The aim of this project is to develop a convenient tool for generating online books. I want that the books generated be readable in any browser and on any-sized device (from smartphones to desktops). The tool gets the book sources in a Markdown format (particularly the dialect of Markdown proposed by the Leanpub.com website) and produces HTML files readable in a browser on output. Then the generated files can be published on the Internet on a cheap or a free web hosting, or even at GitHub Pages. The publisher can get revenue by showing the Google Adsense Ads on the book pages.
This project originated as an HTML files generator for my open-source PHP programming book, Using Zend Framework 3. I wanted to have a console tool for generating the static HTML files of the book from Markdown sources and referenced PNG images. I didn't find ready tools that are convenient enough, so I decided to create my own tool.
Currently you can do the following using this tool:
- Generate HTML files from Markdown (
.md) sources using the command-line interface. - Automatically check for some errors/mistakes in your
.mdfiles and report them saving your time. - Validate external web resources mentioned in book text to avoid broken links.
- Embed a Google Analytics tag, so you are able to see visitor statistics for your book website.
- Embed a Disqus message thread, so readers of your book are able to leave comments under chapter pages.
- Embed Google AdSense ads to get revenue from your online free book.
- Produce book pages for several languages (e.g. English, Russian, and Spanish).
- Produce HTML book with all necessary images included ready for publishing on a static web hosting (like GitHub Pages).
- Develop the book in a distributed way, if you have several co-authors that know how to use a version control system, like Git.
This project uses the MIT license. It is a very permissive license, so you can use this project without almost any limitations.
To install the tool, you first need to install the PHP engine (version 5.6 or later will work).
In Linux Ubuntu you can do that with the following command:
sudo apt-get install php
In Linux CentOS you can do that with the command:
sudo yum install php
If the instructions above do not work in your OS, please search for relevant instructions.
Then clone this repository or download it as a ZIP archive and unpack somewhere.
Go to the directory where you put the files and type the following commands to install the PHP dependency packages:
php composer.phar self-update
php composer.phar install
Once the installation is done, you can run the tool with the following command:
php openbook.php [options] <book_dir>
Currently the following options are supported:
- -v - output as much info to screen as possible
- -l - validate links to external websites in the book text to avoid unnecessary 404 Not Found errors when a reader clicks the link. If you specify this option, the book may be generated more slowly.
If you want to briefly review an example of a ready book, take a look at the GitHub repository where I store the sources of my book, Using Zend Framework 3. If you find the structure of that repository confusing, please see below for clarification.
The files of the book are organized in the following manner:
<book_dir>/
manuscript/
en/
images/
Book.txt
preface.txt
acknowledgments.txt
chapter1.txt
chapter2.txt
...
ru/
images/
Book.txt
preface.txt
acknowledgments.txt
chapter1.txt
chapter2.txt
...
another-lang/
images/
Book.txt
...
openbook.json
The manuscript directory is the directory where Markdown files of the book are stored. The en/, ru/, another-lang/ are directories where the Markdown files for a specific language are stored. The images directory is the directory where you should place the PNG images you want to reference in the book text.
openbook.json should be a file in JSON format containing book properties, like its title,
subtitle, copyright information, etc. An example of a real-life openbook.json is presented below:
{
"book_title": "Using Zend Framework 3",
"book_subtitle": "A free and open-source book about Zend Framework",
"copyright": "2018 by Oleg Krivtsov",
"license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/",
"book_website": "https://olegkrivtsov.github.io/using-zend-framework-3-book/html",
"keywords": [
"php",
"zend framework",
"book",
"tutorial",
"documentation",
"learn",
"free"
],
"links": {
"Home": "https://olegkrivtsov.github.io/using-zend-framework-3-book/html",
"Samples": "https://github.com/olegkrivtsov/using-zf3-book-samples",
"Class Reference": "https://olegkrivtsov.github.io/zf3-api-reference/html/",
"Contribute": "https://github.com/olegkrivtsov/using-zend-framework-3-book"
},
"languages": {
"en": "English",
"ru": "Русский",
"es": "Español"
},
"incomplete_translations": ["es"],
"google_analytics": {
"enabled": true,
"account_id": "UA-80824388-1"
},
"google_adsence": {
"enabled": true,
"contents_ad": "data/contents_ad.js",
"chapter_upper_ad": "data/upper_ad.js",
"chapter_bottom_ad": "data/bottom_ad.js"
},
"disqus": {
"enabled": true,
"src": "//using-zend-framework-3-book.disqus.com/embed.js"
}
}
The Book.txt file should contain the list of chapters to include into the book:
preface.txt
acknowledgments.txt
chapter1.txt
chapter2.txt
chapter3.txt
...
You can generate the book with the following command:
php openbook.php /path/to/your/book
If everything is OK, you'll find the HTML files in /path/to/your/book/html directory.
That's all, enjoy and do not hesitate to report bugs and contribute (see below)!
You may contribute in the following ways: