README: update (better man page support, too)

[fanfix.git] / README.md

English [Français](README-fr.md)

# Fanfix
Fanfix is a small Java program that can download stories from some supported websites and render them offline.

## Synopsis

- ```fanfix``` --import [*URL*]
- ```fanfix``` --export [*id*] [*output_type*] [*target*]
- ```fanfix``` --convert [*URL*] [*output_type*] [*target*] (+info)
- ```fanfix``` --read [*id*] ([*chapter number*])
- ```fanfix``` --read-url [*URL*] ([*chapter number*])
- ```fanfix``` --list
- ```fanfix``` --set-reader [*reader type*]
- ```fanfix``` --server [*key*] [*port*]
- ```fanfix``` --stop-server [*key*] [*port*]
- ```fanfix``` --remote [*key*] [*host*] [*port*]
- ```fanfix``` --help

## Description

(If you are interested in the recent changes, please check the [Changelog](changelog.md) -- note that starting from version 1.4.0, the changelog is checked at startup.)

(A [TODO list](TODO.md) is also available to know what is expected to come in the future.)

TODO: new screenshots + TUI screenshots

![Main GUI](screenshots/fanfix-1.3.2.png?raw=true "Main GUI")

It will convert from a (supported) URL to an .epub file for stories or a .cbz file for comics (a few other output types are also available, like Plain Text, LaTeX, HTML...).

To help organize your stories, it can also work as a local library so you can:

- Import a story from its URL (or just from a file)
- Export a story to a file (in any of the supported output types)
- Display a story from the local library in text format in the console
- Display a story from the local library graphically **by calling a native program to handle it** (though Fanfix can automatically process it into HTML so any browser can open it)

### Supported websites

Currently, the following websites are supported:

- http://FimFiction.net/: fan fictions devoted to the My Little Pony show
- http://Fanfiction.net/: fan fictions of many, many different universes, from TV shows to novels to games
- http://mangafox.me/: a well filled repository of mangas, or, as their website states: most popular manga scanlations read online for free at mangafox, as well as a close-knit community to chat and make friends
- https://e621.net/: a Furry website supporting comics, including MLP
- https://sofurry.com/: same thing, but story-oriented
- https://e-hentai.org/: done upon request (so, feel free to ask for more websites!)

### Support file types

We support a few file types for local story conversion (both as input and as output):

- epub: .epub files created by this program (we do not support "all" .epub files, at least for now)
- text: local stories encoded in plain text format, with a few specific rules:
	- the title must be on the first line
	- the author (preceded by nothing, ```by ``` or ```©```) must be on the second line, possibly with the publication date in parenthesis (i.e., ```By Unknown (3rd October 1998)```)
	- chapters must be declared with ```Chapter x``` or ```Chapter x: NAME OF THE CHAPTER```, where ```x``` is the chapter number
	- a description of the story must be given as chapter number 0
	- a cover image may be present with the same filename as the story, but a .png, .jpeg or .jpg extension
- info_text: contains the same information as the text format, but with a companion .info file to store some metadata (the .info file is supposed to be created by Fanfix or compatible with it)
- cbz: .cbz (collection of images) files, preferably created with Fanfix (but any .cbz file is supported, though without most of Fanfix metadata, obviously)
- html: HTML files that you can open with any browser; note that it will create a directory structure with ```index.html``` as the main file -- we only support importing HTML files created by Fanfix

### Supported platforms

Any platform with at lest Java 1.6 on it should be ok.

It has been tested on Linux (Debian, Slackware, Ubuntu), MacOS X and Windows for now, but feel free to inform us if you try it on another system.

If you have any problems to compile it with a supported Java version (1.6+), please contact us.

## Options

You can start the program in GUI mode (as in the screenshot on top):

- ```java -jar fanfix.jar```
- ```fanfix``` (if you used *make install*)

The following arguments are also allowed:

- ```--import [URL]```: import the story at URL into the local library
- ```--export [id] [output_type] [target]```: export the story denoted by ID to the target file
- ```--convert [URL] [output_type] [target] (+info)```: convert the story at URL into target, and force-add the .info and cover if +info is passed
- ```--read [id] ([chapter number])```: read the given story denoted by ID from the library
- ```--read-url [URL] ([chapter number])```: convert on the fly and read the story at URL, without saving it
- ```--list```: list the stories present in the library and their associated IDs
- ```--set-reader [reader type]```: set the reader type to CLI, TUI or GUI for this command
- ```--server [key] [port]```: start a story server on this port
- ```--stop-server [key] [port]```: stop the remote server running on this port (key must be set to the same value)
- ```--remote [key] [host] [port]```: contact this server instead of the usual library (key must be set to the same value)
- ```--help```: display the available options
- ```--version```: return the version of the program

### Environment

Some environment variables are recognized by the program:

- ```LANG=en```: force the language to English
- ```CONFIG_DIR=$HOME/.fanfix```: use the given directory as a config directory (and copy the default configuration if needed)
- ```NOUTF=1```: try to fallback to non-unicode values when possible (can have an impact on the resulting files, not only on user messages)
- ```DEBUG=1```: force the ```DEBUG=true``` option of the configuration file (to show more information on errors)

## Compilation

```./configure.sh && make```

You can also import the java sources into, say, [Eclipse](https://eclipse.org/), and create a runnable JAR file from there.

There are some unit tests you can run, too:

```./configure.sh && make build test run-test```

### Dependant libraries (included)

Required:

- ```libs/nikiroo-utils-sources.jar```: some shared utility functions
- [```libs/unbescape-sources.jar```](https://github.com/unbescape/unbescape): a nice library to escape/unescape a lot of text formats; used here for HTML
- [```libs/jsoup-sources.jar```](https://jsoup.org/): a library to parse HTML

Optional:

- [```libs/jexer-sources.jar```](https://github.com/klamonte/jexer): a small library that offers TUI widgets
- [```pandoc```](http://pandoc.org/): to generate the man pages from the README files

Nothing else but Java 1.6+.

Note that calling ```make libs``` will export the libraries into the src/ directory.

## Author

Fanfix was written by Niki Roo <niki@nikiroo.be>