# zapzi
### A tool to store articles and publish them as eBooks to read later
# Synopsis
$ zapzi init
Created Zapzi directory ~/.zapzi
Select configuration options. Press enter to accept defaults.
Format to publish eBooks in. (EPUB, MOBI or HTML) [default MOBI] : MOBI
$ zapzi add ~/src/foo/README.txt
Added article 2 to folder Inbox
$ zapzi add http://perldoc.perl.org/perlintro.html
Added article 3 to folder Inbox
$ zapzi ls
Inbox 1 05-Jul-2013 Welcome to Zapzi
Inbox 2 05-Jul-2013 README for project foo
Inbox 3 05-Jul-2013 perlintro - perldoc.perl.org
$ zapzi publish
Published ~/.zapzi/ebooks/Zapzi - Inbox - 05-Jul-2013.mobi
# See Usage below for more details on command line options.
# Installation
You will need Perl 5.10.1 or later. Use your favourite CPAN client to
get the package and its dependencies, eg:
cpan App::Zapzi
Zapzi depends on a large number of Perl modules so this may take some
time to download and install.
# Description
Zapzi is a command line tool to take articles - from files or from the
web - and create eBooks for reading later.
## Features
- Can read articles from local files or via HTTP.
- Understands plain text, POD, HTML and Markdown format articles.
- HTML is converted to a more readable form (eg no menus or
footers) to make the article easier to view on an eReader.
- Articles can be stored in different folders to organise your reading.
- eBooks can be created in MOBI, EPUB or HTML format.
- eBooks can be automatically copied to a directory or emailed
when published.
- Once you publish a folder of articles to an eBook file, the
articles are archived so you can retrieve them later if needed.
## Setup
To get started, type:
$ zapzi init
and it will create a directory (by default ~/.zapzi) to store its
database and files. You can override this directory by setting the
environment variable `ZAPZI_DIR`.
Zapzi will then prompt for configuration options such as preferred
format for publishing eBooks. If you run this command
non-interactively it will use defaults.
To view or change these options see Configuration below for further
details.
## Adding Articles
To add an article, use `zapzi add` with a filename on your computer,
the name of a module containing POD (eg File::Basename) or an HTTP
URL. Remember to quote URLs if they include space or shell special
characters, eg
$ zapzi add 'http://example.com/article?id=4'
Use `zapzi add -` to add a list of articles read from standard input.
Zapzi will download a copy of each and store it in its database. Note
that if you need to log into a site this will not work - save a copy
of the page locally using your browser and then point Zapzi at the
file.
## Transformers
By default, Zapzi will detect the file type and if it is HTML it will
use [HTML::ExtractMain](http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?HTML::ExtractMain)
to strip out non-essential parts of the page such as menus. Other
formats are treated as plain text with Markdown.
You can override this by setting the `-t` option to `add`. For
example, if HTMLExtractMain does not correctly determine which parts
of the article are readable you can get the complete HTML text
instead:
$ zapzi add -t HTML 'http://example.com/article?id=4'
## Folders
By default, Zapzi will store articles in the 'Inbox' folder. This can
be changed by using the `-f` option, eg
$ zapzi add -f Foo project.txt
In order to use other folders you will need to create them first using
the `make-folder` or `mkf` command, eg
$ zapzi make-folder Foo
Folders can be deleted with the `delete-folder` or `rd` command.
Note that this will also delete all articles in the folder.
To see a summary of your folders and how many articles are in them use
the `list-folders` or `lsf` command.
$ zapzi lsf
Inbox 2
Archive 4
Foo 1
To see a summary of a particular folder, use `list` or `ls`:
$ zapzi ls -f Foo
Foo 1 05-Jul-2013 Project readme
Use the `l` option to `ls` to get a more detailed listing.
You can delete articles with `zapzi rm` and move articles between
folders with `zapzi mv`, for example:
$ zapzi rm 10 # remove article 10 from the database
$ zapzi mv 12 13 Foo # move articles 12 and 13 to folder Foo
## Publishing
To create an eBook, run `zapzi publish` or `zapzi pub`. By default
this will publish articles from the Inbox folder; use the `-f` option
to select another folder.
You can specify the format of the eBook with the `--format` switch.
Options are:
- MOBI (the default)
- EPUB
- HTML (a single HTML file containing all the articles)
You can also set the encoding with `--encoding` but Zapzi will
normally set this correctly based on the content and publication
format.
If everything worked OK, Zapzi will create a new eBook in the ebooks
sub-directory of your Zapzi directory, eg `~/.zapzi/ebooks`.
If you have set distribution options, it will also run these at this
time. See the next section for more information.
When you publish a folder, the articles are moved to the Archive
folder unless you set the `--noarchive` option.
## Distribution
When an eBook is published, Zapzi can run an action on the completed
file by setting distribution options. The following distribution
methods are available:
- Copy - will copy the file to another directory or file
- Email - will email the file to a recipient
- Script - will run a script with the eBook as a parameter
- Nothing - will do no distribution (the default)
To use this at publication time, set the `--distribute` or `-d`
option to the publish command. Some examples:
$ zapzi publish -d copy /path/to/directory
$ zapzi publish -d email me@my.address.com
$ zapzi publish -d script /home/user/bin/myscript.sh
To set this up so distribution happens every time you publish without
needing to provide the `-d` command line option, set the
`distribution_method` and `distribution_destination` config
parameters. See the Configuration section below for more details.
