Sponsors
Creating ePub eBooks from DITA XML and the Open Toolkit - (24-05-2010)
With the advent of user-friendly devices and software for reading eBooks, interest is genuinely growing for electronic versions of a wide variety of publications.
E-ink readers, tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices have one thing in common: they require an intelligent book format to make the reading experience practical and enjoyable. Enter ePub, an XML standard for digital reflowable books and publications.
If you are looking for a process to create ePub eBooks, you will also need an efficient source format for writing or at least storing your content. XML is obviously a good choice. DITA XML provides a comprehensive framework not only for writing and structuring information but also for creating the actual ePub file. The DITA Open Toolkit churns out short XHTML files which are precisely what the ePub format requires. A plugin is available that packages these files together with other auxiliary files to create the actual ePub file that you can distribute.
Unfortunately, ePub files generated by the plugin do not always validate against the ePub standard. Validation is extremely important for eBooks to ensure that the eBook can be read on the various devices and software. For example, if your ePub file is not valid you may lose all styling, or images may not appear.
An eBooklet written in DITA XML will be presented to all participants of the NLDITA 2010 Conference in Utrecht, Holland. It provides information on the path you need to take to adapt the Open Toolkit to create ePub files that validate. You can read about which files were overridden and which tool is used to validate your ePub files.
You can view this eBooklet on a variety of dedicated eBook devices and mobile readers that accept ePub files, on your PC with Adobe Digital Editions, and online with for example IbisReader. To examine the contents of the ePub file, change the .epub file extension to .zip and then unzip the file.
Click [here] to view all news messages.