Another unofficial reader app

zemepanAdi

Hey all,

I've created an unofficial reader app for J-Novel Club novels! Check it out here: https://adikus.github.io/jnovel-reader/

What is this?

This is a web app rather than a full blown native mobile application, so it should work on pretty much any device from mobile to desktop (and it should look good on any of them too 🤞)

Features

Filter series based on what you're reading
A feed personalized to what you're reading
Most of the standard features that you're used to:
- Light / Dark mode (although the dark mode might still need some work)
- Vertical / Horizontal reading mode (horizontal mode still a bit buggy 😬)
- Font / Font size selection

Future features (no promises though)

Automatically jump to where you left off in the part
Proper bug-free horizontal reading mode
Push notification for newly released parts of series that you're reading

Why?

The official mobile app has received some updates last year, delivering some new features (while also breaking some stuff). Unfortunately the app is still somewhat broken for me and is missing some features I might have expected by this time.
Namely, as the the catalog of books that JNC has licensed is expanding, I'm finding myself unable to keep up with all of them. These days I'm keeping up with only small portion of what's actually available. This also means, however, that I'm having a hard time finding what's actually relevant for me in the app, as well as that I'm missing on some new volume/part releases.

That's why this new app is somewhat biased towards those Reading list / feed features. These should hopefully work for anyone out of the box, since they are using the same data about read parts, that the official mobile app is using.

Suggestions & Contributions

The source code for this is public and open source on GitHub.
Any suggestions and/or contributions are welcome either here in this forum post or on GitHub issues / PRs.

I hope that all this is legally/otherwise ok, I don't want to get on @sam-pinansky's bad side 🙂.

HarunaChieP

This is really nice although how about those single or standalone ones? It's saying no parts available but there is the Part 1 or the preview that is available indefinitely iirc

I decided to try this but I can't seem to find the option to scroll to next page or move it up or down for some reason... probably some scripts being blocked by work firewall but I'll test it on another device.

EDIT: I tried it on my android phone but same issue

zemepanAdi

Hey @harunachiep,

thanks for the feedback!

I'm showing the "No parts available" label for anything that has all volumes expired, ignoring the previews. But you are right in that allowing you to go read the preview would probably make more sense.

As for the scrolling issue, do you mean you can't scroll within one part? Or going to the next part when you're done with reading a part?
If it's the latter, there should be a blue footer that should appear when you scroll all the way to the bottom of a part, or alternatively move your mouse to the bottom of the page (or on mobile, tap the part text anywhere). That should have links to previous / next parts, if they are available.

HarunaChieP

@zemepanadi I can't scroll in one part no matter what I do ;.;

zemepanAdi

@harunachiep that's very curious. What browser are you using? If possible, would you be able to go to the dev tools console (hit F12 and click on the console tab in the panel that appeared) and see if there are any errors showing up?

HarunaChieP

@zemepanadi that's not really possible on a mobile device though and using both Google chrome and Brave browser

zemepanAdi

@harunachiep you're right, sorry. I assumed the other device you mentioned wasn't a phone. Unfortunately I'm all out of ideas of what this could :/
There's bunch of stuff that could go wrong (like an older browser version that doesn't support some of the newer js features), but I'm pretty sure that for any of that you wouldn't even be able to open the part :/

HarunaChieP

@zemepanadi said in Another unofficial reader app:

@harunachiep you're right, sorry. I assumed the other device you mentioned wasn't a phone. Unfortunately I'm all out of ideas of what this could :/
There's bunch of stuff that could go wrong (like an older browser version that doesn't support some of the newer js features), but I'm pretty sure that for any of that you wouldn't even be able to open the part :/

Well, I'm trying it on the work computer that surprisingly has access to JNC and your website right now and I can't exactly fiddle around with the settings but it has the same symptoms as what the browsers on my android phone have. Even if I try to use arrow keys to move down the page it doesn't budge down or clicking around does nothing.

This is what the F12 Console section says though:

NoSleep disabled Series.js:36

NoSleep enabled Part.js:115

[DOM] Input elements should have autocomplete attributes (suggested: "current-password"): (More info: https://goo.gl/9p2vKq)

zemepanAdi

@harunachiep
Finally was able to figure it out. Looks like this was because of the newest chrome update (you probably got the update before I did, I just got it today and it broke the app for me as well).
In any case, I've pushed an update to the app, so it should work now. Looks like the update changed how one of the styles used in there was interpreted, essentially hiding content that was below the viewport.

HarunaChieP

@zemepanadi I tried it again and vertical view is now working, I can scroll down now

Thomask

Not bad, not signed in tho because I’m paranoid about that sorta thing with unofficial apps.

What I did notice tho is part one chapter one in crest of stars, it’s cutting off the last line or two. I can see a partial line with leads me to think there might be at least one more under it. It’s being hidden partly by the bottom toolbar. “Next page” medium font setting.