Extension:DownloadBook

MediaWiki extensions manual

DownloadBook Release status: beta
Implementation	Special page
Description	Allows extension Collection to convert books/pages into PDF, etc. locally
Author(s)	Edward Chernenkotalk
Latest version	0.1.0
Compatibility policy	Master maintains backward compatibility.
MediaWiki	1.39+
Database changes	Yes
Tables	bookrenderingtask
License	GNU General Public License 2.0 or later
Download	GitHub: project page git repository URL [help ] commit history
Parameters $wgDownloadBookConvertCommand $wgDownloadBookFileExtension $wgDownloadBookMetadataFromRegex $wgDownloadBookDefaultMetadata
Hooks used LoadExtensionSchemaUpdates UserGetReservedNames

The DownloadBook extension allows extension Collection to generate PDF files without a local or external MWServe server.

It can use third-party utilities such as pandoc (for ePub, ODT, etc.) or WeasyPrint (for PDF). They exist as packages in many Linux distributions.

Installation

The Collection extension needs to be installed for this extension to work. Moreover, depending on which output formats are chosen also pandoc (for ePub, ODT, etc.) and/or WeasyPrint (for PDF).

• Check-out the sources with git clone https://github.com/edwardspec/mediawiki-extension-DownloadBook.git and place the file(s) in a directory called DownloadBook in your extensions/ folder.
• Add the following code at the bottom of your LocalSettings.php file:

  wfLoadExtension( 'Collection' );
  $wgCollectionDisableDownloadSection = false;
  wfLoadExtension( 'DownloadBook' );
  $wgCollectionMWServeURL = '<URL_OF_YOUR_WIKI_HERE>/wiki/Special:DownloadBook';
  

• Run the update script which will automatically create the necessary database tables that this extension needs.
• Further configure as required.
• Done – Navigate to Special:Version on your wiki to verify that the extension is successfully installed.

Advanced configuration

You can modify the conversion commands in "LocalSettings.php", for example:

$wgDownloadBookConvertCommand['epub'] = "pandoc --from=html --to=epub {INPUT} -o {OUTPUT}";

Please see the file "extension.json" for other configuration options. Also note that keys in $wgDownloadBookConvertCommand array are the same formats as in Collection (i.e. $wgDownloadBookConvertCommand['rl'] is the command for PDF).

Installing third-party conversion tool is your own risk and responsibility. This extension simply calls that tool, and then provides the result to extension Collection.

Using custom CSS when generating PDF

When using weasyprint to generate PDF, custom CSS can be specified with the --stylesheet parameter.

$wgDownloadBookConvertCommand['rl'] = "weasyprint --stylesheet \"https://example.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Print.css?action=raw&ctype=text/css\"  --stylesheet \"https://example.com/load.php?lang=fr&modules=site.styles&only=styles&printable=1\" --encoding utf8 {INPUT} {OUTPUT}";

Troubleshooting

Add the following to your "LocalSettings.php":

$wgDebugLogGroups['DownloadBook'] = '/path/to/writable/logfile.txt';

IMPORTANT: 99,9% of issues are caused by incorrect installation of pandoc, permission errors, etc. You will see the cause in the log. Developer of this extension is NOT going to troubleshoot your server configuration for you.