Good Morning

I have recently installed Smart Book as per default settings and had no problem at that point. Unfortunately I cannot make head nor tail of how to proceed from there to create a book. What I want to do is to produce a book consisting of approximately 8 pages from pdfs.

I have studied the AriSoft instructions but am still unable to complete my project. I will be most grateful for step-by-step guidance on how to proceed.

Yours in ignorance

T

Hello,

The extension can convert PDF files to images and then create books based on these images. PDF files can be converted via GhostScript application (it should be installed on your hosting, you can ask your hosting provider installed it or not and if it is installed, ask path to GhostScript executable file, usually it is something like: gs or /usr/bin/gs) or via CloudConvert online service. If want to convert via GhostScript then open "Import settings" tab on "ARI Smart Book -> Config" page and enter path to GhostScript executable file in "Path to GhostScript" parameter. If prefer to use CloudConvert, register on cloudconvert.com site, login and copy API key from dashboard on CloudConvert site and insert it to "CloudConvert service -> API key" textbox on "Import settings" tab on "ARI Smart Book -> Config" page.

After this open "ARI Smart Book -> Books" page to create a book. Click "New button" and select "PDF file" in "Pages are created from" drop-down. Open "Page source" tab and specify path to PDF file in "Choose a PDF file" parameter (for example if it is <joomla_directory>/images/catalog.pdf file then populate the parameter with images/catalog.pdf value) and select how to convert PDF file in "Convert PDF using" parameter. After this you can configure other parameters like book title, description and etc.

Regards,
ARI Soft

I am sorry if I seem to appear a thicko but I am still getting nowhere with this. Am I correct in thinking that each page of my set of pdf docs needs to be converted into a jpeg or png image? If that is so then perhaps the penny is starting to drop. I have managed to use CloudConvert to run a test conversion by simply uploading a few pdfs to their site and then downloading the resulting pngs. This worked fine. I have not bothered with APIs at this stage!!

So now I have an image of a page sat in a folder on my pc. I should point out that I am testing all this in xampp local server before moving on to my live hosted Joomla site

What next to produce a book? Do I have to create an Article and then integrate the SmartBook stuff into that article or does SmartBook publish as an Article in its own right and just need a Menu creating?

I am sure that with a bit more guidance I will get this cracked.

Best regards

T

A book can be show on frontend in several ways:

1. Create a menu item, for this select "ARI Smart Book -> Book" menu item type and select the book in "Select book" parameter in menu item settings page.

2. Load the book into an article or other content. Use "System - ARI Smart Book" plugin for this purpose. Check that the plugin is enabled and use the following shortcode:

{arismartbook id="BOOKID"}

Where BOOKID is ID of the book.

3. Load the book into a module position. Use "ARI Smart Book" module. Open module settings page, click by "Book -> Select" button on module settings page and select the book.

PS: In our previous post we described how to configure the extension to convert PDF files to images automatically. It does all dirty job, it is enough to specify path to a PDF file.

Regards,
ARI Soft