FINAL BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

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Alexander Halser
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Re: BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by Alexander Halser »

Download link for beta 14:
http://download.ec-software.com/ewriter-beta-14.zip

We have re-implemented the switch to open external links in the default browser... :? The reason for this is that several users compile with H&M skins that have not been modified or changed for eBooks. These skins include references to external addresses such as Google Analytics, or social media buttons integrated. Every single one of these external references will cause the eBook to open an external browser window and there is no way for us to find out the meaning of a particular address: is it meant to be an external link or is it meant to be external content displayed in a frame or div block? It's impossible to decide that and the only way is to let the user decide by switching this option off.

A second new option is exterimental. The compiler has an option "Use internal web server to display data". This is true by default and works as before. When switched off, the eBook viewer uses a pluggable asynchronous protocol to feed the data internally. It basically creates a temporary http-protocol, that it works with. This would be the ideal solution to display the data internally, if MSIE wasn't going haywire with javascripts. Some HTML pages work perfectly, some don't work at all. We have done some javascript debugging and it seems as if MSIE uses a different document object model (DOM) in case of asynchronous protocols. So this option is probably not going to make it to the final build, but we've implemented it to explore all possible variants.
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Re: BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by bsonnino »

Download link for beta 14:
This version still shows the top bar for the ebook in kisosk mode - it still doesn't work and shouldn't be there

Bruno
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Re: BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by Alexander Halser »

Download link for beta 15:
http://download.ec-software.com/ewriter-beta-15.zip
This version still shows the top bar for the ebook in kisosk mode - it still doesn't work and shouldn't be there
I see a short flickering of the caption bar when following the first link. Subsequent links don't show this behaviour. This glitch should be fixed with beta 15.
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bsonnino
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Re: BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by bsonnino »

Alexander Halser wrote:Download link for beta 15:
http://download.ec-software.com/ewriter-beta-15.zip
This version still shows the top bar for the ebook in kisosk mode - it still doesn't work and shouldn't be there
I see a short flickering of the caption bar when following the first link. Subsequent links don't show this behaviour. This glitch should be fixed with beta 15.
This version works fine - the top bar disappeared in kiosk mode.

Bruno
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Re: BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by dengolding »

I love this ebook format. What I really need as well is a way to secure the ebook so that someone can't just copy it to millions of their friends. :cry: The company I used before had provided the facility to give it a serial number with a maximum usage count for each number. The ebook connected with the server each time it was opened.
Can that be incorporated into H&M or would we need to write our own code? I've done very little web programming. :frustration:
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Tim Green
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Re: BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Den,
dengolding wrote:Can that be incorporated into H&M or would we need to write our own code? I've done very little web programming.
Normal web programming wouldn't really help here, I am afraid. The only way to achieve this would be to have a very complex DRM scheme that would link the user and the device they are viewing the eBook on to a server. This would ultimately be self-defeating, because all you would achieve would be to alienate your honest users. For the dishonest users it would still be relatively trivial to strip out the DRM and make a freely-copyable version.

The simple truth is that DRM does not protect your data and it does not increase your sales. On the contrary: If the DRM is really "effective" it only annoys your users, makes your data less accessible and reduces your sales. Just look at the online music industry: Since removing DRM and allowing their music to be freely copyable their sales have only increased.

All you really need is two things: 1) Basic protection, to make it clear to honest users that the data is not "free" and 2) Reasonable pricing so that your honest users would rather buy your product and support you instead of going through the hassle of getting a bootleg copy. Certainly, some users are still going to get the bootleg copy, but those users would have never paid for the product anyway, and if you focus on them you will lose your honest users as well, because you will make the product too much of a hassle for them to want to use it.

A simple password scheme provides enough protection for part 1), and part 2) is up to you. 8)

The other consideration is when the data is so sensitive that it should really only be made available to a strictly-controlled group of people. In that case, you shouldn't use an eBook or any other copyable format because it is physically impossible to prevent the content from getting distributed further. Even with the "best" DRM, so long as the content can be displayed on a computer screen it can be copied -- if necessary by taking screenshots and running an OCR program on them to turn it back into text again.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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dengolding
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Re: BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by dengolding »

Hi Tim,

Thank you for the information. The particular product I'm looking at here is a flute tutorial which teaches beginners the first steps to playing a flute.
My other main product is for the Judiciary and H&M is used for the help manual which I have to keep on the web. Nothing secret here and only of use to the law courts. I can build an ebook form the existing H&M files I expect but I wondered how they would get that onto their ipads without using iTunes. I can't put it on the iTunes store.

