HTML Bundle Format

Tue, 07/14/2009 - 03:39 — tevans

To create a HTML bundle for use with the LDS Scriptures app do the following:

1. Create a folder to hold all of the files you want in the bundle
2. In the folder create a file named index.html that will serve as the first (root) document with links to all of the other documents
3. Place all of the other files you want (html, images, css, etc.) into the folder as well
4. Create a .zip file that contains all of the files in the folder (don't compress the folder itself, but rather the contents of the folder)
5. Rename the extension from .zip to .bundle
6. Using LDSScripturesApp.com, upload the bundle and then share it with other users.

A couple of additional notes:
- The bundle may contain subfolders.
- Any links in the files to scriptures located at http://scriptures.lds.org/... will automatically be converted so the scriptures will be correctly displayed in the LDS Scriptures app.
- You can test that all of the links and images work correctly by opening the index.html file in your favorite web browser.
- On the iPhone OS all file names are case-sensitive. The names "INDEX.HTML" and "index.html" are not the same.

You can download the August 2009 Ensign bundle to use as an example here: Ensign, August 2009. Once the file is downloaded, rename the extension from .bundle to .zip and unzip it into a folder.

My Library

Thu, 07/30/2009 - 20:58 — MtnBiker

Can I get the bundle of the

Can I get the bundle of the current ensign or past ensign (the sample one is lame) so that I can mimic that format exactly to produce more Ensigns for past years?

I plan on starting with 2009 and working back words.
I also thought of just starting a thread to see if anyone else wanted to help and we could just pick a year and that way no one would have to do it twice - I just want quality control by using the format you allready have laid out and for that it would be easiest to just get the June.bundle and then I could easily make it into a template version taking out most for the text - but leaving formatting for text size and linking, images, etc.

Also I thought once you have like 20 or so the list would get long so I wanted to create them in a fashion that one file could have all of 2008, 2007, 2006 and drill down from 2008>month>individual talks.

Thu, 07/30/2009 - 21:35 — tevans

I just uploaded the August

I just uploaded the August 2009 Ensign to LDSScripturesApp.com. Here's a link to the actual .bundle file in case anyone wants to see how it's constructed. Rename the extension to .zip and unzip it into a folder.

Ensign, August 2009

If you have any questions, please ask so you're not wasting time trying to figure out what I did. All it requires to make a .bundle for a magazine is copying and pasting content.

Thu, 07/30/2009 - 22:01 — MtnBiker

Ok you look to be doing it

Ok you look to be doing it harder or easier than I first tried, probably easier.

How did you go about saving the content from the web site?
I was just highlighting, cut, copy and pasting but you seem to be doing it better - please explain

Also the naming and linking - are you having it done automatically just by basically taking the web content and creating an offline copy of it all linked and done?

Thu, 07/30/2009 - 23:15 — tevans

I'd actually bet my way is

I'd actually bet my way is harder than the way you're doing it.

I actually copy and paste from the HTML source code for each article so I get the exact formatting the Church uses.

As for the naming, the file names are from the sourceId= field you see in the address bar of your browser when viewing an article. I manually create a file for each article using that number and then paste the appropriate HTML text from the article into it.

I would like to write an automated script to convert each magazine, but I'm heads-down in trying to get the next updates out (as well as a couple of new apps we're making).

If anyone has experience with parsing HTML using Perl/Python/Ruby, etc. and wants to help out, drop me a note using the Contact Us link at the bottom of this page.

Sat, 07/18/2009 - 10:30 — mgorman85

so if i have a PDF, the only

so if i have a PDF, the only way to view it is as a PDF, correct? the only way i could read the Liahona in spanish is to upload the PDF into my content?

Wed, 07/15/2009 - 12:19 — matthew_lee

I'm having problems getting

I'm having problems getting the bundle format to work. I have zipped my documents and changed the file format from zip to bundle. I upload the bundle and sync my library. When I open the bundle all I get is a blank screen. Any ideas on what I need to do differently?

Mon, 10/26/2009 - 09:48 — sjbowden

I also was getting a blank

I also was getting a blank screen with my .bundle uploads. I even unzipped the example .bundle file and rezipped it and got the same thing. So then I switched which zip tool I was using and it worked. WinZip 12.0 didn't work, but Info-Zip did work.

Wed, 07/15/2009 - 12:35 — tevans

When a .bundle is transferred

When a .bundle is transferred to the device it gets unzipped and then looks for the index.html page to load.

Two things to check:

1. Verify that you have an index.html file
2. Verify that you are zipping up just the contents of the folder with your documents in it, not the folder and all of it's contents.

Wed, 07/15/2009 - 12:54 — bball3212

What do you have to put in

What do you have to put in the bundle file? Do you just create a blank file called index.html or what do you have to do to make that file do something?

Wed, 07/15/2009 - 14:35 — tevans

At the end of the first post

At the end of the first post above, there's a link to download an example bundle file that you can look at.

But, to answer you question, the index.html file is the first file that will be displayed and it needs hyperlinks to the other files in your bundle. If you're not familiar with HTML code, you should still be able to look at the example index.html file to get an understanding of what you put in it.

The index.html in the Church magazines we uploaded is the page which contains the Table of Contents.

Tue, 07/14/2009 - 13:25 — tutone

This is great. I appreciate

This is great. I appreciate your work. Will only lds.org links be converted? What about a scripture reference like 1 Ne 3:7, will it be converted? If not, how do you recommend that we link to the scriptures, should we use the lds.org links even if the content did not originate from lds.org? It would be nice if 1 Ne 3:7 would be converted or if you could provide a lookup tool that tells you the html link for a given reference.

Also, what is the max size that can be uploaded and then dowloaded to the device?

Thanks again.

Tue, 07/14/2009 - 14:08 — tevans

We will look into

We will look into automatically parsing scriptures in documents that don't actually link to lds.org.

For now, just to clarify, any HTML document that links to a scripture on lds.org will just automatically work. If you take an HTML document, lets say an Ensign article, that contains links to scriptures in it and include it in a .bundle, then those scriptures will now be shown within the LDS Scriptures app.

For example, if an HTML file contains the hyperlink:
http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/2/5-7,10#6

When the user taps on the link in LDS Scriptures 2nd Nephi chapter 2 will be displayed and verses 5-7 and 10 will have their backgrounds slightly highlighted and verse 6 will be scrolled to.

We're working on a FAQ, but the current limits are 5MB/document and 10MB/account. We will be increasing the 10MB/account limit.

Tue, 07/14/2009 - 15:45 — tutone

I have noticed that the

I have noticed that the following are slow and lag: (1) opening the document; (2) scrolling through a document; (3) response after tapping a link; and (4) opening the linked document.

Fri, 07/17/2009 - 14:44 — tutone

The html file extension must

The html file extension must apparently be lowercase. I couldn't get the app to locate INDEX.HTML only index.html. Also, links that go to a file with uppercase HTML extension work but a blank page comes up. Once the file and link are lowercase than the document will appear.

Mon, 08/03/2009 - 21:03 — tevans

Just as a follow-up, I've

Just as a follow-up, I've seen a few shared documents now that have some of their content not appearing correctly because of this. If, in your .html file you have a link to another .html file, the case of the letters must be the same. For example, 4.HTML is not the same as 4.html I have looked and I haven't been able to find a way to have the OS ignore case issues when loading files.