CS297 Proposal

A Javascript and PHP EPUB reader web application

Xiaqing He (kathyhxq@gmail.com)

Advisor: Dr. Chris Pollett

Description:

EPUB, like PDF and Word, is a format for representing documents in electronic form. It is used by many eReaders such as iBooks, Blackberry Playbooks, Sony Reader and so on. There are also browser add-ons for Firefox to read ePub files.

The drawback of eReaders is platform lock-in, and the drawback of an add-on is the inability to easily sync page positions across multiple devices.

In this project, we intend to create a Javascript and PHP web application for the ePub format solving both of these problems.

Schedule:

Week 1: Feb.3-9	Learn EPUB format, read Garrish2011
Week 2: Feb.10-16	How to read ePub-files? Learn EPUBReader in Firefox and other application
Week 3: Feb.17-23	Complete Deliverable #1
Week 4-7: Feb.24-Mar.23	Work on Deliverable #2
Week 8-11: Mar.24-Apr.20	Work on Deliverable #3
Week 12-15: Apr.21-27	Work on Deliverable #4
Week 16: May.19-24	Complete Deliverable #5 and proposal for CS298

Deliverables:

The full project will be done when CS298 is completed. The following will be done by the end of CS297:

1. Power Point describing EPUB format

2. Create by hand an EPUB document with table of contents and at least two chapters

3. Implement sequitar algorithm for compression/decompression by JavaScript

4. Create a database and PHP APIs so could handle page position data for multiple books and users

5. Finish CS297 report

References:

[Garrish2011] What is EPUB 3? Matt Garrish, O'Reilly Media, 2011.

[Davies]Creating and formatting documents for e-readers using ePub.

CS154's (taught by Professor Pollett) lecture on Mar. 18, 2013, grammar-based compression algorithm: sequitur

Guide of CakePHP: the rapid development php framework

references of compression and decompression with Javascript