It would be helpful to have a button or context menu choice for a book and collection to create a file for archiving purposes. For archiving, it needs to contain all the relevant files and not be stored as a shell book/Bloom Pack. The latter removes some files (like language settings) and triggers an unpacking that puts it among the source books rather than the active Bloom files.
Here is what I would suggest:
- It be a zip archive just like Bloom Packs are so that there is only one file to deal with.
- For a collection archive, it would contain everything in the collection–all files, without being selective. That way, if unpacked to a computer, the person would recreate the collection exactly as it was archived.
- For a book archive, it would contain the book’s folder with all contents plus the collection-level files that are relevant to the book, such as customCollectionStyle.css, ReaderToolsSettings-xxx.json, ReaderToolsWords-xxx.json.
- This would be the standard way to archive a collection or book in REAP or another digital archive or to back up the book or collection.
I see several reasons for this:
- There is no standard way to archive a Bloom book or collection. This would provide one.
- There is no standard way to back up a book or collection. WIth this form, there would be a single file to back up, which is much easier to deal with as well as much more efficient to put into Dropbox (for which there is transfer overhead for every file synced).
- There is no standard way to share a book or collection with someone else in editable form (as opposed to as a source book). This would help with giving someone else your book to review, edit, revise, or take over.