "file: " URI of a
directory. URI schemes other than "file " (e.g.
"http ") are not supported for this parameter. A
relative filename is relative to the current working directory. |
None. | Specifies a user's resource directory which is to be recursively
copied to output_directory/_wh/user/ .This directory typically contains image files referenced by the user's header, footer or CSS stylesheet. Sample user's resource
directory -p wh-user-header¬ wh_resources/header.html -p wh-user-footer¬ wh_resources/footer.html -p wh-user-css¬ wh_resources/header_footer.css -p wh-user-resources¬ wh_resources/header_footer_files More examples in "XMLmind Web Help Compiler Manual, Getting started". |
Such system parameters are not intended to be specified by the end-user. Such system parameters are documented here only because the end-user may see them referenced in some dialog boxes, in some configuration files or in the source code of the XSLT stylesheets.
Parameter | Value | Default Value | Description |
---|---|---|---|
apply-css-styles |
'no' | 'yes' |
'yes' |
Specifies whether CSS styles specified in XHTML
style attributes, style and
link elements also apply to the XSL-FO file.
Depending on the context, the following CSS properties are
converted to their equivalent XSL-FO attributes. The corresponding
shorthand CSS properties are supported too. Any other CSS
property is ignored. Generated content (
Note that styles specified this way supersede all the
other ways to specify the presentation in the output file, that
is, parameters like |
base-font-size |
Length in pt |
'10pt' |
The size of the font used for most body elements (paragraphs, tables, lists, etc). All the other font sizes are computed relatively to this font size. |
base-line-height |
A valid line height | '10' |
The line height used for most body elements (paragraphs, tables, lists, etc). All the line heights are computed relatively to this line height. |
external-href-after |
String | ']' |
Appended after the external URL referenced by an a
element. Ignored unless show-external-links='yes' . |
external-href-before |
String | ' [' |
Separates the text of an a element from the
external URL it points to. Ignored unless show-external-links='yes' . |
font-family |
One or more font families separated by commas | 'serif' |
The font family used by default for all elements. |
footer-center |
A mix of text and variables. | See next column. | Specifies the contents of the central part of a page footer. See
Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. Default value: two-sides even:: {{chapter-title}};; two-sides body odd:: {{section1-title}};; one-side:: {{chapter-title}} |
footer-center-width |
String representing an integer larger than or equal to 1. | '6' |
Specifies the proportional width of the central part of a page footer. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
footer-left |
A mix of text and variables. | See next column. | Specifies the contents of the left part of a page footer. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. Default value: two-sides even:: {{page-number}} |
footer-left-width |
String representing an integer larger than or equal to 1. | '2' |
Specifies the proportional width of the left part of a page footer. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
footer-right |
A mix of text and variables. | See next column. | Specifies the contents of the right part of a page footer. See
Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. Default value: two-sides first||odd:: {{page-number}};; one-side:: {{page-number}} |
footer-right-width |
String representing an integer larger than or equal to 1. | '2' |
Specifies the proportional width of the right part of a page footer. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
footer-separator |
'no' | 'yes' |
'yes' |
Specifies whether an horizontal rule should be drawn above the page footer. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
header-center |
A mix of text and variables. | '{{document-title}}' |
Specifies the contents of the central part of a page header. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
header-center-width |
String representing an integer larger than or equal to 1. | '6' |
Specifies the proportional width of the central part of a page header. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
header-left |
A mix of text and variables. | '' |
Specifies the contents of the left part of a page header. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
header-left-width |
String representing an integer larger than or equal to 1. | '2' |
Specifies the proportional width of the left part of a page header. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
header-right |
A mix of text and variables. | '' |
Specifies the contents of the right part of a page header. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
header-right-width |
String representing an integer larger than or equal to 1. | '2' |
Specifies the proportional width of the right part of a page header. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
header-separator |
'no' | 'yes' |
'yes' |
Specifies whether an horizontal rule should be drawn below the page header. See Section 10.3.1. Specifying a header or a footer. |
hyphenate |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether words may be hyphenated. |
justified |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether text (e.g. in paragraphs) should be justified (that is, flush left and right) or just left aligned (that is, flush left and ragged right). |
index-column-count |
Positive integer. | '2' |
The number of columns of index pages. |
index-column-gap |
Length. | '2em' |
The distance which separates columns in index pages. |
note-icon-height |
Length | '0.333in' |
The height of a note icon. See parameter use-note-icon . |
note-icon-width |
Length | '0.333in' |
The width of a note icon. See parameter
use-note-icon . |
page-orientation |
'portrait' | 'landscape' |
'portrait' |
The orientation of the printed page. |
page-ref-after |
String | ']' |
Appended after the page number pointed to by an a
element. Ignored unless show-xref-page='yes' . |
page-ref-before |
String | ' [' |
Separates the text of an a element from the page
number it points to. Ignored unless show-xref-page='yes' . |
paper-type |
Allowed values are: 'Letter' , 'Legal' ,
'Ledger' , 'Tabloid' , 'A0' ,
'A1' , 'A2' , 'A3' ,
'A4' , 'A5' , 'A6' ,
'A7' , 'A8' , 'A9' ,
'A10' , 'B0' , 'B1' ,
'B2' , 'B3' , 'B4' ,
'B5' , 'B6' , 'B7' ,
'B8' , 'B9' , 'B10' ,
'C0' , 'C1' , 'C2' ,
'C3' , 'C4' , 'C5' ,
'C6' , 'C7' , 'C8' ,
'C9' , 'C10' (case-insensitive). |
'A4' |
A convenient way to specify the size of the printed page.I t
is also possible to specify a custom paper type by ignoring the
|
pdf-outline |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether PDF bookmarks should be generated.
