1) Powerful proof-of-concept !!!
2) However for offline / low-income communities there's a fatal flaw with
ZIM files that require https (TLS/SSL) which generally require web server
certificates that renew every 90-days-or-so using a service like
-- by definition this is inherently / tragically
not possible in offline / low-income communities. As Tim Moody alluded to
below, and also at openzim/zimit#57
<https://github.com/openzim/zimit/issues/57>
3) Does anybody see any practical way forward, for us all to pull together
here, towards giving offline / low-income communities a very pragmatic way
forward?
On Tue, Dec 22, 2020 at 7:59 AM Tim Moody <tim(a)timmoody.com> wrote:
I have tried this and it works pretty well. One thing
you didn't mention
is that because, as you said, it uses service workers, the server running
kiwix-serve must support SSL. Otherwise kiwix-serve will not be able to
serve up any zims produced by zimit. This is unfortunate as offline ssl
certificates need to be self signed and that will cause browsers to
complain.
On Tue, Dec 22, 2020 at 7:00 AM <offline-l-request(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. New tool : Zimit (Stephane Coillet-Matillon)
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>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2020 11:25:43 +0100
> From: Stephane Coillet-Matillon <stephane(a)kiwix.org>
> To: Using Wikimedia projects and MediaWiki offline
> <offline-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
> Subject: [Offline-l] New tool : Zimit
> Message-ID: <B78F3C15-8EDE-4A11-B887-BBE1682596F3(a)kiwix.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hola,
>
> Since I’m bearded and moderately overweight let me be the one to bring
> the first present for the holiday season and introduce Zimit, a pretty cool
> new tool that allows people to produce their own Zim files. Yes, you read
> that correctly.
>
> * If you are the type that cannot wait to unwrap presents, you will find
> it at
https://youzim.it <https://www.youzim.it/>
>
> * For everyone else:
> The interface is pretty minimalist, and that’s part of the message:
> 1. Insert target URL
> 2. Insert email address so we can tell you when your zim is ready
> 3. Download zim file
>
> There is a limit at 1,000 items for each zim because (a) we don’t want to
> DDoS unsuspecting websites with requests; and (ii) also would not be able
> to afford the bill If it becomes as popular as we think it will be (we need
> to find an acceptable business model and pricing structure: any advice
> welcome). But since this is free software, you can obviously cut the
> middleman by copying, studying, modifying and redistributing the code that
> can be found here:
https://github.com/openzim/zimit <
>
https://github.com/openzim/zimit>
>
> Because this relies on newly-implemented service workers, these new zim
> files will only work on Kiwix-android and Kiwix-serve at the moment, but
> this will obviously expand to other platforms in 2021.
>
> This project was entirely funded by a Mozilla Open Source Support Award,
> thanks to them!
>
> Cheers,
> Stephane
>