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• • November 13, 2018 at 9:01 pm #111581
    Keith Berry

    Participant

    I have a project and I’m desperate for help. Apologies in advance if the answer is already in here. I couldn’t find it.

    I am building an ePub in InDesign (latest Creative Cloud version), for iPad only (client’s choice).

    It needs to have interactivity, specifically animated slider questions, yes-and-no buttons, pop-up captions, etc. I built some test animations in Adobe Animate, exported them as HTML 5 OAM files (read that was best), placed them on a page in my InDesign doc, and it played in the “ePub Interactivity Preview” window just fine.

    However, after exporting it as an ePub and uploading it to iBooks, the animation does not even appear. Videos do, everything else seems to work, but the crucial animations do not.

    What am I doing wrong? Do OAM animations not work on iPad either? I’m at a loss and it’s imperative the animated pieces work. Any help or ideas are appreciated. I’m at my wit’s end with a deadline. Thanks.

  • November 14, 2018 at 12:27 am #111583
    Ken Jones

    Member

    Hi Keith

    I assume you are using fixed layout EPUB (reflowable EPUB would not work) so firstly, have you validated the EPUB? I recommend you get pagina EPUB-Checker (Freeware) https://www.pagina-online.de/produkte/epub-checker/ and drag the EPUB to see potential problems.

    The good news is that you are aiming at iPad and iBooks and complex HTML5 animations definitely do work there. Check this marvellous example – https://www.galdosgift.com

    I think I should be able to help but I’d need to take a look at your files. Is that possible?
    If it is a quick fix I wouldn’t charge… but if troubleshooting becomes more involved then I’d need paying for my time.

    Perhaps contact me directly? https://www.circularsoftware.com/contact/ or https://twitter.com/CircularKen

    Ken Jones
    Circular Software

  • November 14, 2018 at 8:07 am #111588
    Keith Berry

    Participant

    Thanks, Ken! Yes, it’s a fixed-layout EPUB. I appreciate you sending the validation tool. I tested it and it gave me these warnings:

    This twice about two PNGs (they used underscores, not blank spaces to be precise, and were auto-generated by Animate as it was their sample animation): “Filename contains spaces, therefore URI escaping is necessary. Consider removing spaces from filename.”

    As well as this: “Item ‘iTunesMetadata.plist’ exists in the EPUB, but is not declared in the OPF manifest.”

    Not sure if either is a real issue or not regarding animations working or not.

    EPUBs are not a traditional project of mine. I know the supporting software like Animate and InDesign, but getting the export to work has been weirdly difficult, at least for me.

    And thank you for your offer, I will reach out to via the info@ email on your site this morning (EST).

    Cheers,
    Keith

  • November 16, 2018 at 3:09 pm #111608
    Justin Putney

    Member

    Hi Keith,

    This may not be anything wrong with the EPUB itself.

    iOS blocks embedded content in EPUBs (although it allows it in files created with iBooks), including how OAM gets exported by InDesign. You won’t see this problem in iBooks on Mac OS, but it is a problem on iOS.

    More info:
    https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1513879

    It’s noted as a “bug” in the forum topics, but I suspect it’s a “feature” to give iBooks an advantage.

  • November 18, 2018 at 9:05 am #111609
    Keith Berry

    Participant

    Hey, Justin. Thanks for your post. It seems that the OAM files are problematic as well. I wish Apple would play nice with these applications built by Adobe, but there isn’t a good history there.

    Cheers,
    Keith

  • December 3, 2018 at 6:38 am #111928
    Ken Jones

    Member

    Hi Keith and Justin

    Keith – thanks for the files, I have sent you a working example made with CircularFLO including an OAM working in Apple Books in iOS :)

    Justin – it’s not right to claim that iOS blocks embedded content in EPUBs. It IS true that OAMs exported by InDesign do not work in Apple Books on iOS but OAM content can work in EPUB in Apple Books on iOS when handled manually or exported using CircularFLO. Works for in5 content too, let’s have a chat…

    Thanks
    Ken

  • December 3, 2018 at 9:54 am #111943
    Justin Putney

    Member

    Hi Ken,

    That’s great. Would love to see a working example. I was working on a project that centered around this:
    https://ajarproductions.com/blog/2015/06/09/preview-place-html-into-indesign-for-epub/

    I abandoned it because I couldn’t get embedded content working on iBooks for iOS (even when I manually creating the embed code).

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