EPUB Metadata Editing using Java

In the last article, we discussed managing EPUB metadata & Dublin Core using C#. Today, we’ll learn how you can programmatically read, edit, and update EPUB metadata properties, including Dublin Core set of properties, using Java.

An EPUB file is a digital book format that includes text, pictures, and interactive elements. It’s made using common web technologies like HTML and CSS.

EPUB metadata means important information stored inside EPUB files, like the title, author, publisher, and language. This data helps in properly organizing digital books.

Here are the topics we’ll cover:

Java API for Editing Metadata

GroupDocs.Metadata offers a Java API designed to automate metadata management for different file formats in Java applications. This API enables reading, updating, adding, cleaning, and removing metadata from various file types. In our discussion today, we will utilize this API to handle the metadata of eBooks in the EPUB format.

You can obtain the JAR file from the downloads section or incorporate the latest repository and dependency Maven configurations into your Java applications.

<repository>
    <id>GroupDocsJavaAPI</id>
    <name>GroupDocs Java API</name>
    <url>https://releases.groupdocs.com/java/repo/</url>
</repository>

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.groupdocs</groupId>
    <artifactId>groupdocs-metadata</artifactId>
    <version>23.10</version>
</dependency>

Modifying EPUB Metadata with Java

As a Java developer, if you want to modify EPUB metadata properties, follow these steps:

  1. Load the EPUB eBook using the Metadata class.
  2. Use the getRootPackageGeneric method to extract the metadata root package.
  3. Now, you can easily view all the metadata properties of the EPUB package using respective getter method.
  4. Update the property values as needed using respective setter method.
  5. Save the eBook file with the updated metadata values using the save method.

Below are snippets of Java code illustrating the steps to read and update EPUB metadata properties:

Read EPUB Metadata

To start with, here is how you can read the EPUB metadata using Java:

Update EPUB Metadata

The following Java source code demonstrates how to fetch and update the EPUB metadata properties of the EPUB file:

Modifying EPUB Dublin Core Metadata with Java

Dublin Core metadata consists of a few items that describe both physical and digital resources. You can modify Dublin Core metadata properties using Java code in a manner similar to EPUB metadata.

Read Dublin Core

The following lines of code demonstrate how to extract Dublin Core metadata items for analysis:

Update Dublin Core

You can change specific Dublin Core properties as needed, as shown in the code below:

Obtaining a Free License

If you want to fully experience the capabilities of this API, you can obtain a temporary license for free.

Conclusion

In this article, we looked into EPUB metadata manipulation. Initially, we explored how to read and modify EPUB metadata properties programmatically using Java. Later, we applied the same techniques to the Dublin Core set of items within eBooks.

For detailed API information, readers are encouraged to refer to:

Any questions or further discussions can be directed to the provided forum.

See Also