Many thanks
Dennis
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Re: BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Dennis,
I can build an ebook form the existing H&M files I expect but I wondered how they would get that onto their ipads without using iTunes. I can't put it on the iTunes store.
These EXE books being discussed in this thread would not be for the iPad, they are Windows only. Help & Manual already produces eBooks for the iPad, that is the ePUB format. You don't need to put them in the iTunes store for users to get ePUB books onto their iPads. They can do that themselves: You just need to connect the iPad to the computer with the USB cable and then drag the ePub book onto the iPad entry in iTunes. This works both in Windows and on the Mac, provided the iBooks app is already installed on the iPad or the iPhone.

See the chapter on eBooks in the Publishing section of the Help & Manual help for details on how to produce valid ePUB books for iBooks.
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PatInAustin
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Re: BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by PatInAustin »

Is this e-Book compiler for creating Amazon.com eBooks?

Thanks
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Re: BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by Tim Green »

PatInAustin wrote:Is this e-Book compiler for creating Amazon.com eBooks?
No. It creates a special kind of Windows EXE eBooks that packs WebHelp or any other web page into a single file that also contains its own embedded viewer. The book "displays itself" with the embedded viewer when it is double-clicked in Windows. It adds additional functionality that allows the books to be used as an alternative to CHM files for context help for applications, allowing programmers to call individual pages and positions in pages from their applications. It does this just like CHM, allowing multiple calls to the same instance of the book. WebHelp can't do this, because every call to WebHelp always opens a new browser window. This combines the flexibility and layout options of WebHelp with the functionality of CHM.

In addition to this, this format also adds a number of advanced security options that are attractive for distribution of documents, like password protection, digital signing and the ability to expire the book after a specified period.

You can now create Amazon eEbooks with the ePub format. This can be submitted to Amazon for conversion into Kindle books.
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Alexander Halser
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FINAL BETA: HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler eWriter

Unread post by Alexander Halser »

eWriter 1.0 build 370
is now available for download! This is the final beta version before release.

Download link:
http://download.ec-software.com/ewriter-setup.exe

Changes and improvements:

* The general time limitation for compiled EXE files has been removed (now the expiration date is optional)
* New output format implemented: eWriter can create CHM files directly
* Online help completed
Alexander Halser
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Darren Rose
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Re: FINAL BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by Darren Rose »

all working fine except one issue

It is still picking up the wrong location for UPX so when I tick the box to compress it is looking in old beta folder, rather than the new installed location of ec-writer

See image
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Tim Frost
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Re: FINAL BETA: HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler eWriter

Unread post by Tim Frost »

With CHM output, if I print using the Print icon on the top row of icons, I get a printer dialog and a printout. If I use the Print icon on the second row (next to show/hide and feedback) then IE pops up and says Internet Explorer cannot display the web page.
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Re: FINAL BETA: New HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler for download

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Darren,
Darren Rose wrote:It is still picking up the wrong location for UPX so when I tick the box to compress it is looking in old beta folder, rather than the new installed location of ec-writer
I'm sure Alex will pick up on this right away. However, don't expect too much from this: All it does is compress the embedded viewer app (which is very small anyway). The main eBook data itself is always compressed. :)
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Re: FINAL BETA: HTML-to-EXE eBook compiler eWriter

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Tim,
Tim Frost wrote:With CHM output, if I print using the Print icon on the top row of icons, I get a printer dialog and a printout. If I use the Print icon on the second row (next to show/hide and feedback) then IE pops up and says Internet Explorer cannot display the web page.
Do you mean a Print icon included in a WebHelp layout that you're packaging in a CHM? That and several other key things in WebHelp won't work when packaged in CHMs like this because of some show-stopping restrictions on what normal HTML files can do inside the CHM container. You will also find that the search function in WebHelp won't work when packaged in a CHM.

The reason for this is that URLs with standard parameters (a "?" followed by the parameters) don't work inside a CHM, they just produce the obtuse white page error message you have been seeing. Zoom Search relies entirely on this to work (it reloads the search page with the search terms as the parameters) and print buttons in most WebHelp layouts do the same thing.

For the same reason, you can't make context help calls to normal Help & Manual WebHelp packaged inside a CHM like this, because the required index.html?topic.htm syntax is not supported and just results in the error message. If will only work if you access the topic files directly without the option for reloading the full user interface with the table of contents, because for that reload to work it must also call an index.html?topic.htm URL, which results in the same error.

What this means is that it is possible to package HTML files in a CHM like this, but the standard Help & Manual style WebHelp will only work passively (i.e. without support for context help), and only without the Search tab. For all these reasons, it's better to package WebHelp in the EXE format, which avoids all these problems.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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