index not generated

[gdamore]

I'm working on a quite large technical piece (the first in a series of several), and I have started adding indexterms through the document. I'd like this to be emitted in the same way the PDF version does, but it seems the epub3 backend passes through visible content, but does nothing else with the index terms, and will not generate a working index.

[gdamore]

Note that a spec for epub indices exists: http://www.idpf.org/epub/idx/

[spkane]

I just ran into this issue as well and was surprised to find that the epub converter did not support building an Index, and there wasn't even documentation on how to potentially append an index more manually (as a stop gap).

@slonopotamus, Do you have any thoughts about the feasibility of adding this functionality?

It does seem surprising that there is no support for Index generation via the EPUB3 generator since there is support for indexes in the epub standard.

Is the barrier primarily a matter of getting someone to do the work, or do design/technical issues make it especially difficult?

Also, is there a starting place that might provide some basic Index support that could be reached before a full implementation is achieved?

[slonopotamus]

Hi, I don't see any difficulties here, it is just a lack of hands.

[mojavelinux]

You might be interested to know that the basic logic has been implemented in a PR for the built-in HTML converter. You can probably use that as a starting point. See asciidoctor/asciidoctor#3160 (When I get a chance, I do plan to merge that, perhaps for 2.1.x. However, as Marat points out, it's just been a lack of time/hands to get it done there).

[hdrlab]

I just discovered this too. Is there any progress on implementing this?

[slonopotamus]

Nope

[hugobarauna]

Is there a way skip generating the Index section?

This is what the last lines of my book.adoc file looks like:

<<<
include::8_actor_model_and_adapter_pattern.adoc[]

[index]
= Index

<<<
include::thank_you.adoc[]

The epub version does not contain the index, but there's still a section there:

So, since the epub converter does not support index, it would be useful to remove it the generated epub.

[ksdhans]

If you want to exclude the index section for epub, but keep it there somewhere else, then try using ifndef:

ifndef::backend-epub3[]
[index]
= Index
endif::[]

[hugobarauna]

If you want to exclude the index section for epub, but keep it there somewhere else, then try using ifndef:

ifndef::backend-epub3[] [index] = Index endif::[]

Thanks, worked like a charm! 👍