Hacking iBooks and EPUB with JavaScript!

Jim McKeethjim@mckeeth.org

@JimMcKeeth

What 400 Level Means

• Assumed understanding of JavaScript and HTML5 web technologies.

• More examples and less explanation.

• Please ask questions as we go.

About Jim McKeeth

• Lead Developer Evangelist for Embarcadero Technologies

• Delphi XE5 creates native iOS & Android apps from same code

• Improvisational performer with ComedySportz Boise

• Inventor of pattern and swipe to unlock

• US Patent #s 6,766,456 & 8,352,745 . . . (First patented in 2000)

• Used on iOS, Android and Windows 8

Why Put JavaScript in a Book?

• Provide updated data to go along with book topic

• Allow real time collaboration between readers / students

• Create interactive story books

• Customize story to the reader

• Collect quiz responses

• Interesting animation effects

• Add games & bonuses

• Engage your readers

• Track readers

• Gather feedback

• Sky’s the limit!

Overview

• JavaScript Interactive Widgets

• Dashcode

• Tumult Hype

• Creating Widgets from Scratch

• Creating ePub from Scratch

• Cracking ePub

More Information

• 4 Part Series on iBooks JavaScript Widgets

• http://sn.im/ibooksjs

iBooks Author 2

• Free in the Mac App Store

• Extension on ePub 3 standard (non-compatible)

• DRM and license only for iBooks on the iPad

• Nice powerful and easy interface for building books

• Be aware of orientations

iBooks / ePub Technical Details

• Zip file of HTML5 content adhering to specific spec.

• 2 GB technical book size limit

• 200 MB recommended size

• iBooks IBA files encrypt the page content

• All resources must be included!

3D Models

• 20,000 to 50,000 moderately textured polygons

• Textures <= 1024x1024

• Use COLLADA (.dae) file format

• Specify a camera

• Simple lighting

• http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5093

3D Models• Trimble SketchUp Make

• www.sketchup.com

• Free version creates .dae 3D models that work in iBooks Author

• http://www.sketchup.com/products/3D-warehouse

3D Model Demo

Dashcode

Dashcode

• JavaScript, HTML and CSS Editor from Apple

• For creating Dashboard widgets

• Part of Xcode until Xcode 4.3

• Now a separate download: http://bit.ly/Dashcode Latest: “Late July” for Aug 7, 2012 - 3.0.5

Demo Dashcode

Things to Remember

1. Backwards compatibility on, or parts disappear.

2. The back of the widget never gets displayed.

3. Text doesn’t show up in the default image unless you change the option in the inspector.

4. Dashcode text parts layout odd on the iPad.

5. Java and other plugins don’t work on the iPad.

Posting to Web Services

• External web services must implement CORS

• (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) headers.

• enable-cors.org

• www.w3.org/TR/cors

Tumult Hype 2

• HTML5 & JavaScript Multimedia Studio

• Create JavaScript Powered Animations and Interactions

• Creates Widgets Directly

• Compatible with iBooks Author & the iPad

• $59.99 in Mac App Store (on sale $29.99 through Sept 10th)

Tumult Hype Demo

Creating from Scratch

• Required files:

• Main.html - Main HTML file (any name will work).

• Default.png – Preview image and place holder.

• Info.plist – Property list describing widget. References main HTML.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5068

Required Properties

• CFBundleIdentifier - Unique identifier

• CFBundleName - Friendly name

• MainHTML - The main HTML file

Info.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"><plist version="1.0"><dict>! <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>! <string>com.360idev.gallery</string>! <key>CFBundleName</key>! <string>Gallery</string>! <key>MainHTML</key>! <string>index.html</string></dict></plist>

Making a Package

• Put all files in a directory - Subdirectories are OK (use relative paths for references).

• Rename root directory .wdgt

• Don’t Install Package! It gets deleted. Use Duplicate to test.

• Context / Show Package Contents to edit.

