How to point Bloom Reader to offline resources on a WiFi Multimedia Server?

Where can I read about how to point the Bloom Reader to online/offline resources?

A partner organization is planning a project where users in an offline setting can connect to a WiFi Multimedia Server (e.g. BibleBox, LightStream Pocket, MicroPi). Once the user accesses the Bloom Reader .apk and installs it on their device, what options are there for prompting the user to go to the server location where they can access content for the Bloom Reader?

Sorry Aaron, we don’t have such a feature.

No worries. This would then just become one more step in their training on accessing their WiFi server from a cell phone.

Thanks!

I think we’d just have to offer as downloads the .bloomd files in the “Apps” or “Text” section of the Wi-Fi Media Box. Once they are saved to the device, I believe BloomReader automatically finds them.

It’s true that previously, Bloom Reader had a command named “Find Bloom books on this device”. However, Android 12 no longer allows apps to access the file system like that, for security reasons, and starting with the version currently in Beta, Bloom Reader no longer has this command.

That leaves two other ways of introducing BR to a file for the first time:

  1. use the “Open BloomPUB file” command
  2. do anything that tries to “open” the file, for example when you download it from a browser.

This second method should work great, but we have over the years seen phones where it didn’t.