A self-hosted ebook library and reader for the ESP32.
See a demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9V4MR0gx3M
The code in ebook_lib_esp32_code is intended for upload to the ESP32 and essentially sets up a reasonable performant web server, broadcasting wifi and redirecting DNS requests to point at the platform URL (http://192.168.4.0). Upcoming improvements intend to use DHCP options to provide a proper captive portal, but for now we hack it up with DNS.
It's an ino file intended for use with the Arduino IDE but should work on just about any ESP32.
See Ubuntu 24 Static File Captive Portal.md in this repo.
The website is served from index.html, linking to reader.html for the ePub reader.
Strictly speaking, the books are source from books.json, a blob providing basic information (title, author, cover, etc. about each book). However, generation of this file is automated with exports from Calibre, a fantastic eBook management system. Select your books, right click, "Save to disk", "Save only ePub format to disk in single folder," and save to the ./books directory.
When the ./books directory is populated with ePubs, covers, and .opf metadata files, run ./generate_book_list_and_metadata.py books/ to automatically parse the .opf files and generate books.json.
Note, there is nothing preventing you from manually populating your books.json or writing your own script. At the least, it requires keys for title, author, tags, description, cover, and file in an object of objects keyed on the display-able book title, although those are all free to be kept empty if desired (except for file, which is needed for download/viewing).
Once books.json is generated, copy all the files in the repo to a FAT32-formatted microSD card and insert it into a reader wired to the ESP32 (3V3 or VIN to ESP32 3V3 or 5V as appropriate, CS/CLK to ESP32 GPIO 5, MOSI to ESP32 GPIO 23, CLK to ESP32 GPIO 18, MISO to ESP32 GPIO 19, GND to GND). Once booted, the wifi network should appear and the library is accessible at http://192.168.4.0.