TeaBook Open Reader

The TeaBook Open Reader is our long-term vision of how e-books will be read on PCs and tablets. Rather than creating a native application for every device and operating system version, we aim to develop a single reading application that can be used on a recent browser without any installation requirements.

Because our vision is to share rather than lock in our readers, we are sharing what we have developed. We hope you will take part in improving it and passing it on to others who can appropriate it.

Éric, on behalf of everyone at TEA the e-book alternative

TOC

• The application
• Development status
• Distribution
• Technical details
  • Requirements
    • Debian Squeeze
    • Ubuntu 12.04 precise
  • Installation from scratch
  • Installation with vagrant
  • Specs

A demo application is available at http://demo-open-reader.tea-ebook.com/ presenting a handful of books that are in the public domain. Its purpose is to give you an idea of the version we are actively developing; it is not a final version. There are a number of anomalies left, and certain functionalities are missing. Please let us know of any anomalies you notice. Better still, if you contact us to participate in improving the reader, we will help you access the source code so that you can make changes yourself. Similarly, the app is currently only compatible with Chrome and the iPad. One of our top priorities is to support all recent browsers, and our architecture was chosen with this in mind. Mozilla’s strategy with [Firefox's MarketPlace][firefox marketplace], for instance, is clearly in line with our vision. Supporting Mozilla Firefox is therefore a priority. One of the problems we are facing at the moment is performance issues in adding content via data: URIs. We would be delighted if you would like to work on inter-browser compatibility.

For the content, we have chosen to focus essentially on e-books in the standard EPUB format. Version 2 is almost ready to go. Certain key version 3 functionalities, such as fixed layout, are already supported, but a lot of work still needs to be done on the finer details, and on embedded Javascript.

The application itself is shared using the GPL 3.0 license with a specific exception for technical protection measures when required by publishers. This licence gives you extensive rights, but you must comply with certain requirements, for instance if you wish to distribute the application to third parties. Please consult the licence content if you are not familiar with it.

We have shared a strategic application with the public. We hope that you will do your part by contributing your changes and improvements. Working in this manner will be of benefit to us all.

Please note that the application's name and certain parts of its original design are not covered by the licence. This is so that you can personalise the application with your own design.

• Redis
• MongoDB
• Ruby 1.9.3
• Unzip
• Optipng and jpegoptim
• bundler

sudo su -c "echo \"deb http://deb.bearstech.com/squeeze redis/\" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/redis.list"
sudo su -c "echo \"deb http://downloads-distro.mongodb.org/repo/debian-sysvinit dist 10gen\" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/10gen.list"
sudo su -c "echo \"deb http://deb.bearstech.com/squeeze ruby-1.9.3/\" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ruby1.9.3.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv 7F0CEB10
sudo apt-get -yqq update
sudo apt-get -yqq --force-yes install make vim zlib1g-dev unzip git-core g++ libxslt-dev libxml2-dev optipng jpegoptim imagemagick graphicsmagick libcurl4-gnutls-dev screen redis-server mongodb-10gen ruby1.9.3 nginx
sudo apt-get -yqq remove ruby1.8

# MongoDB 10gen
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv 7F0CEB10
sudo su -c "echo \"deb http://downloads-distro.mongodb.org/repo/ubuntu-upstart dist 10gen\" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/10gen.list"
sudo apt-get -yqq update
sudo apt-get -yqq install make vim zlib1g-dev unzip git-core g++ libxslt-dev libxml2-dev optipng jpegoptim imagemagick graphicsmagick libcurl4-gnutls-dev screen nginx mongodb-10gen redis-server ruby1.9.3
# be sure ruby (and gem) 1.9 is the default.
# remove ruby1.8 or use update-alternatives

gem install bundle

Installation from scratch

Application dependencies

Install/update dependencies with bundle :

bundle install

Mongo

Copy the mongodb configuration file and edit it if needed

cp config/mongoid/development.yml config/mongoid.yml

Alternatively you can execute the rails task :

bundle exec rails g mongoid:config

Secret

If you use last versions (9d3f825 and after), this step is performed automatically by an initializer and a rake task so go your way.

Generate a secret with bundle exec rake secret and copy it in config/initializers/secret_token.rb

# generate a secret
SECRET=`bundle exec rake secret`
# put it in config/initializers/secret_token.rb
cp config/initializers/secret_token.rb.dist config/initializers/secret_token.rb
sed -i "s/Tea::Application.config.secret_token.*/Tea::Application.config.secret_token = \'$SECRET\'/" config/initializers/secret_token.rb

Insert default datas in database

bundle exec rake db:seed

Start resque workers

This is used to convert epub to html.

bundle exec rake resque:pool:start

Start web server (thin)

bundle exec thin start

or use the rails task:

bundle exec rails s

Run the fake API

The accounts are configured in an other server. The authentication is also in this server. This server is not open source. You can find informations about the API here.

To be able to test the reader, a fake API exists. When executing it, authentication is always ok.

bundle exec shotgun tea_api.ru -p 4567

or, without code reloading

bundle exec thin -R tea_api.ru start -p 4567

The API is now configurable. To have more details about it, read the corresponding wiki page.

You need to have VirtualBox and vagrant installed.

1 - get the sources

git clone [email protected]:TEA-ebook/teabook-open-reader.git

2 - got to script/vagrant

cd script/vagrant

3 - copy the Vagrantfile and edit it (ip, memory of cpu configuration, nfs share)

If you want a debian squeeze:

cp Vagrantfile_squeeze.dist Vagrantfile
vi Vagrantfile

and if you want an ubuntu 12.04:

cp Vagrantfile_precise.dist Vagrantfile
vi Vagrantfile

4 - run the vagrant. It will download the base box and execute the installation script

vagrant up

5 - follow instructions

vagrant ssh
./teabook/script/vagrant/install.sh
./teabook/script/vagrant/start.sh

6 - if you want, install an example book (optional)

./teabook/script/vagrant/addExample.sh

7 - open your browser on http://<vm ip>:3000

bundle exec guard

bundle exec rspec

RAILS_ENV=test bundle exec rake jasmine

bundle exec jasmine-headless-webkit