Supported HTML5 Features

• localStorage (per book - between widgets)

• Geolocation (requests permission)

• Canvas

• CSS Animations

• Others . . .

Prevent Flicker

1. Add a IBNotifiesOnReady item set to true in the Dashboard widget's info.plist file, so iBooks knows this Dashboard widget will tell it when to switch to displaying the running HTML widget.

2. Set your Dashboard widget to load the Apple javascript library.

3. In javascript call widget.notifyContentIsReady() to notify iBooks it can switch from showing the Default.png file to displaying the running HTML widget.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5068

From Scratch Demos

Things to Remember

1. Double clicking a widget on desktop deletes it (installs it into the library).

2. The aspect ratio of your Default.png determine the aspect ratio of your widget.

3. All JavaScript libraries must be referenced from the Main HTML file, and in the package.

bookry.com

• Custom Sliding Puzzle

• Live Twitter Feed

• Interactive Timeline Images

• YouTube Video

• Vimeo Video

• Google Maps

• Live Polling

• More to come . . .

• Auto-generated customized widgets ready to add to iBooks (or look at the code to figure out how they did it.)

• Free license includes “branding”

See also ibooksgenerator.com

Live Twitter feed in iBooks

Live Google Maps in iBooks

Creating an ePub from ScratchNo iBooks Author, no Dashcode, just text editing!

Disclaimer

• So far I have been unable to access online content without using iBooks Author.

International DigitalPublishing Forum

• Develops and maintains the EPUB content publication standard

• idpf.org/epub

• ePub 3.0 is current standard

• October 2011

• Official support for JavaScript

Progressive Enhancements& Fallbacks

2.4.1 Scripting Contexts

• container-constrained

• An instance of the [HTML5] script element included in an EPUB Content Document that is embedded in a parent Content Document using one of the [HTML5] object, iframe or embed elements.

• spine-level

• An instance of the [HTML5] script element included in a Top-level Content Document.

• JavaScript on the page itself!

•

iBooks Author widgets are container-constrained

2.4.2 Content Conformance

• A container-constrained script must not contain instructions to:

• modify the DOM of the parent Content Document

• modify other contents in the Publication

• manipulate the size of its containing rectangle

• Container-constrained scripts

2.4.2 Content Conformance

• EPUB Content Documents that include spine-level scripting must utilize the progressive enhancement technique:

• When rendered without scripting support document must retain its integrity, remaining consumable by the User without any information loss or other significant deterioration.

• Use fallbacks!

• iBooks doesn’t seem to allow network communications at spine-level

• Spine-level scripts

The JavaScript epubReadingSystem Object

• Syntax:

• ReadingSystem = navigator.epubReadingSystem;

• Properties: name, version, layoutStyle

• Method: hasFeature(feature)

• dom-manipulation, layout-changes, touch-events, mouse-events, keyboard-events, spine-scripting

Appendix B 

preventDefault

• Use to “override” the default behavior of the reading system.

• If you have a touch zone near the edge of the screen, this gives you the touch event instead of turning the page.

• Turn off for whole document:

• document.addEventListener('touchmove', function (e) {e.preventDefault();}, false);

• In individual event handler :

• event.preventDefault();

ePub Samples

• Repository of ePub 3.0 sample documents

• http://code.google.com/p/epub-samples/

• See “Scripted Content Documents” under the “Feature Matrix”

ePub Format

• A zip file with epub extension

• mimetype must be the first file in the zip

• Container.xml references the opf file (which can be named anything)

• All content files must be listed in the opf file

• mimetype

• iTunesMetadata.plist

• META-INF

• container.xml

• OPS

• content.opf

• content files

Automaticallyadded by iTunesbut not needed.

