SafeWebApp for eBooks

Excel Software www.excelsoftware.com

This paper shows how SafeWebApp offers many advantages for delivery of eBooks and other documents to popular devices like Mac, Windows and Linux computers or Android phones and tablets. Here are some of the benefits of this approach:

- Easy Setup Process for the Document Author - Simple and Consistent User Experience Across Platforms - Encrypted Document Prevents Unauthorized Distribution - Serial Number Activation on Each Device - Document Use without Internet After Activation - Integrated Payment System for Purchased Products - Product, Trial and Subscription Licenses

This paper shows how to protect a document and setup some information in an online server so the document can be distributed to computers and other devices. It demonstrates how a user adds your document to the free SafeWebApp player for use on their device. For a paid product, the user can buy and activate for a specific device with a simply, fully automated process.

SafeWebApp Player SafeWebApp is a free player application that can be downloaded and distributed on a variety of platforms including Mac OS X 10.7, 10.8, 10.9, 10.10, Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 or 10, Linux or Android. There is no installer or setup process required, simply download and run the application. Document authors can provide a download link to the SafeWebApp players stored on www.safewebapp.com or store the players on their own website or distribution media. Authors are granted unlimited, royalty-free distribution rights to all SafeWebApp players.

User Experience Your document becomes an App within the SafeWebApp player. The player can hold of list of Apps, each with a unique name in the List panel. To play an App, click its name in the list and it is presented within the View panel. To add your App, the user types its name and clicks Add. For a paid App, an Activation dialog is presented where the user types the Serial Number received during the purchase process.

Your Serial Number can allow activation on one or more devices. This process ensures that only paid customers can use your App. The List panel is used to add, remove or select an App that runs within the View panel. Many document types are supported so the View panel may show additional buttons to navigate through the App. For an eBook, the user can present a table of contents, or step forward or backward through the list of chapters. The user can scroll up and down as reading each chapter or click links that navigate through the book. For a video, the user can start, stop and scroll through the video.

Prepare Your Document To use SafeWebApp, an author must prepare the document for distribution and setup some information in an online server. This section describes document preparation. In the next section, you will see how to enter information into the server to deliver your document to users. SafeWebApp offers may possibilities to authors, developers and users. This paper will focus the conversation on delivering a document embedded within a protected SWAD file. A SWAD file is an encrypted container file that can hold popular document types including:

- MP4 Video - EPUB formatted eBook - Folder of HTML, image, CSS and Script files - PDF file - List of Titles and associated PDF files

EPUB is an industry standard document format for eBooks. It is based on Internet technologies like HTML, CSS, images, scripts and etc. There are many free and commercial authoring and viewing tools for EPUB formatted books. Although SafeWebApp support many document types, this paper highlights an EPUB document since the setup and user experience is essentially the same for all documents. Using DocProtect running on Mac or Windows, you will select your source document, set some options and click the Export SWAD button to output a SWAD file that contains your document. In the main DocProtect window, select your EPUB file.

DocProtect offers the ability to select an icon file and output folder and then generate a protected application with the Build Protected Document button. For the purpose of this paper, ignore those features and click the Options button. Select the SafeWebApp panel of the Options dialog.

The Document Name field is very important. It names the SWAD file containing your encrypted document that will later be uploaded to your website. That field should use all lowercase letters since Linux web servers are case sensitive. The base name of that file must exactly match the App name you later assign to your application, although the App name can have mixed case. For example, the App name that will be assigned later during server setup will be iPhoneGuide. If you later see the error message, MISMATCHSWADNAME when adding your App to SafeWebApp, read the above paragraph again. The Default Host field is www.safeactivation.com if you will be using the Safe Activation server. That is the most common way to host Apps for SafeWebApp. The Protection checkbox should be set whether or not you will require Serial Number activation via Safe Activation. The Image field holds a 180x180 pixel JPG or GIF image that is presented within the List panel when you App is added to SafeWebApp. Type a descriptive title for your App in the Title field, then click OK to save data in the Options dialog. Click the Export SWAD button to output a SWAD file, then upload it to any location on your website. This file isn’t linked from any page on your site and is only used by SafeWebApp. You will need to know the URL of the SWAD file. For example, if the SWAD file located in the main public folder, the URL may be:

http://www.yourdomain.com/iphoneguide.swad

Setup Server There are two ways to host content that is presented within SafeWebApp:

