eBook Scraper

A Chrome extension to help you create PDFs from ebooks hosted on supported academic platforms. It currently supports:

• JStor
• Ebook Central by ProQuest

Usage

1. Navigate to a supported ebook platform (ProQuest, JStor)
2. Open an ebook you want to scrape
3. Click through each page as they load to capture images
4. Click the eBook Scraper extension icon in your toolbar
5. Use the popup interface to save pages and compile your PDF

Developer instructions

Prerequisites

• Install Node.js. Recommend installing with FNM

Prepare the local environment

1. Clone the repository

   git clone [email protected]:janbaykara/ebook-scraper.git
   cd ebook-scraper

2. Install dependencies

   npm install

3. Build the extension

   npm run build

Load the extension in Chrome

1. Open Chrome Extensions page

   • Navigate to chrome://extensions/ in your Chrome browser
   • Or go to Chrome menu → More tools → Extensions

2. Enable Developer mode

   • Toggle the "Developer mode" switch in the top right corner

3. Load the extension

   • Click "Load unpacked" button
   • Important: Navigate to and select the dist/ directory (the build output folder), not the root or src/ folder
   • The extension should now appear in your extensions list

4. Verify installation

   • You should see "eBook Scraper" in your extensions list
   • The extension icon should appear in your Chrome toolbar
   • Check that the extension shows as "Active"

Development

Available Scripts

• npm run dev - Start development mode with hot-reload
• npm run build - Build the extension for production
• npm run preview - Serve the compiled production build locally from dist

Troubleshooting

Extension not loading:

• Make sure you're selecting the dist/ directory (build output), not the root or src/ folder
• Ensure you've run npm run build or npm run watch first
• Check that manifest.json exists in the dist/ directory after building

Build errors:

• Try deleting node_modules/ and running npm install again
• Ensure you're using Node.js version 16 or higher

Project Structure

ebook-scraper/
├── src/                        # Source code
│   ├── js/                     # TypeScript/JavaScript files
│   │   ├── common/             # Shared utilities
│   │   │   ├── sites.ts        # Site configurations
│   │   │   └── utils.ts        # Helper functions
│   │   ├── eventPage/          # Background script
│   │   │   ├── actions.ts      # Extension actions (save, delete, etc.)
│   │   │   └── index.ts        # Background script entry point
│   │   ├── popup/              # Extension popup interface
│   │   │   ├── Components.tsx  # React components
│   │   │   ├── Popup.tsx       # Main popup component
│   │   │   ├── index.tsx       # Popup entry point
│   │   │   └── pdf.ts          # PDF generation logic
│   │   └── types/              # TypeScript definitions
│   │       └── declarations.d.ts
│   ├── manifest/
|       ├── plugin.ts           # Vite plugin for injesting manifest site permissions
|       └── template.json       # Extension manifest template
├── package.json                # Dependencies and scripts
├── tsconfig.json               # Base TypeScript configuration
├── tsconfig.app.json           # App TypeScript configuration
├── tsconfig.vite.json          # Vite bundler TypeScript configuration
└── vite.config.ts              # Vite configuration

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions!

Please see the discussions page if you'd like to help maintain this repository.