mimetype

• First file in zip - uncompressed

• No Unicode signature or byte order mark

• Only contain

• application/epub+zip

container.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><container xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:container" version="1.0"> <rootfiles> <rootfile

full-path="OPS/content.opf" media-type="application/oebps-package+xml"/>

</rootfiles></container>

Content OPF

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" version="3.0" xml:lang="en" unique-identifier="uid" prefix="rendition: http://www.idpf.org/vocab/rendition/# cc: http://creativecommons.org/ns#"> <metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"> <dc:xxx>. . .</dc:xxx> </metadata> <manifest> <item>. . .</item> </manifest> <spine> <itemref ... /> </spine></package>

Content OPFmetadata

•The metadata section describes the book

<metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"> <dc:title id="title">JavaScript Test Book</dc:title> <dc:description>Test of spine-level scripting</dc:description> <dc:creator>Jim McKeeth</dc:creator> <dc:identifier id="uid">8181AEF2-CD21-4FE6-9AE8-9A83572FF4D</dc:identifier> <dc:language>en-US</dc:language> <meta property="dcterms:modified">2012-09-11T12:47:00Z</meta> <dc:rights>

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. </dc:rights>

<link rel="cc:license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"/>

</metadata>

Content OPFmanifest

•The manifest section must list all other files in the ePub.•There must be exactly one with property “nav” and up to one “cover-image”•The “scripted” property indicates the page executes JavaScript.

<manifest> <item id="i" href="main.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"

properties="scripted"/> <item id="nav" href="nav.xhtml" media-type="application/xhtml+xml"

properties="nav"/> <item id="prt" href="default.png" media-type="image/png"

properties="cover-image"/> <item id="first" href="first.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg"/> <item id="css" href="ro.css" media-type="text/css"/> <item id="scrpt" href="main.js" media-type="application/javascript"/> <item id="jq" href="jQuery.js" media-type="application/javascript"/> </manifest>

Content OPFspine

•Must list all “sections” on the spine. Includes chapters, preface, glossary, etc. •The idref value is defined in the manifest section

<spine> <itemref idref="i" properties="rendition:layout-reflowable rendition:spread-auto"/> </spine>

Zipping an ePub

• zip -X ../epubfile.epub mimetype

• zip ../epubfile.epub META-INF/*

• zip -r ../epubfile.epub OPS/*

• unzip -l ../epubfile.epub

http://idpf.org/epub/30/spec/epub30-ocf.html

mimetype must be the first file (uncompressed).

Any folder(s) with “content”

Lists the contents for verification

ePub Validator

• EpubCheck

• validator.idpf.org (web based)

• code.google.com/p/epubcheck/ (download - Java)

Download and include call in your script to zip your ePub!

iBooks Fixed Layout Format

• Use a separate XHTML document for each Fixed Layout page.

• Use CSS relative and/or absolute positioning to place text and images on a page.

• Include the height and width of the page in a viewport meta tag in the head of each XHTML document. (used for aspect ratio)<head>          <title>Fixed Layout Example</title>        <meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>        <link href="css/stylesheet.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet"/>        <meta name="viewport" content="width=575, height=432"/></head>

From Scratch ePub Demo

Cracking ePub

iBooks DRM Decrypt

• iTunes 10.5.3.3 x64 (as close as possible)

• http://www.oldversion.com/windows/itunes/

• Requiem 3.3.6

• https://tag3ulp55xczs3pn.onion.to/ (via Tor)

Must be these versions working together.

Run it in an XP Virtual Machine.

Other ePub Books

• Calibre

• http://calibre-ebook.com/ (eBook conversion and management)

• DeDRM plugins

• http://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/ 6.05 is latest

Other Possible Resources

• Threepress Consulting Blog

• http://blog.threepress.org/

• ePub Straight to the Point by Elizabeth Castro

• http://www.elizabethcastro.com/epub/Have not read, but was recommended.

More Information

• 4 Part Series on iBooks JavaScript Widgets

• http://sn.im/ibooksjs

• Might become an iBook

• jim@mckeeth.org or @JimMcKeeth