book description file - where does it get created, and what goes in it

[malarcy]

Hi - just purchased the pro app (1st thing I bought for the phone!) - very interested in the book description files - I want to auto create them from my server that holds all my audiobooks - so I can just run a script and have the decription file created and then copy the book complete with description file to the sdcard.

I though I would start by creating one and looking at the format - but after adding a book from the sdcard I can't find an xml file for it, so, can you let me know how/where they get created and if possible point me to something that talks about the supported entries for it.

Thanks in advance and very cool app - like the departure from the normal "media player with bookmarks" approach.

[Howard]

You can save out the book description files for any books that you have loaded from your SD card by going to the library, holding down your finger on the title of the book so that the pop up menu appears, and then selecting the "Save Book Description" entry from the menu. The XML file will be saved on your SD card in the /sdcard/audiobooks/descriptions directory.

You can look at some actual XML documents that are currently being used to send audiobook metadata to the Ambling BookPlayer at the following URLs:
http://www.amblingbookplayer.com/ab/...nOfTheApes.xml
http://www.amblingbookplayer.com/ab/...Wonderland.xml

There are a few differences in the tags which are used when loading a book from the internet vs. the local SD card. For loading books from the local SD card the <audiobook> metadata XML document supports the following elements for the book information:

<book_name> - the name of the book (required)
<author_name> - the name of the author (optional)
<narrator_name> - the name of the narrator (optional)
<publisher> - the name of the publishing company (optional)
<copyright> - the copyright information (optional)
<image_file_name> - The file name of the image of the book cover for this book (optional)
<series_name> - the name of the series this book is in (optional)
<series_sequence> - the sequence number of this book in the series (optional)
<chapter> - repeated one or more times (see below)
<audio_file> - repeated one or more times (see below)

The <audio_file> element is repeated for each audio file that is part of this book. Each audiobook must have at least one audio file, and may have hundreds of audio files. The <audio_file> element can contain the following elements:
<file_name> - The name of the audio file on the local SD card (required)
<duration> - the play duration of this audio file in milliseconds (required unless all audio files in this book contain exactly one chapter)
<file_size> - the size of the audio file in bytes (optional)

The <chapter> element is repeated for each chapter in the book. The <chapter> element can contain the following elements:
<heading> - the chapter heading (required)
<title> - the chapter title (optional)
<duration> - the play duration of this chapter in milliseconds (optional only if all audio files in this book contain exactly one chapter)

The chapters boundaries do not need to have any alignment with the audio file boundaries. The only requirement is that the sum of the play durations for all the audio files must be equal to the sum of the play durations of all the chapters.

In the simple case where each audio file contains one chapter you do not need to specify any play duration information. In this case the number of audio files and the number of chapters must be the same.

Let me know if you need any additional information.

[malarcy]

Thanks for the quick and comprehensive reply - I have enough to work with and get started. More I see of the app and how you have structured it more I like it.

Nice work.

Now if only you can persuade HTC to stop grabbing the bluetooth media controls then it's getting close to perfect for me.

Thanks again.

[Howard]

Apparently you are seeing the HTC media player issue where their media player always intercepts all the Bluetooth media signals. I have had a number of people, that have the HTC Hero phone, report this issue to me.

Are you also using an HTC Hero phone, or are there some other HTC phones which come with this ill-behaved media player pre-installed?

[malarcy]

Howard,

It is the HTC Hero (Actually branded as the TMobile G2 Touch).

Thanks

[Howard]

People that have the HTC Hero phone have not been able to use the Bluetooth buttons with any other player because of the way HTC intercepted all the Bluetooth signals in the HTC music player.

Now it looks like someone has provided an application you can load on the HTC Hero to resolve this problem.

See more details at http://www.androidzoom.com/android_a...-fix_ddpg.html