IDPF Adoption Readiness Roadmap for Previews

Version 2015-07-08

Supporting tools/documents

1. Samples

2. Epubcheck support

3. Support in EPUB Conformance Test Suite (epubtest.org)

4. Authoring tool support

5. Reading system support

6. Primer/best practice documentation

Deployment impact

7. Backwards compatibility assessment

a. Legacy EPUB 2 RS

b. EPUB 3.0 RS

c. EPUB 3.01 RS

8. Fallback feasibility assessment

9a. Polyfillability assessment

9b. Browser compatibility assessment

10. Accessibility implications assessment

Supporting tools/documents

1. Samples

2. Epubcheck support

A support request for previews  has been opened in the epubcheck issue tracker. It is expected that support will be implemented by the release of EpubCheck 4.0 (release during summer 2015).

3. Support in EPUB Conformance Test Suite (epubtest.org)

Initial support for previews will consist of the following two tests:

Work on building these tests and integrating them into the BISG support grid will be done in coordination with the BISG support grid working group.

4. Authoring tool support

Support for authoring previews does not exist at this time, but Feedbooks has created an EPUB Preview Factory tool  that creates a standalone publication from an embedded preview collection.

5. Reading system support

Any reading system can render a standalone preview, as they are EPUB 3 Publications.

6. Primer/best practice documentation

No separate primer/best practice documents are planned at this time.

Deployment impact

7. Backwards compatibility assessment

  a. Legacy EPUB 2 RS

Standalone previews will be readable in legacy EPUB 2 reading systems with the same limitations of any EPUB 3.0.1 publication.

Embedded previews will not be recognized because the collection element did not exist, so therefore will not be available. Otherwise, they present no new issues.

  b. EPUB 3.0 RS

Standalone previews will be readable in exactly the same manner as any EPUB 3.0.1 publication.

Embedded previews will not be recognized because the collection element did not exist, so therefore will not be available. Otherwise, they present no issues.

  c. EPUB 3.01 RS

Standalone previews will be readable in exactly the same manner as any EPUB 3.0.1 publication.

If embedded previews are not recognized, they will simply not be available, as unknown collections are ignored by 3.0.1 reading systems.

8. Fallback feasibility assessment

Not applicable to previews, as previews are EPUB 3 Publications not a content-level feature. Standalone previews are readable in the same manner as any other publication, and embedded previews simply aren't available if the preview collection is not recognized by the reading system.

9a. Polyfillability assessment

Not applicable to previews as they do not introduce any new content-level features.

9b. Browser compatibility assessment

A reading system must be capable of extracting and presenting only the portions of an publication identified in an embedded preview collection, but implementing this functionality does not require changes to the underlying browser cores themselves.

10. Accessibility implications assessment

As EPUB 3 Publications, all accessibility features of the format are available to authors.