- Safe Activation Service 3 account - Web License Server hosted on your website

Safe Activation is a monthly service where you log in and enter your information into a series of screens. Web License Server is a self-hosted product that consists of a server executable and data files stored on your Windows or Linux website and an Admin application running on your Mac or Windows computer. This paper shows how to setup Safe Activation, but a similar process applies to Web License Server. Log into your Vendor Account on Safe Activation to setup your activation process and register your App name. If it is a new account, enter a random 26-digit number in the Vendor Code field of the Vendor page. That value typically comes from QuickLicense if used with Safe Activation.

To setup an activation process, start by adding a named custom form and set checkboxes for the fields of data you want to collect from the customer during the activation process. At a minimum, you must set checkboxes for the Request Number and Serial Number field. SafeWebApp automatically provides the Request Number. The user enters the Serial Number received during the purchase process. Enter a Serial Number Group name on the Serial Number Group page. Now generate a batch of Serial Numbers assigned to that group with a command on the Serial Number Select & Search page. The Serial Number Edit screen shows a range of Serial Numbers assigned to a specific group. Notice how the Max Activation field lets you control how many unique devices can use your App for each Serial Number. Now click Add in the Product menu and add a named Product record. Enter B*B+R+T in the Activation Calculation field. Type a random 10-digit number in the Ticket Code field. Set checkboxes named Enable Activation, Serial Number Required and Dynamic License. Notice how the Product Edit page is linked to the Serial Number Group and Activation Form that was previously created. Click Save Data button at bottom of page. In the Web Apps section of the menu, click Add and complete the Web App Edit page. The Web App Name field must match the base name of the SWAD file created earlier. The Enable Web App checkbox must be set. Notice how the Product Activation selector is set to the Product Edit name configured above to handle the activation process. The Website URL field contains the URL of the SWAD file that was uploaded to your website.

In the Options section, set checkboxes Allow Other Apps While Viewing, Run Offline From Cache and select Minimum Viewer Required of 2. Set checkboxes in the Targets section for the platforms where you want your App to be available. At the time this paper was written, the iOS version of SafeWebApp was not yet available. Only set checkbox for platform where you have tested your App. Safe Activation has many other features for use with SafeWebApp and other protection and licensing tools, but for now you can ignore them all. After saving the WebApp Edit page, your App is ready to use. To add your App to SafeWebApp running on Mac, Windows or Linux just type iPhoneGuide into the Name field on the List panel and click the Add button. After activation with one of your Serial Numbers, the book is presented within the View panel. The process on Android is similar, just tap Add and enter the App name. Click on the List panel. Notice the iPhoneGuide name in the List and when selected, its picture and title from the SWAD file is presented to the right. The user can click the image to view the book or click the Remove button to remove the App and free its license for use on another device.

Setup Order Process There are many ways to automate payment processing and delivery of a Serial Number to the customer at the time of purchase. Although outside of the scope of this paper, videos are available at www.excelsoftware.com to show how its done with simple Buy buttons, a shopping cart on your website, the default shopping cart built into Safe Activation or online shopping cart services that have been integrated with the Safe Activation server. When an order occurs, payment is transferred to your account and the customer receives an email with download information and an assigned Serial Number for the purchased product.

Here is an outline for one way to automate the order process. - Create a Paypal Buy button for your website. - Use Paypal Merchant account to process credit card orders. - Have Paypal post order data to Safe Activation with the IPN field. - Setup Order process on Safe Activation to deliver Serial Number.

Summary This paper shows how DocProtect is used to generate a SWAD file that may contain an EPUB formatted eBook or other document types. That SWAD file is placed on your website. Safe Activation is configured to provide Serial Number activation and deliver the document to each customer within the SafeWebApp player. The order and Serial Number delivery process can be fully automated. The purchase, download and user experience is similar across all supported platforms. A user can purchase or use the application from their computer, phone or tablet. Once activated, the user can disconnect the Internet or transfer the App between devices.