Last modified: 2014-01-20 22:55:29 UTC
Books and other paged media can be uploaded as DjVu files [1] (and maybe in the future as ePUB, although that is currently not supported for security reasons - bug 17858); it would be nice if MultimediaViewer could display such files. [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:DjVu
According to Fabrice Florin, it is possible that community developers can implement special handlers for showing complex formats like djvu or epub in Media Viewer, using hooks or plugins to be provided next year. This would open the possibility to have an integrated djvu or epub reader directly into the Media Viewer. See recent epub.js http://fchasen.github.io/epub.js/ And an example: http://book.23rdcenturyromance.com/ ePub files are currently not stored in Commons, but they are generated in Wikisource. A new epub export extension could have in cache the generated ePub files, and this could be served to the Media Viewer in Wikipedia or Wikisource. An author page in Wikipedia/Wikisource could have a media gallery of books pulled from Wikidata (edition items by author in current language). On clicking on the cover it would display the epub or djvu version, whatever is available. From this point it should be possible to invite readers to transcribe the book in Wikisource if the book is only available as djvu.
(In reply to comment #1) > According to Fabrice Florin, it is possible that community developers can > implement special handlers for showing complex formats like djvu or epub in > Media Viewer, using hooks or plugins to be provided next year. That seems like an odd approach to take. Code to view special media formats should live in those formats respective MediaHandler extensions. (In reply to comment #0) > Books and other paged media can be uploaded as DjVu files [1] (and maybe in > the > future as ePUB, although that is currently not supported for security > reasons - > bug 17858); it would be nice if MultimediaViewer could display such files. > > [1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:DjVu Don't forget PDF :)
(In reply to comment #2) > That seems like an odd approach to take. Code to view special media formats > should live in those formats respective MediaHandler extensions. David probably meant the javascript code to customize MediaViewer for certain formats; paged media requires a slightly different UI from images, and other formats might need even more customization (3D stuff, for example).
I believe that it's MultimediaViewer that should contains a generic viewer for paged media (like djvu, pdf and paged tiff) because it's a generic kind of medias that have an implementation in MediaWiki core. Then specific tweaks for given media types support should be done in the MediaHandler extensions (except for DjVu that is a format supported by MediaWiki core)
Why would we want to upload epub or djvu text files (independent of their scans) back to Commons? I don't see the point. Half of the benefit of dynamic production of epub files is that they will be quick and easy to do, and will always be of the most recent update of the proofread process. If we have epubs at Commons they will then have to be version controlled to a proofread status. If we need access to epub at Commons, it would seem wiser to have a dynamic process to take generate the respective WS work. If we are talking djvu, then we are talking image and text, as there is no point without find 'in situ'.
(In reply to comment #4) > I believe that it's MultimediaViewer that should contains a generic viewer > for > paged media (like djvu, pdf and paged tiff) because it's a generic kind of > medias that have an implementation in MediaWiki core. Then specific tweaks > for > given media types support should be done in the MediaHandler extensions > (except > for DjVu that is a format supported by MediaWiki core) Yes I agree for paged media - other things like video might more appropriately live in TMH possibly, etc. I was more trying to emphasize that it should be part of either core or an extension. It should *not* be some hack in a local MediaWiki:Common.js
(In reply to comment #5) > > If we are talking djvu, then we are talking image and text, as there is no > point without find 'in situ'. To clarify that I am talking about the finding text in relation to its position in the text, which is getting to the right page and then locating the text — the 2-D position awareness.
(In reply to comment #5) > Why would we want to upload epub or djvu text files (independent of their > scans) back to Commons? I don't see the point. This discussion is not about uploading epub files to Commons, but about adding epub/djvu viewing capabilities to the Media Viewer. The epub files would be generated dinamically as they are now (or cached if there are no changes), but the user would be able to read them online (instead of downloading them and using an external viewer).
(In reply to comment #8) > (In reply to comment #5) > > Why would we want to upload epub or djvu text files (independent of their > > scans) back to Commons? I don't see the point. > > This discussion is not about uploading epub files to Commons, but about > adding > epub/djvu viewing capabilities to the Media Viewer. > > The epub files would be generated dinamically as they are now (or cached if > there are no changes), but the user would be able to read them online > (instead > of downloading them and using an external viewer). Comment 0 is just about uploaded paged formats. Triggering mediaviewer on dynamically generated files for download seems like it would be an entirely separate can of worms
