Offline / private manga reader

[vigorousjammer]

Hey there! I love the MangaDex reader so much, that I'd like to use it for any manga files I have on my HDD, but some of them go against the upload policy... (they're either licensed titles or chapters by a group that doesn't want their files uploaded to other sites.)
What if there was an empty reader where we could manually load local ZIP or CBZ files and still get the benefits of the MangaDex reader without actually having to upload chapters to the site?
Is it possible for the reader to be coded read a user's file directly off their HDD without it having to take up any server space?
If so, I'd really want this to happen.
If not, is it possible to create a separate local client with the same features as the MangaDex reader?

This could also be a good option for groups to test their chapter before uploading to to site, just to make sure everything looks all right.

 

[Holo]

We have been considering how to let our reader be used for offline purposes - exactly in situations like yours.

We haven't quite decided how to implement it but we would definitely like to make it a possibility one way or another.

 

[BzzBzz]

Don't you have to rewrite reader from scratch since php can't be executed locally? And if you run it on server then you have to send your stuff to server. Then it won't be 'offline' reader. No?

 

[MrIncognito]

@BzzBzz
Through the magic of modern web technology the reader itself can be entirely static and use the URLs as cues for what further data to fetch from the server. Add further technologies to cache the reader page itself and the data it would need to fetch from the server and you have yourself an offline reader.

 

[Teasday]

_{@vigorousjammer posted:}

If not, is it possible to create a separate local client with the same features as the MangaDex reader?

Technically already is especially since the code isn't obfuscated, but should be easier when I (god knows when) get around to writing the next version and putting it in a public repo. I'll try to make it a bit less completely married to MD.

Doing something like drag and dropping a zip file with images onto the reader shouldn't be particularly difficult. Although obviously it would be missing all the chapter data and such.

 

[vigorousjammer]

@Teasday posted:
Doing something like drag and dropping a zip file with images onto the reader shouldn't be particularly difficult. Although obviously it would be missing all the chapter data and such.

A related idea could be to have some kind of "add local chapters" option for a series, where users could input chapter data and link it to a local zip stored on their HDD. Those chapter listings could show up in the list alongside the rest of the chapters of a series, but would obviously only be visible when a user is logged in to their own account... and of course if they logged in on another computer, they'd have to have the chapter file stored in the same location on their HDD.

Although that kind of feature might confuse new users who are trying to do regular uploads, so maybe not. Or maybe it could be buried somewhere in the user settings, like "enable local chapters" or something, and it could just be off by default.

 

[Teasday]

_{@vigorousjammer posted:}

A related idea could be to have some kind of "add local chapters" option for a series, where users could input chapter data and link it to a local zip stored on their HDD.

There's a limitation in browsers when it comes to reading local files in that the user MUST explicitly open each and every file through either a file dialog or drag and drop. The security reasons for why browsers can't just automatically open any file on the filesystem they want should be blindingly obvious.

 

[vigorousjammer]

Ah, yes, that makes sense. I didn't think about any of that. 😅