eBooks Produced by Rick Gordon
- Stretching: Enhanced 30th Anniversary Edition: Heavily JavaScript-enhanced, including cookie-based techniques to communicate between chapters, to implement link highlighting and dynamic backlinks, and to make data persistent; uses external SVG sections to simulate mixed fixed/flowing layout and allow live links in images. Scripting extends into the SVGs.
- Tiny Homes: 240-page text- and image-heavy fixed layout book that simulates the original 9" × 12" coffee-table book. Produced using the CircularFLO plug-in for InDesign, preceded and followed by a lot of manual prep and follow-up. Uses a small amount of JavaScript, mostly for detailed email feedback.
- Marathon: You Can Do It! Flowing layout, with CSS design built on aesthetic principles of print book design (yet a different design from the original print version).
Examples of Interactive eBooks
- Stretching: Enhanced 30th Anniversary Edition: Described above, its techniques are the subject of much of this presentation.
- Widget World: A sample book designed as a showcase for the Infogrid Pacific publishing system and its dedicated reader AZARDI, it works well in iBooks, shows a variety of intriguing techniques, and the code is not DRM’d, and therefore accessible for study.
- EPUB 3 Unleashed: A slightly older sample book similar to Widget World. The same commentary applies.
- EPUB 3 Accessibility Guidelines: While also a great asset for implementing accessibility in EPUB, this book also has quite a bit of JavaScript enhancement. Notably, it includes an implementation of JavaScript-enabled code coloring and line-numbering.
- Sticks and Stones: A fixed-layout children’s book that is both an alphabet book and a primer in binary representation, it uses JavaScript for multiple purposes.
- Raisins & Dried Fruits: Produced by Toby Stevenson of eBook Architects, the recipe sections use jQuery techniques to toggle the visibility of ingredients listed in U.S. or metric measurements. (Free, but has DRM)
- Barcelona Beyond Gaudi: (also available as part of package deal at www.PigsGourdsAndWikis.com) Produced by Liz Castro (see book recommendations under EPUB resources), this fixed-layout book uses straight JavaScript to toggle the visibility of panels, and also serves as an example of integration with Google Maps.
- The Monarch Butterfly: Also produced by Liz Castro, this book uses JavaScript for toggle visibility and timing for re-hiding.
- Voyage en Dyslexie (in French): This fixed-layout children’s book uses gyroscope acceleration events to move objects when the iPad is tilted, and also allows the reader to drag objects around the page. Unfortunately, it is DRM’d.
- Yellow Submarine (removed from iBookstore): Formerly freely available from the iBookstore (and using DRM), this book was the prototype for functionality in ibooks.js. It seems to be gone now.
- Fixed Layout Example 3.0 (availability limited to registered Apple ebook publishers; access via iTunesConnect): The current example book for the functionality of ibooks.js.
JavaScript Resources
Books (All listed here are published by O’Reilly.)
- Learning JavaScript: By Shelley Powers. A good primer for the basics
- JavaScript: The Missing Manual: By David Sawyer McFarland. Likewise
- JavaScript Cookbook: By Shelley Powers. Lots of functional examples
- JavaScript Enlightenment: By Cody Lindley. Anything by him is excellent. This is not for rank beginners, but it is great for getting to a deeper level of understanding.
- DOM Enlightenment: By Cody Lindley. The description above can apply here.
Online
- JavaScriptKit.com: A good go-to reference.
- W3Schools.com: Not recommended, but totally ubiquitous. So since you’re going to wind up there, get what you can, but understand that they are noted for being unreliable. (Take your grains of salt.)
- CodeAcademy: An online tutorial site with a lesson plan that you can continue over time. Free; expect emails.
jQuery Resources
Books (All listed here are published by O’Reilly, except for jQuery Enlightenment.)
- JavaScript & jQuery: The Missing Manual: By David Sawyer McFarland. A good primer for basic JavaScript, segueing into an introduction to jQuery
- jQuery Cookbook: By Cody Lindley. Lots of examples, and much more than a cookbook-type code book.
- jQuery Enlightenment: By Cody Lindley. While not the best as a starting book, it’s a great book once you’ve wrapped your head around the basics.
- jQuery UI: By Eric Sarrion. A good book for learning about jQuery UI, which simplifies the creation and manipulation of interface elements with jQuery
- Learning from jQuery: By Callum Macrae. A very interesting book, assuming some knowledge of jQuery and light knowledge of JavaScript, focusing how jQuery is implemented under-the-hood, and how to do jQuery operations directly in JavaScript, for maximum efficiency
Online
- The official jQuery website: The place to download the current versions of jQuery, jQuery UI, and jQuery Mobile. Link off to complete documentation api.jquery.com and tutorials learn.jquery.com and docs.jquery.com.
- Intel App Framework (formerly jqMobi): This is said to be a small, streamlined variant of jQuery. I don’t have enough information to comment, but I’ve heard some good things.
- Zepto.js: Another scaled-down variant of jQuery. Again, I can’t comment with much data, but I’ve heard that benchmark tests show that each of these variants have their own pluses and minuses.
- jQuery Fundamentals: A good, lightweight, online tutorial.
EPUB Resources
Books
- Any of Liz Castro’s books: Liz Castro is arguably the number one resource for learning about producing ebooks. Her books are easy to read, not biased to a particular product, and full of useful tips. Get them all at a package price from her website.
- EPUB 3 Best Practices: By Matt Garish and Markus Gylling. A must-have book for navigating the changes and features of EPUB 3
- Accessible EPUB 3: By Matt Garish. A great resource for learning how to make EPUB 3 ebooks readable by all potential readers, including (in particular) individuals with special visual or auditory considerations.
- EPUB 3 Accessibility Guidelines: The official guide to EPUB 3 accessibility, this book is described in more depth under the Examples of Interactive eBooks heading above.
Online
- IDPF official EPUB documentation: Not particularly reader-friendly, but definitive
- wiki.MobileRead.com: Links to good, basic resources
Other Resources
- The #ePrdctn Twitter hashtag: An amazing, and very active resource for the discussion of ebook technology
- ePUBSecrets.com: Curated by PePcon hosts David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion
- StackOverflow.com: Answers for nearly everything code-related; find or post questions / get answers. I often search a question on Google, then go to the StackOverflow.com results for answers.
- AZARDI: A JavaScript-enabling, EPUB 3–compatible reader that runs as a desktop application in Mac, Windows, and Linux environments
- Readium for Chrome: A JavaScript-enabling, EPUB 3–compatible reader that runs as plug-in for the Chrome browser.
