lack of warnings for v2 cover id mis-matches

[phi.s...@sciphi.me]

 

In ePub v2, to indicate an image file as the cover [1], you would have a meta element with the name of "cover" which declares the ID of the manifest item in its 'content' attribute.

 

Example :

<meta name="cover" content="cover-image"/>

...

<item id="cover-image" href="images/cover.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg"/>

 

Sometimes, I encounter content with the equivalent of this :

 

<meta name="cover" content="specified-cover-id"/>

...

<item id="some-other-value" href="images/cover.jpg" media-type="image/jpeg"/>

 

Obviously, if I try to access the manifest item by the 'specified-cover-id' it will fail,

since the actual ID is 'some-other-value.'

 

I know cover is not a requirement of the spec, but what I am curious about is why this 'dangling pointer' does not trigger an error, or even a warning, in ePubCheck, for being un-resolvable?

 

Thanks,

 

~Phi

 

[1] Per the ThreePress recommendations here :

 

http://blog.threepress.org/2009/11/20/best-practices-in-epub-cover-images/