Currently there are many tools to create an ebook, and even with a simple code editor we can perform this task, but there are some processes of ebook editing that are forgotten or there are no known tools for it.
One of these processes is validation. When the ebook is finished, as with a web, it is good to pass a validator to see whether or not it meets the standard and find out if it is compatible with eReaders. In the case of the ebook, the best validator is EpubCheck which has recently reached its fourth version, the EpubCheck 4.0 that many of you will find in its Github repository.
EpubCheck 4.0 is a validator that not only recognizes the latest Epub format, Epub 3.0.1, the Epub format of dictionaries and glossaries, the Epub Index format and the Pub Region format and base navigation among other formats.
Also in this version support for other formats and parts of the ebook is incorporated, as the scripts components that will help to see if our ebook really has wanted or unwanted scripts.
Many of you will say, if I am the author of the ebook?Why do I want to check the scripts?? Well, because EpubCheck 4.0 does not ask you to be the author of the epub so we can use this validator for any ebook we buy.
How to install and use EpubCheck 4.0?
EpubCheck 4.0 does not have an .exe package to install on Windows but it does have a java package with the extension .jar that we will have to open the ms-dos window and in it go to the folder with the Epubcheck 4.0 files. Also in that folder must be the ebook in question in epub format to be able to check it. After this, we write:
java -jar epubcheck.jar file.epub
And the errors or problems presented by the ebook in question will appear on the screen. On the same website that the package appears in a jar file, the package also appears with the source code of the program so we can use it to insert it into our programs or simply use it as our own or public web application to check our ebooks.
Conclusion
The truth is that it is positive to receive news from old tools that are useful. I am also happy to see that the current problems that the format is having are still taken into account. I hope that soon the rest of the plugins that use this validator will also update to EpubCheck 4.0.