How to create an Epub with the most simple Twine file ever

Aigrefin

Hello,

Actually, this is maybe not the most simple Twine file ever (since I am using the Sugarcube format story), but I guess this is still quite an easy one : there is only two passages and a single link between both of them. No variable, no function, no tag and so on.
I have been looking over the internet and this forum for two days; I have tried several applications, link, tutorials, even some basic commands using the windows prompt and some Java-thing, I know how to use and make an Epub from scratch, but, still... I can't do an Epub using the html file you get when using the "Publish to file" function of Twine.

I used Calibre, Readium ; the Epub I made (with one xhtml file inside) works perfectly. Then I changed nothing, except I copied / pasted the html file given by Twine into the single xhtml file, which is already in the epub, then I compress everything (with the mimetype first) in order to make a proper Epub file. It does not work.

I also tried to take the html Twine file and convert it with several online application (from html to Epub so), once again, still does not work.

So, maybe I am missing something extremely simple, but I can't identify the problem.

In your opinion, with such a simple Twine project, what could it get it wrong ?

Thanks in advance !

Claretta

Every Twine story HTML incorporates a lot of javascript. You might not be able to simply copy paste it across inside the html but may have to restructure it so you are linking the javascript in a separate file or whatever the epub format requires.

Also your story will only be viewable in fairly advanced tablets with javascript support.

greyelf

As explained in this article embedding Javascript in an ePub document can be very hit and miss because:

1. The different versions of the ePub specifications are very vague / unclear on what exactly is or isn't allowed.

2. The different brands of ePub reader software are very inconsistent on the level of support (none to some) they have of the Javascript language itself, and which web-browser like features (like local storage and history) they support (if any).

Aigrefin

Thanks both of you for your answers.

Indeed, Claretta, separating the css and the javascript from the main file is something I have already tried, but I had a hard time with it, especially with the javascript, since it is fully minimized. It is such a hell of a mess, actually, that even SublimeText displays it in white, like it does not know what kind of language this is. So I am not even sure this is only some javacript language. When I look at the SugarCube source code (I think it is what you can download here), I see a lot of .js, indeed, but also some python and other language I absolutely do not know. So it is still hard for me to identify the good javascript file you have to include in the html Twine file.

Then, when it comes to the embedding Javascript in an Epub, I have indeed read a lot of things about it, on this forum and from you too, Greyelf. But since it was back in 2014 for what I can remind, and I know how swift the IT expension / development is, I guessed most of these problems were fixed.

Seems not, unfortunately.

greyelf

The latest ePub 3.0.1 specification was only finally approved in 2014, so it was fairly recent and as stated it was a maintenance update.

The software on eReaders devices (like the Kindle, and the ones made by Kobo and Sony) are generally rarely updated, the software on smartphones generally update faster, and the web-browser plugins faster again. This means that differences in features between the dedicated devices and the web-browsers plugins can be a quite large, and this is one reason why most eBooks are still not that media rich other than images or interactive other than hyperlinks.