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FLOSS Manuals Book Store

Cut and paste this into your website to host the FLOSS Manuals Book Store: 

<img src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.gif"/>
<style>
  @import url("http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.css");
</style>
 <script src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript">
    FM.init({});
 </script>

Explanation

If you came here then you might have been looking for books to buy. Well you have come to the wrong place! You will instead find information about how to embed a FLOSS Manuals Book Store on your website.

FLOSS Manuals does not distribute books to retailers - we prefer to sell print on demand books via the web. Retailers might buy books to re-sell from us, but they buy them at the same price as we sell them to you.

Rather than distribute to Book Shops we prefer to have a 'viral' book store...using the web as our shop front and enabling anyone to host a FLOSS Manuals Book Store on their website.

You too can host a FLOSS Manuals Book Store on your website! This is an excellent way to promote free software! If people see the book on your site, they learn of the software, and then they might read the documentation and learn how to use the software.

So your support of the FLOSS Manuals Book Store helps promotes free software and encourages the uptake of these wonderful tools.

The FLOSS Manuals Book Store is designed to fit into the sidebar of a blog or website. To host a shop you need a website that you can add the following lines of HTML to : 

<img src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.gif"/>
<style>
  @import url("http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.css");
</style>
 <script src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript">
    FM.init({});
 </script>

This will create a Book Store on your page that looks like this : 

 

The default setting for the book store is to show two manuals at a time. However there is actually a lot you can configure. You can configure the number of items displayed, turn it into a slideshow and control the timing, display specific books, and turn on and off the paging feature ("MORE BOOKS>>").

Below are some examples with the code also shown.

Display Inkscape manual

The following displays only the Inkscape manual with paging turned off. 

<img src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.gif"/>
<style>
  @import url("http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.css");
</style>
 <script src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript">
     FM.init({"paging":false,"preferred":["Inkscape"]});
 </script>

If you wish to display specific manuals you need to state the exact title with the correct capitalisation. The current manuals available are :

  • Inkscape
  • FLOSS Manuals
  • OLPC LAPTOP USERS GUIDE
  • SUGAR USERS GUIDE

Display 2 Specific Manuals

The following displays the OLPC and Sugar manuals only with a "MORE BOOKS>>" button. 

<img src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.gif"/>
<style>
  @import url("http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.css");
</style>
 <script src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript">
   FM.init({"paging":true,"preferred":["OLPC LAPTOP USERS GUIDE","SUGAR USERS GUIDE"]});
 </script>

Display Random Slideshow

The following displays three items in a random slideshow with a 7 second delay and no paging. 

<img src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.gif"/>
<style>
  @import url("http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.css");
</style>
 <script src="http://en.flossmanuals.net/bookstore/bookstore.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript">
     FM.init({"show":"random","items":3,"slideshow":true,"timeout":7,"paging":null});
 </script>

CSS

The look at feel is decided by the imported CSS. If you know how to change CSS then you can download that file and change it, then upload it to your own server and change the link.

Notes:

Once you have installed the store anyone can buy books directly from your website. We don't enable commissions for any sales for two reasons :

  1. we only make a very small amount off each book sale
  2. we don't have the tools to do this (we use lulu.com tools for the book store)

A note on income generated from book sales : all manuals are available for free from the FLOSS Manuals website. We sell books at a small mark-up (2 euro per book) and this money goes back into the development of the manuals. If you want to buy a manual at cost price then download the free PDF available from the bookstore also, and create your own account on a print on demand service (such as lulu.com) and order the book from yourself.