Add EPUB file support

[hanetzer]

So. I do a fair amount of latex writing/transcription of public domain works,
and as part of that process I produce epub, kfx, and pdf format documents
to cover basically any reader one may use.

I've considered recording them in audiobook format as well, and was looking
into good ways to 'automatically read' the file and came across your project.
a bit of git grepping shows that there are references to epubs (and pdf) in the
code, and the appimage I downloaded (qprompt-v1.1.6-51788eb-linux-gcc-x86_64.AppImage)
also has reference to epub and pdf strings, but cannot open either filetype
(its not even an option in the file format drop down)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Download, chmod +x
2. Run
3. Attempt to open an epub file

Expected behavior
Work, maybe?

Device information

• QPrompt Version: qprompt-v1.1.6-51788eb-linux-gcc-x86_64.AppImage
• Operating System: Gentoo Linux

Additional context
I could be misunderstanding but it seems like this should be able to work.
If I'm wrong do let me know.

[Cuperino]

Hi @hanetzer,

That's probably the cleverest way I've seen anyone search for software. Unfortunately, QPrompt is not able to read EPUB files because I haven't implemented the feature. The little code that is there is for filtering for the file format, because I would like to add support around for it in the future but it doesn't lead to a code that can actually open this format.

The code you saw is probably QPrompt's master branch, which corresponds to what's currently in development for v1.2, and has a few working features that are missing in 1.1. Among those features is the ability to plug into LibreOffice and use it to convert files in various office formats into HTML format, and display that output in QPrompt. Unfortunately EPUB is not a format LibreOffice supports, so the latest version of QPrompt remains unable to open it.

FYI, development builds for 1.2 are available for download at Patreon. There's also instructions to build QPrompt inside the repository. Unfortunately that won't be of any use here. My advice would be to look for a tool that can be used to convert to text or HTML and load that output into QPrompt.

Sorry for the confusion and the inconvenience.

[Cuperino]

This could be used: https://github.com/radiosity/libepub

[hanetzer]

clever software search

Well, to be fair I do use git myself, so kinda goes with the territory.
Large projects almost have to be git grepped to comprehend or find something.

epub 'support' is just a stub for filtering

Ah, gotcha.

1.2 builds on patreon

While I wish you the best in your financial endeavors, I'm broke af lmao.

conversion

yeah pandoc can do it, unfortunately the result is kinda meh.

apologies

None needed, sometimes writing software of a foss-ish nature can be thankless,
so instead, thank you for doing it at all, even if the support for my format is not
there yet

[Cuperino]

While I wish you the best in your financial endeavors, I'm broke af lmao.

Thanks! I've been there before so don't worry!

Here are the build instructions:
https://github.com/Cuperino/QPrompt/blob/main/build.md

And here's a link to the forum, where you can ask me all the questions you want:
https://forum.qprompt.app/ (redirects to: https://forum.cuperino.com/)

Let's leave the issue tracker for issue specific discussions. Helps keep things organized.

yeah pandoc can do it, unfortunately the result is kinda meh.

I'll look into it later. I'm considering to use libepub because that's what other KDE software is using.

None needed, sometimes writing software of a foss-ish nature can be thankless, so instead, thank you for doing it at all, even if the support for my format is not there yet

Honestly, I can't complain with this project. The members of this community have been very thankful and supportive from the start.

[Cuperino]

I've taken a quick look into the EPUB format and it is very straight forward. This could be done with our existing tools, adding maybe only a library for decompression and re-compression of files.

Note to self, it might even be a good idea to make EPUB the default format for QPrompt, since it's based off HTML, and could be used as means for separating multiple segments within a program.