Hi Guys,
I’ve written an ebook, saved it as a pdf got it switched to an apk file using appgeyser and have set up on google play to sell it as a paid app. Google play have given me the the licence key (to protect distribution and what-not) which I can copy and paste but asks me to put it in the binary of my application? Is it just a case of cracking it open using notepad++ and whacking it anywhere or something else?
Cheers,
M
Do you want to turn this into a Corona-powered app? There are tools to help you do so… let me know if this is the case.
Thanks,
Brent Sorrentino
Hi Brent,
I absolutely would! And I could definitely do with some help! My main concerns with this apps are their protection from piracy. Using AppGeyser to turn the pdf into an apk makes alteration of code difficult if not impossible, which then leads to an inability to add the google play licence key. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
M
Hi Brent,
If you’re still about I could still do with a hand!
M
Brent,
I’m asking the same question, I think… I have a corona game app I’ve built to promote my book. I want to then sell my book as an IAP to the google play book. How does this work? After IAP I give the user a pointer to the book in Google Play? do I send them electronically the link? etc.
Thanks,
Carey
Michael, can you clarify what you want to do better? Are you expecting Corona SDK to read and present your PDF to the viewer? Do you want it to download your PDF? Or are you wanting Corona SDK to tell a story using different scenes in an interactive way or do you want to build your own book reader that can display text? I’m not real sure what your whole process is.
Carey, in your case, are you wanting to include the book with the app and just unlock it using IAP or have them purchase it then download it somehow? Is your book on some other e-commerce site? How do you intend for the purchaser to actually read your book?
Hi Rob,
I’d like corona to simply present the pdf, scrollable obviously but only up or down just as it would be on Microsoft Word or a pdf reader. Nothing more or complex in design. Just that. For now anyway 
M
Corona does not have facilities to display a PDF that I’m aware of beyond downloading it or showing it in a webView. See this thread for some insite on what can be done with PDFs’
http://forums.coronalabs.com/topic/29499-opening-a-remote-pdf-file/
Note, in my experience the webView only works on iOS. Android will want to download the file from the internet and play it in a pdf viewer app which the user will have to have already installed.
Really? There’s no way the app can display what I’ve written? Without a third party app?
Hi Michael,
An app can display what you’ve written easily enough, but if you want to just “direct import” a PDF, you’ll face the limitations in how it gets displayed. But yes, if you want to take more time and make the same content into an app, you have considerably more flexibility.
Brent
Hi Brent,
I’m quite happy for it to take a little longer. I just worry I’ll upset my customers as I plan to sell the app, which means no ads, but of course unless they’ve paid for their pdf reader as well they’d get ads regardless after having paid for my app. As you can tell I’m brand new to this and just want a clear easily programmable way to sell my ebooks in a way my customers would be most happy. I just don’t have a clue how to do it I’m afraid!
M
Brent/Michael,
focusing on Droid first, I would prefer my app to simply use IAP to give the user the ability to purchase the book and have it appear in google play books on the phone. I believe google play books stores everything in the cloud, so just wondering how i could do this.
Carey
I’m just as new to this I’m afraid, but I’ll offer my thoughts. So it’s a game, that comes with a book? If that’s the case, then you’ll need to have the book you’ve made as a separate app available from it’s own place within the google books store. Using it as a plug-in to the game would surely be very complicated and probably device memory heavy as you’d have an app designed to work as a game suddenly needing to work as a book. You could just place a link in your game directing the user to the google book market to buy the book? Which I think would just be a case of copy and pasting the URL of your book in the game e.g.
“Click here to buy the book! www.googlebookmarketplace.com/justanexample”
If your dead set however in having the one app be both a game and a book reader, you’ll have to ask the pro’s how to code it as it’s way out of my understanding; as is programming a book app (which is why I started this thread).
M
What other options do I have besides “direct import” of a pdf?
M
I don’t believe Corona is ideally suited for e-book creation - you can develop an “app” that presents the content, but this is mainly used for interactive-book purposes.
Guys, the app is a marketing game based based on trading to promote the novel which is based on a hedge fund. The app will not display the book or read it in the app. I just try to get them to buy it in the end. I could just post a link to the book on google play, but I would like to try to use IAP to sell the book, then “download” it from google play books.
Carey
I’m starting to realise 
How can I present my content then?
M
Hi Michael,
You can use Corona’s text APIs, image APIs (if you have images in the book), etc. to present your content. But if the book is a very “text heavy” tome (like a novel), an app may not be the best way to present it. E-books of that sort are commonly created and distributed in a format like EPUB which works on Amazon devices, Apple iBooks, Nook, and basically any other e-reader.
That being said, Corona can create rich, interactive e-books. Please see this section for some past examples:
http://www.coronalabs.com/i-want-to-build/ebooks-comics/
And, one popular 3rd-party tool for creating e-books with Corona is “Kwik”. I urge you to explore this product and see if it will help you accomplish what you need. They offer a free trial as well.
Take care,
Brent
Thanks Brent,
Kwik’s a bit expensive so I’ll have to think about that, the free trial also limits you to six pages and watermarked images. My ebooks about 20 pages. So I might try the other route with the API’s. This seems to be quite a bumpy subject with corona as if Ebooks are uncommon!? I’ll keep researching! Thanks again!
M
Hi Michael,
Of course, you can just design the e-book yourself without using Kwik. Kwik just makes it easier and faster for many people, and if time is money, then they consider it worth the up-front cost. Kwik is not required, however, to create a nice interactive book using Corona.
Brent