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Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files

Path csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail
From "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid>
Newsgroups comp.mobile.android, alt.os.linux, alt.comp.os.windows-10
Subject Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files
Date Mon, 6 Jul 2026 19:50:46 +0200
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Cross-posted to 3 groups.

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On 2026-07-06 18:28, Maria Sophia wrote:
> Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> Q: I have recently seen "books" transferred as a ZIP archive of a large
>> html tree. Calibre calls a browser to see a page at a time, AFAIK. I
>> wonder if there is software that displays that ZIP as a book directly,
>> better on a tablet.

...

> I agree that, for technical documentation, HTML is often better than EPUB
> because it's designed for hyperlinks, search and non-linear navigation.
> 
> It would be nice if someone writes a simple app that opens a ZIP, serves it
> internally and displays it like a book-because it would solve all of this	.
> 
> In my Android 16 case, and also in the case of Andy & Carlos on Android,
> the real problem was SAF doesn't allow relative URLs in custom folders.
> 
> So any solution that works on Android, has to take SAF limitations into
> account, where I looked up how to view these thigns on iOS & it's similar.
> 
> On Android, we found that running a tiny web server worked.
> But on Android 10+, we could also have tried what Carlos used:
>   a. An older version of CX file Manager has a built-in web server

It is a current tablet with Android 16 and a current version of CX, 
installed via Google Play, version 2.7.6. I tried an html tree, not htmlz.

>   b. So does X-plore File Manager
>   c. And I'm told MiXplorer has excellent HTML-Z handling features
> 
> Interestingly, iOS seems to handle relative links *better* than Android.
> What's *different* about iOS is that iOS doesn't use SAF. Yipee!
> 
> An HTMLZ (a ZIP full of HTML with relative paths) will work on an iPad.
>   a. iPadOS does not break relative links the way Android 10+ does.
>   b. iPadOS does support relative paths inside an HTMLZ
>   c. iPadOS gives the browser real filesystem paths, not SAF streams.
>   d. So the browser sees the directory structure normally.
> This means the 500MB shop manual will behave like a normal offline website.
> Safari will load the entire manual correctly.
> 
> Even so, we can still use the server method on iOS as we did on Android.
> All of thse can run the same "python3 -m http.server" we used on Android.
>   a. iSH (Linux emulator)
>   b. Pythonista
>   c. Kodex
> Once we start the HTTP server in $DOCUMENT_ROOT, then we point a browser to
>   <http://localhost:8000/>
> 
> So, had I tried my iPads first, prior to Android, it would have worked.
> (Although it's an Apple disaster trying to get a large file onto the iPad.)
> 
> In summary, on Android 10+ the SAF mechanism destroys POSIX paths outside
> of the four public directories for web browser, so in order to put huge
> complex HTML-Z documentation on Android 16 outside of the four public
> directories, we had to employ a local server (or convert to EPUB/PDF).
> 
> Overall, I'm glad I ran into this problem because I learned about SAF and
> how it screws up POSIX file paths in custom folders when browsing HTML.
> 
> And, I learned from testing Calibre for Carlos that EPUBs have a fantastic
> search mechanism for extremely complex data structures (as good as PDF).
> 
> And I learned that for huge, image-heavy, cross-linked manuals, HTML in a
> browser is the fastest method, so there's a place for HTMLZ after all.


-- 
Cheers,
        Carlos E.R.
        ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;

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Thread

How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 18:40 -0400
  Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 21:17 -0400
    Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 21:48 -0400
      Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 22:51 -0400
        Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 23:57 -0400
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-04 23:13 -0600
            Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-08 10:10 +0100
              Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-08 10:32 -0400
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-05 13:29 +0200
            Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-07-05 14:48 +0100
              Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 10:06 -0600
              Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-05 19:10 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> - 2026-07-05 17:37 +0000
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Alan <nuh-uh@nope.com> - 2026-07-07 11:11 -0700
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-07-05 21:00 +0100
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-05 22:50 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 23:06 -0600
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-06 12:05 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-06 12:24 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-06 10:28 -0600
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-06 19:50 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-06 09:36 -0600
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-06 19:56 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-08 11:14 -0400
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-07-06 07:58 +0100
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-06 12:12 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 15:12 -0600
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> - 2026-07-08 17:51 +0000
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-08 21:49 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> - 2026-07-09 07:05 +0000
              Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> - 2026-07-08 17:44 +0000
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Dave Royal <dave@dave123royal.com> - 2026-07-09 06:09 +0100
            Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-08 10:39 +0100
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-08 10:37 +0100
        Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-07-06 17:53 +0200
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-06 10:47 -0600
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-07-08 10:57 +0100
      Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-07-05 08:35 +0100
        Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 10:38 -0600
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2026-07-05 18:22 +0100
            Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 12:16 -0600
          Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-05 19:41 +0200
            Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 12:54 -0600
              Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2026-07-05 23:11 +0200
                Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Maria Sophia <mariasophia@comprehension.com> - 2026-07-05 15:23 -0600
  Re: How to copy & read a huge zipped book with thousands of html & jpeg files Arno Welzel <usenet@arnowelzel.de> - 2026-07-06 17:48 +0200

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