Re: Wiki-To-Print Extension Nitpicks

Andrew,

> 1) The connection to PediaPress seems unreliable. Clicking "Order Book
> from PediaPress" returns an error about as often as it succeeds. I
> will try to record more data about this failure mode next time I see
> it

we are investigating but were unable to reproduce this. Do you  
remember whether the error message said something like "a timeout  
occurred" ?

> 2) The books generated by PediaPress look amazing (I've just ordered
> my first one, so I will tell you how it looks when it gets here).
> However, I would like to be able to adjust the cover image, and
> possibly list multiple editors on the cover

This is on our todo list.

> 4) In addition to the GFDL, I would like to be able to specify
> additional boiler-plate preface and appendix text, such as an "About
> Wikibooks" page that will be automatically included in all books
> (perhaps as checkbox option, if some people don't want it). This way
> when/if we start to distribute/sell these books, recipients will know
> what the book is, where to find the electronic copy of it, how to edit
> and improve it, etc. I'm working on a page now (at
> [[Wikibooks:Collections Preface]]) that people can include manually
> for now, but having to manually include this page in every collection
> we make will be annoying.

A possible solution would be to (automatically) start new collections  
based on a saved collections (as a template) which already includes  
this page. Users could remove or exchange the preface on the  
collection page if they have different preferences.

> 5) PDF rendering times, especially for some of the larger books I've
> tried (>200 pages) are very slow. Is this an acceptable server load?

The PDF generation runs on dedicated servers - so it will not slow  
down any Mediawiki.
In order to make the waiting time more bearing we improved the  
progress messages. This should be available one Brion updates the  
software.

> 6) I've noticed problems with rendering nested list structures, like:
>
> *First
> *:Note about the first (this renders wrong)
> *Second
> *:Note about the second (this also renders wrong).

this bug is known:
http://code.pediapress.com/wiki/ticket/81

Feel free to report other bugs using this tracker or on the technical  
mailinglist for this project: http://groups.google.com/group/mwlib


Heiko