Supported by the |
show-external-links |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether the external URL referenced by an
a element should be displayed right after the text
contained by this element. Example:
|
show-map-links |
'no' | 'yes' |
'yes' |
Specifies whether a numbered list should be generated for a
XHTML map element, with one list item per
area element. A list item contains the link
specified by the |
show-xref-page |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether the page number corresponding to the internal
link target referenced by an a element should be
displayed right after the text contained by this element.
Example: |
two-sided |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether the document should be printed double sided. |
ul-li-bullets |
One or more bullet characters separated by spaces | '• –' |
Specify which bullet character to use for an
ul /li element. Additional characters are
used for nested li elements. For example, if
|
use-note-icon |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether an icon should be added to
blockquote elements having a class
attribute containing role-note ,
role-attention , role-caution ,
role-danger , role-fastpath ,
role-important , role-notice ,
role-remember , role-restriction ,
role-tip , role-trouble ,
role-warning . |
use-note-label |
'no' | 'yes' |
'no' |
Specifies whether a title should be added to
blockquote elements having a class
attribute containing role-note ,
role-attention , role-caution ,
role-danger , role-fastpath ,
role-important , role-notice ,
role-remember , role-restriction ,
role-tip , role-trouble ,
role-warning . |
watermark |
Allowed values are one or more of 'blank' ,
'title' , 'toc' , 'booklist ',
'frontmatter' , 'body' ,
'backmatter' , 'index' , 'all'
separated by whitespace. |
'all' |
Specifies which pages in the output document are to be given a
watermark. By default, all pages are given a watermark. If for
example, parameter No effect unless parameter |
watermark-image |
URI. If the URI is relative, it is relative to the current working directory of the user. | No default. | Specifies an image file which is to be used as a watermark in
all the pages comprising the output document. See also parameter watermark . |
xfc-render-as-table |
A string containing zero or more roles or element names
separated by whitespace. Supported roles and element names are:
|
'admonition aside blockquote' |
Specifies whether XMLmind XSL-FO Converter should render the
fo:block s representing specified elements as
fo:table s.This parameter enables a workaround for a
limitation of XMLmind XSL-FO Converter: a |
Inserting a
<?pagebreak?>
processing-instruction in the XHTML5 source between paragraphs, notes, tables, lists, etc, may be used to force a page break when generating any of the output formats which uses XSL-FO as an intermediate format (PDF, RTF, DOCX, etc).
Parameter | Value | Default Value | Description |
---|---|---|---|
body-bottom-margin |
Length | '0.5in' |
See Figure 10-1. Page areas below. |
body-top-margin |
Length | '0.5in' |
See Figure 10-1. Page areas below. |
footer-height |
Length | '0.4in' |
See Figure 10-1. Page areas below. |
header-height |
Length | '0.4in' |
See Figure 10-1. Page areas below. |
page-bottom-margin |
Length | '0.5in' |
See Figure 10-1. Page areas below. |
page-height |
Length. Example: '297mm' . |
Depends on parameter paper-type . |
The height of the printed page. |
page-inner-margin |
Length | If parameter two-sided is specified as
'yes' then '1.25in' otherwise
'1in' . |
See Figure 10-1. Page areas below. |
page-outer-margin |
Length | If parameter two-sided is specified as
'yes' then '0.75in' otherwise
'1in' . |
See Figure 10-1. Page areas below. |
page-top-margin |
Length | '0.5in' |
See Figure 10-1. Page areas below. |
page-width |
Length. Example: '8.5in' . |
Depends on parameter paper-type . |
The width of the printed page. |
Such system parameters are not
intended to be specified by the end-user. Such system parameters are
documented here only because the end-user may see them referenced in some
dialog boxes, in some configuration files or in the source code of the XSLT
stylesheets.
com.xmlmind.ebook.convert.Converter
Quick and easy embedding: embed
com.xmlmind.ebookc.convert.Converter,
the Java™ class which is
used to implement the ebookc
command-line utility.
