Fixed layout

21 views
Skip to first unread message

Philippe Rathé

unread,
Jun 19, 2014, 3:40:13 PM6/19/14
to ope...@googlegroups.com
Hello,

What would be the best way to express the property "fixed layout" of a format on an entry?
I was thinking about using the extent dcmi-terms, because it could be related to the size, such as the width.

An example would be:

    <dcterms:extent>Fixed layout</dcterms:extent>

Hadrien Gardeur

unread,
Jun 21, 2014, 8:09:18 AM6/21/14
to ope...@googlegroups.com, Bill McCoy, Markus Gylling, Magnus Rudolfsen
Hello Philippe,
I think that's a very good question but more related to the IDPF than the OPDS WG. I'm cc'ing Bill and Markus here.

Here are my thoughts on this:
  • EPUB is heading in a direction where more and more features and profiles are added (fixed layout, video/audio support, index, dictionary, comics, EDUPUB etc.) and it's useful to know what they are before acquiring a publication
  • in ONIX 3, there are a number of things we can express about the properties of these publications, but not all of them
  • if you have access to the file, it's always possible to inspect them and detect the features/profiles
  • but on the Web, where we use HTTP headers and links, and rely heavily on media types to know what the resource is, there's no way we can indicate if an EPUB is an EPUB 2 or EPUB 3, or if it uses a specific profile/feature
I've heard the same thing from Magnus at Bokbasen (cc'd too) before, in his case about EPUB 2 & 3 (he's interested in providing two links in an OPDS entry, one for EPUB 2 and the other for EPUB 3).

My advice would be to adopt specific media parameters for the EPUB media type that could include: version, profile and eventually a list of features (multimedia, interactive etc.).

Since the media type for EPUB is not part of the spec, it should be fairly easy to add official support for something like this if/when the EPUB WG & IDPF agrees on such a change.

Best,
Hadrien
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages