HelloReader

A simple cross-platform desktop application built with the Toga GUI framework for reading web novel chapters directly from their URLs.

Features

• Web Content Fetching: Loads chapter content from a provided URL.
• Chapter Navigation: Buttons to load the "Next Page" and "Previous Page" based on links found on the current page.
• Readable Display: Presents the extracted main content in a clean, scrollable view.
• Dark/Light Theme: Toggle between dark and light themes for comfortable reading. Theme preference is saved.
• URL Input: Load chapters by entering a URL via a dedicated dialog box ("Load URL" button).
• Bookmarking:
  • Automatically saves the last successfully loaded chapter URL.
  • Automatically loads the bookmarked URL when the application starts.
  • Manually load the bookmarked URL using the "Load Last Page" button.
• Configurable Scraping (Basic): The web_scraper.py file contains logic to extract content, currently tailored for sites like piaotia.com using specific HTML markers (<br> after <h1> as start, </div> as end). Handles gbk encoding.

Technology Stack

• GUI Framework: Toga
• HTTP Requests: Requests
• HTML Parsing: Beautiful Soup 4
• Configuration: JSON (standard library)
• Language: Python 3

Setup and Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone <repository-url>
   cd HelloReader

2. Create and activate a virtual environment (recommended):

   python -m venv venv
   # On Windows
   # .\venv\Scripts\activate
   # On macOS/Linux
   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Running the Application

Once the setup is complete, run the application from the project's root directory:

python helloreader.py

Configuration

The application uses a helloreader_config.json file (created in the same directory as the script) to store preferences:

• theme: Stores the last selected theme ("dark" or "light").
• last_url: Stores the URL of the last successfully loaded chapter.

This file is loaded on startup and saved when the theme is changed or a new chapter is loaded successfully.

Web Scraping Notes

The current web scraping logic in web_scraper.py uses a specific strategy (finding content between <br> after <h1> and the next </div>) tailored for the structure observed on piaotia.com. This logic might need significant adjustments to work correctly on websites with different HTML structures. The scraper also assumes gbk encoding.

Trajectory

The project evolved through different technical approaches: basic HTML generation, wxPython GUI, and finally Toga GUI.

v4

• Framework: Toga
• Functionality:
  • Creates a desktop application using the Toga GUI toolkit.
  • Provides an input field for a starting URL.
  • Fetches content from the provided URL (defaults to a specific piaotia.com URL).
  • Uses requests and BeautifulSoup for web scraping.
  • Decodes content using gb2312.
  • Cleans HTML content by removing ads and extracting text between specific markers ("返回书页" and "快捷键").
  • Displays the cleaned content within a toga.WebView.
  • Extracts 'Next Page' and 'Previous Page' links from the source HTML.
  • Provides 'Next Page' and 'Previous Page' buttons in the UI to navigate chapters.
• Status: Appears to be the most recent and functional version among the reader applications.

v3

• Framework: wxPython
• Functionality:
  • Creates a desktop application using the wxPython GUI toolkit.
  • Uses wx.html2.WebView to display content.
  • Fetches, cleans (similar logic to working toga but slightly different end marker "返回顶部"), and displays content from a hardcoded piaotia.com URL.
  • Provides a 'Next Page' button in the UI.
  • Lacks 'Previous Page' functionality and URL input compared to working toga.
• Status: An alternative implementation using wxPython, likely preceding the Toga version.

Reader v2

• Framework: None (Generates HTML, uses web browser)
• Functionality:
  • Fetches and cleans content from a hardcoded piaotia.com URL.
  • Improved cleaning compared to V1 (using start/end markers).
  • Generates an HTML file (content.html) with the content and basic styling (dark mode).
  • Adds a 'Next Page' button to the generated HTML.
  • Opens the generated HTML file in the default web browser using the webbrowser module.
• Status: An intermediate version, moving display logic to HTML/browser but without a dedicated GUI framework.

Reader v1

• Framework: None (Generates HTML, uses web browser)
• Functionality:
  • The earliest version. Fetches and cleans content from a hardcoded piaotia.com URL.
  • Basic cleaning (removes some elements).
  • Generates an HTML file (content.html) with the content.
  • Implements 'Next Page' navigation via JavaScript listening for the Right Arrow key within the browser.
  • Opens the generated HTML file in the default web browser.
• Status: Initial proof-of-concept.