Converter
is the
object which is at the core of the ebookc
command-line utility.
Its run
method accepts the
same string arguments as the ebookc
command-line
utility.
The full source code of the Embed1
sample is
found in Embed1.java
.
Converter
.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | StyleSheetCache cache = new StyleSheetCache(); Console console = new Console() { public void showMessage(String message, MessageType messageType) { System.err.println(message); } }; Converter converter = new Converter(cache, console); |
StyleSheetCache
is a simple cache
for the ebookc XSLT 2.0 stylesheets. It is a
thread-safe object which is intended to be shared by several
Converter
s.Unlike StyleSheetCache
,
Converter
is not thread-safe. Each thread must own its
Converter
. However, the run
method of a
Converter
may be invoked several times.
Console
is
a very simple interface. Implementing this interface allows to do
whatever you want with the messages reported by a
Converter
.Converter
.1 2 3 | if (!converter.registerFOP(path("/opt/fop/fop"))) { return 1; } |
Converter
. From high-level ones
to low-level ones, these methods are: registerFOP
, registerXEP
, registerAHF
, registerXFC
, registerExternalFOConverter
, registerFOConverter
.run
method.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 | String[] args = { "-v", "-p", "pdf-outline", "yes", inFile.getPath(), outFile.getPath() }; return converter.run(args); |
The run
method returns 0 if
the conversion is successful and an integer greater than 0 otherwise.
When the conversion fails, errors messages are displayed on the
Console
.
Aside ".jar
" files like
ebookc.jar
, xmlresolver.jar
, saxon12.jar
,
etc, which are all listed in
ebookc_install_dir/doc/manual/embed/build.xml
(see
below), this kind of embedding also needs to access:
ebookc_install_dir/schema/
.ebookc_install_dir/xsl/
.Therefore the requirements for running this kind of embedding are:
xml.catalog.files
to
point to ebookc_install_dir/schema/catalog.xml
or to
an equivalent of this XML catalog.ebookc_install_dir/schema/catalog.xml
contains the following entry:<rewriteURI uriStartString="ebookc-home:" rewritePrefix="../" />
This
rewriteURI
entry is needed to find the
ebook.xsd
schema and the location of the directory
containing the XSL stylesheets. Make sure that this entry exists in your
XML catalogs and that it points to the actual location of the directory
containing both the schema/
and xsl/
subdirectories.
Embed1
sampleCompile the Embed1
sample by running ant
in
ebookc_install_dir/doc/manual/html/embed/
.
Execute
the Embed1
sample by running "ant embed1
" in
ebookc_install_dir/doc/manual/html/embed/
. This will
convert ebookc_install_dir/docsrc/manual/manual.ebook
to
ebookc_install_dir/doc/manual/html/embed/manual.pdf
,
using Apache
FOP.
Note that Embed1.java
contains “hardwired
filenames”, like "/opt/fop/fop
". This means that, without
modifications, this sample cannot be run from elsewhere than
ebookc_install_dir/doc/manual/html/embed/
and that
you'll almost certainly need to modify the source code in order to specify
the actual location of the fop
(fop.bat
)
script.
-foconverter
). We'll assume in this manual that you have
downloaded and installed the distribution of XMLmind Ebook Compiler which
includes Apache FOP.-xfc
).ebookc
anyway generates XHTML5 markup. “Plain HTML”
cannot be parsed by ebookc
.-foconverter
). We'll assume in this manual that you have
downloaded and installed the distribution of XMLmind Ebook Compiler which
includes Apache FOP.-xfc
).book
element is
no different from part
, chapter
,
appendix
, section
, etc.@media XSL_FO_PROCESSOR_NAME
rules, where
XSL_FO_PROCESSOR_NAME
is FOP
(Apache
FOP), XEP
(RenderX
XEP), AHF
(Antenna House Formatter) or XFC
(XMLmind
XSL-FO Converter).Originally published in 1978.
true
or false
), integer and any enumerated type.[16] Creating xi:include
elements
by hand is tedious and error prone. It's strongly recommended to use an
XInclude-enabled editor like XMLmind XML Editor to do that. With XMLmind XML Editor, creating an
xi:include
element is as easy as copying a reference
to an element (Ctrl+Shift-C) from one page and then pasting it
(Ctrl-V) into another page.
ebookc_install_dir/schema/ebook.xsd
.class
attribute may be specified by ending the prefix with
a '*
'. Example: "role-*
" matches any class
value starting with "role-
".[25] Requires an XSL-FO
processor such as Apache FOP, RenderX
XEP or Antenna House Formatter to have been installed and
registered with XMLmind Ebook Compiler (for example, using option
-foconverter
).
[26] Requires XMLmind XSL-FO Converter to have been installed and
registered with XMLmind Ebook Compiler (using option -xfc
).