Safari Documentation
Companion Content / Extras
Companion content, also known as Extras, are any additional files the subscriber will need to access while reading the book, such as code, examples, templates, or videos. Not all titles on Safari will have Extras, but if the book references other files, they should be made available on Safari. Typically these are the files that were on the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM that was bound in the book, or are hosted on a publisher website.
NOTE: Any companion content mentioned in the title overview or contents of the ebook should be made available to the subscriber. If this is not possible, a note should be added to the Title Overview that the ebook version does not provide access to the companion files.
Content Hosted on Non-Safari Sites
Companion Content can be hosted on non-Safari sites. You will provide a URL in the metadata to link to the files. This link will then be available on the Extras tab in Safari.
Metadata
Aelement is used to provide related material to accompany a title.
To provide links to content hosted on non-Safari sites, uselike the following (assuming that the ISBN is 1234567890123):
Messaging ..
catalog-page
errata
Content Hosted on Safari
The companion files that will be hosted on Safari should be uploaded to your EXTRAS FTP account. (You need a login/password to use this feature.) Create a folder for the book using the FPID of the book, then upload your content. Once the metadata is set up, the content will then be available on the Extras tab in Safari.
NOTE: File size of content hosted on Safari cannot exceed 1GB.
Content that is hosted on Safari’s Extras server is only accessible to Safari subscribers. For Bookshelf users, this means the book must be on their shelf.
Metadata
Aelement is used to provide related material to accompany a title. To provide links to content hosted on Safari's EXTRAS server, you can reference the files using theelement.
The format is (assuming that the FPID is 1234567890123):
Messaging ..
Descriptive Text ….
Descriptive text
Descriptive text
Descriptive text
My other book
my other books extras
- You can omit the display attribute and the system will default to "on" indicating that the Extras tab will be displayed for this book. display="off" will disable the display of the Extras tab.
- Use theelement to provide optional descriptions at two levels: relatedfiles and filegroup. If you don’t supply a description, the system will display default text as depicted in the screenshot below.
- Use theelement to create distinct groups of files that share a description. It is an optional element. If missing, the system will display the Extras tab as a list of files with messaging from the publisher at the top of the page.
- The ID attribute is required for file links; API users will not be able to access the content without it. The IDs that you provide must be unique and are required for linking to Extras from book content.
- If the file element has no textual content, the system will display the filename as linkable text.
- The Extras tab is visible to subscribers and to the public, but only the subscribers (logged in Whole Library users, and logged in Bookshelf users with the book on their shelf) will have access to content in thearea.
- size is the megabyte size of the zip or sit.
- You can use theelement instead of theelement to link to other Safari content by means of a URL. The syntax of theelement is the same as is supported from within book content (in the old Safari DocBook).
- The url attribute is a file path relative to the directory where you uploaded the secured contents.
- If multiple books will share the same Extra (volume 1 and volume 2 of a book might have this need) both books would contain the same file elements in the metadata (both referencing the same folder/file in the upload directory). There is no need to duplicate the uploaded content under each FPID.
You should upload the files prior to uploading the metadata containing the element. You can update any of the referenced files at any time, and the changes will be reflected immediately on the live and staging servers.
Following is a screenshot of the Extras tab that shows where the publisher supplied values will display, and the default message that will appear if you do not supply a value. If you do not supply a value, no default message will appear in its place.
File Types
The system supports the following content types. The format attribute value must match a value in the list below. The extension attribute shown is for legacy content that was uploaded without a supplied content type.
Format Attribute: Extension
application/epub+zip: .epub
application/mspowerpoint: .ppt
application/msword: .doc
application/octet-stream: .dmg or .dmgpart or .max
application/pdf: .pdf
application/rtf: .rtf
application/smil: .smil
application/x-apple-diskimage: .sparseimage
application/x-flv: .flv
application/x-javascript: .js
application/xml-dtd: .dtd
application/xml-external-parsed-entity: .ent
application/x-mobipocket-ebook: .prc or .mobi
application/x-shockwave-flash: .swf
application/x-stuffit: .sit or sitx (We recommend using .zip so the file is accessible to users of both Mac and PC.)
application/zip: .zip or .z01 or .z02 through .z29
audio/mpeg: .mp3
audio/mpeg: .mpg
audio/x-aiff: .aif
image/cur: .cur
image/gif: .gif
image/jpeg: .jpg
image/png: .png
image/tiff: .tif
image/vnd.microsoft.icon: .ico
text/css: .css
text/csv: .csv
text/html: .htm or .html or .simhtml
text/plain: .txt
text/x-component: .htc
text/xml: .xml
text/xml: .xsl or .gpx
video/avi: .avi
video/mp4: .mp4 or .f4v
video/quicktime: .mov
video/x-ms-wmv: .wmv
For large DVD files, we recommend adding tips for faster downloading to the . It’s a good idea to refer users to the Safari Knowledge Base. Here’s a sample message to include in the :
Some of the files available on Safari are extremely large. These take a long time to download regardless of your connection speed, or whether you use HTTP or FTP to get the files. If you use a browser, we recommend using a download manager to speed up downloading these files, and to deal with the inevitable timeouts and partial downloads. A manager will increase the reliability of the download process since it automatically recovers from shutdowns, lost connections, and other errors. For more information including links to popular download managers please see our Knowledge Base at http://support.safaribooksonline.com.
Exams
When practice exams are included as companion content, the metadata element is available to compensate publishers for including these exams. The system populates SBO’s usage tracking royalty database for the parent book the first time a user clicks on the link to access a practice exam. A click on the link (regardless of whether the link initiated a download or took the user to a hosted exam site, and regardless of any interaction with the exam) triggers page view credits in proportion to the number of questions in the exam. For more information on exams, please see the Interactivity on Safari chapter.