Forum topic to epub 📖✨ ebook export

A simple browser widget to export a forum topic to .epub ebook.

Tested on:

• forums.onlinebookclub.org
• onlinephilosophyclub.com
• forum.philosophynow.org

(first version for PHPBB forums)

How to use

Step 1: navigate to a forum topic that you want to export, e.g. https://onlinephilosophyclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=16848.

Step 2: Copy the following browser widget code into the browser console (F12) to start an .epub ebook export.

(function(b,c,a,d){
   a=b.createElement("script");a.async=1;a.src="https://psyreporter.com/epub/epub.js";b.head.appendChild(a);d=setInterval(function(){window.epubExport&&(clearInterval(d),c&&window.epubExport(c),console.info("ebook epub export widget ready",window.epubExport))},10)
})(document,{
   /* options */
});

Browser button

It is possible to create a browser bookmark button with the prefix javascript:. The button will create an ebook for the forum topic that is visible in the browser. (view instructions)

Options

• pages: array An array of page indexes to export into the book, e.g. [4,5,6] for pages 4 to 6.
• cover: string Book cover image URL, e.g. "http://abc.com/book-cover.jpg"
• images: boolean (optional, default true)
  Embed external images in ebook
• title: string
  Title of the book
• author: string | string[] (optional, default ['anonymous'])
  Name of the author for the book, e.g. "Alice" or ["Alice", "Bob"]
• publisher: string (optional, default anonymous)
  Publisher name
• description: string (optional)
  Book description
• proxy: string
  A CORS proxy to enable remote images to be included in the book. (free proxy list)
• css: string (optional)
  CSS string, to include in book, e.g: "body{background: #000}"
• print_sound: string | boolean (optional, default old-printer.wav)
  A printer sound to play during ebook generation.

Example options

{
   "proxy": "https://api.codetabs.com/v1/proxy/?quest={{url}}",
   "cover": "https://onlinephilosophyclub.com/forums/download/file.php?avatar=39661_1389361593.jpg",
   "pages": [14,15,16],
   "images": true,
   "ignoreFailedDownloads": true,
   "title": "A selection of forum posts to read..."
}

Example browser widget with options

(function(b,c,a,d){
   a=b.createElement("script");a.async=1;a.src="https://psyreporter.com/epub/epub.js";b.head.appendChild(a);d=setInterval(function(){window.epubExport&&(clearInterval(d),c&&window.epubExport(c),console.info("ebook epub export widget ready",window.epubExport))},10)
})(document,{
   cover: "https://onlinephilosophyclub.com/forums/download/file.php?avatar=39661_1389361593.jpg",
   pages: [10,11,12,13,14,15]
});

API

Without passing an options object to the special browser widget code, the API epubExport can be used manually. It is also possible to load epub.js manually, for example for a custom forum integration.

window.epubExport({ /* options */);

Browser eBook Print button

You can create a browser button to print a topic with a single click.

Step 1

Right-click on the browser bookmark bar and select "Create new bookmark".

Step 2

Copy the browser widget code into the Location: field prefixed with javascript:.

javascript:(function(b,c,a,d){a=b.createElement("script");a.async=1;a.src="https://psyreporter.com/epub/epub.js";b.head.appendChild(a);d=setInterval(function(){window.epubExport&&(clearInterval(d),c&&window.epubExport(c),console.info("ebook epub export widget ready",window.epubExport))},10)})(document,{/* options */});

Step 3

When you want to save a topic to ebook, you can simply click the button in the browser and within seconds the ebook is printed.

📖 Ebook demo

A discussion topic with over 1000 posts was printed into an ebook in several seconds, including all images embedded.

Download ebook

A demo ebook is available in this repository.

On the absurd hegemony of science
A book without an end... One of the most popular philosophy discussion topics in recent history.
on-the-absurd-hegemony-of-science.epub

Poetry book review: official-review-in-the-land-of-myth-by-bernard-kuckuck.epub