For email distribution, the From address used will be the same as the
To address. You can override this by setting the
`EMAIL_SENDER_TRANSPORT_from` environment variable. By default, email
will be sent via the local sendmail service on your machine; if you
want to send by SMTP set the `EMAIL_SENDER_TRANSPORT` environment
variable to SMTP and configure the below environment variables as
appropriate. You can also set any other options documented by
`Email::Sender`.
- EMAIL_SENDER_TRANSPORT_host: the name of the host to connect to;
defaults to localhost
- EMAIL_SENDER_TRANSPORT_ssl: if set, connect via SSL; defaults to
false
- EMAIL_SENDER_TRANSPORT_port: port to connect to; defaults to 25
for non-SSL, 465 for SSL
- EMAIL_SENDER_TRANSPORT_timeout: maximum time in secs to wait for
server; default is 120
- EMAIL_SENDER_TRANSPORT_sasl_username: the username to use for
auth; optional
- EMAIL_SENDER_TRANSPORT_sasl_password: the password to use for
auth; required if username is provided
## Showing and Exporting
Instead of publishing, if you want to see a copy of an article use
`zapzi show` to view the article in a browser or `zapzi export` to
send a copy of the readable article to the standard output. Both these
commands will not archive the article.
You can chain together adding and showing, eg
$ zapzi add show README.md
will add a copy of README.md to the database and then open a browser
to show how it looks in readable format.
# Configuration
To view or change configuration variables use the `config get` or
`config set` commands, eg:
$ zapzi config get # to see all set variables
$ zapzi config get publish_format # to see one variable
$ zapzi config set publish_format EPUB # to set a variable
The following configuration variables are available:
- publish\_format
The eBook format Zapzi will use when running the `publish` command.
Default is MOBI; can be set to EPUB or HTML.
- publish\_encoding
The encoding used to create an eBook when running the `publish`
command. Default is unset, which means Zapzi will choose the best
encoding for the publication format. Can be set to UTF-8 or
ISO-8859-1.
- distribution\_method
The method used to automatically distribute published eBook files.
Can be either 'Copy', 'Script' or 'Nothing'. Default is 'Nothing'.
- distribution\_destination
Where to distribute published eBook files. If `distribute_method`
is set to 'Copy' then this should be a directory name. If the
method is 'Script' this should the the full path to an executable
script. If the method is 'Email' then this should be the
recipient's email address.
- deactivate\_links
If set to Y, will replace links with text when using the
HTMLExtractMain transformer. Motivation for this is eReaders with
touch screens where tapping the screen will turn the page, unless
you happen to touch a link in which case it will try to follow the
link in a web browser. This can be annoying if you are offline as
it will load the browser then ask if you want to go online.
# Usage
$ zapzi help | h
Shows this help text.
$ zapzi version | v
Shows version information.
$ zapzi init [--force]
Initialises new zapzi database. Will not create a new database
if one exists already unless you set --force.
$ zapzi config get [KEYS]
Prints configuration variables specified by KEYS, or all config
variables if KEYS not provided.
$ zapzi config set KEY VALUE
Set configuration variable KEY to VALUE.
$ zapzi add [-t TRANSFORMER] FILE | URL | POD | -
Adds article to database. Accepts multiple file names or URLs,
or read articles names from standard input with -
TRANSFORMER determines how to extract the text from the article
and can be HTML, HTMLExtractMain, POD or TextMarkdown
If not specified, Zapzi will choose the best option based on the
content type of the article.
$ zapzi list | ls [-f FOLDER] [-l | --long]
Lists articles in FOLDER, one line per article. The -l option shows
a more detailed listing.
$ zapzi list-folders | lsf
Lists a summary of all folders.
$ zapzi make-folder | mkf | md FOLDER
Makes a new folder.
$ zapzi delete-folder | rmf | rd FOLDER
Remove a folder and all articles in it.
$ zapzi delete-article | delete | rm ID
Removes article ID.
$ zapzi move | mv ARTICLES FOLDER
Move one or more articles to the given folder.
$ zapzi export | cat ID
Prints content of readable article to STDOUT.
$ zapzi show | view ID
Opens a browser to view the readable text of article ID.
$ zapzi publish | pub [-f FOLDER] [--format FORMAT]
[--encoding ENC] [--noarchive]
[--distribute METHOD DESTINATION]
Publishes articles in FOLDER to an eBook.
Format can be specified as MOBI, EPUB or HTML.
Will archive articles unless --noarchive is set.
Optionally distribute using METHOD to DESTINATION.
# Support and Development
Bugs and requested issues can be reported at Github. Pull requests are
also very welcome; please try to follow the existing style and
organisation of the module.
https://github.com/rupertl/app-zapzi/
# Future Plans
- Improve text extraction and formatting - complex pages may not
render correctly or may miss sections at present
- Support other ways to fetch articles, eg FTP or IMAP for email.
- Support other article formats, eg mbox/maildir.
- Add the ability to read sources with state, eg RSS feeds.
- Publish to other eBook formats such as PDF.
# Name
Zapzi comes from the Chinese word 雜誌, meaning magazine. It is
pronounced ZAAP-zi in Cantonese.
# Author
Rupert Lane <rupert@rupert-lane.org>
# Copyright and License
This software is copyright (c) 2015 by Rupert Lane.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.