Need help with offline version of the site

I am a bhikku. Occasionally reading jātaka while mostly focusing on Bhavana. I need to find the offline zip file of the site so I can download and use this site on an iPad through the Documents app by Readdle. Please help, thanks.

1 Like

Welcome to the forum Bhante. I’m sure one of our tech savvy members will be able to give you the information you need. :pray:

1 Like

Hi Bhante!

If you just want to read Jatakas offline, what you really want are these ebooks which contain (I believe?) the same jataka translations you’ll find on SuttaCentral

And for the sutta translations by Ajahn Sujato, see the SuttaCentral downloads page [EDIT: see the reading faithfully version or my own backup copies instead, as the downloads page is broken]

Hope that helps! :pray:

4 Likes

Yep, same.

If you need PDF’s of Bhante Sujato’s translations, you can also find them on ReadingFaithfully.org.

As that page explains, they won’t be the most up to date necessarily, but the multiple formats there are much nicer that what Calibre could create from the epubs. (BTW, the epubs on the SC download page are still broken)

4 Likes

Really?? :pensive::pensive::pensive:

1 Like

Yes I had already come across this webpage, so you are right that if I just wanted Jataka this would be sufficient. However the convenience of this site, the reading format, choice of translators, etc. has been very useful when looking at other suttas that are more directly concerned with bhavana. An offline version of the site is most useful if possible for iOS.

1 Like

Bhikku Sujato’s translations are great but I have felt the availability of different translators seems to be much more effective for getting a sense of an actual meaning of a verse or for seeing if there is an issue in translation(like how different paintings of the same subject would offer a clearer idea of how the actual subject would look). A great example would be the nodding off sutta for which I needed to consult a great sayadaw to properly translate a very important line after I noticed each translator, even including Sujato Bhikku’s, was using similar terms but the meaning still wasn’t clear. The sayadaw explained through very fluent knowledge of athagatas what the Buddha may have meant.

I’ve come to feel I need to have access to different translations for more sensitive texts like those which are very concise so language barriers can be picked out by the different diction, syntax, and tones. Only suttacentral has made it so convenient to compare translations.

2 Likes

That’s all fine. But I don’t think there is such a zip file for the whole site that could be read in the app you mention. Sorry no one has responded with more technical details.
From what I know there is no off line html version as there is for accesstoinsight.org.
Can you be more specific with the format you need? Many people will not be familiar with the app you mentioned. It appears to be a pdf reader.

If you want something more specialized, you’re welcome to compile it yourself from SuttaCentral’s source code, which you can find here: sc-data/html_text/en at master · suttacentral/sc-data · GitHub

1 Like

And if you want ebooks of Bhikkhu Bodhi’s free translations, Reading Faithfully also has those: Majjhima Nikaya: Selections from the Middle Length Discourses: Free Kindle, Epub, Mobi, PDF, .docx, .xhtml : Reading the Buddhist Scriptures of the Theravada Tradition

1 Like

And for that matter, there are also ebook versions (although not pdfs) of the Burmese sixth council root texts.

2 Likes

What does the Use Offline function offer and how does it work?

I thought maybe a zip of the offline version with just the suttas would be available(maybe I made it seem as though I wanted the WHOLE site, my mistake for not clarifying)
You can see in the thread below somebody uses a suttacentral zip file through the Documents App and this zip is retrieved from the Downloads page or Use Offline page… is this zip no longer available?

1 Like

On iOS the Use Offline function/page it doesnt work at all I have found, no matter the browser, app, etc. Even though its a newer model iPad you will see a similar issue in the attached old thread in the post above
On android, downloading the site has been great and I am grateful to Sujato Bhante and others for making it available. I am just trying to see if the same thing is possible for iOS.

1 Like

Just to let you know, we have fixed the epubs, so that may solve some of your problems.

As for iOS support, in general Apple has not been as enthusiastic in adopting the PWA technology that supports offline use, as it is a direct competitor for their app store. But it is an evolving situation, and we should revisit it. Unfortunately, no-one on our team has an i-Device, so testing is a bit hard. Nevertheless, I will make an issue for this and we will revisit it to see what support we can provide.

3 Likes

Indeed! It seems that Safari on iOS 13 contains (all? most?) of the PWA functionality you need. I just turned on airplane mode and was successfully able to load SuttaCentral and navigate around and read suttas entirely from cache. This might be as easy as turning on the “download the site” button for iOS 13 Safari users! :crossed_fingers:

Understood
As I made it clear, I mean no offense, but my main interest was to have access to various translators like I do in SC, but I suppose I should stick to the epubs for now.
I have avoided iOS and windows(GNU/Linux is the most suitable OS in my experience) for as long as possible but now my situation has changed and I dont have access to anything but mobile devices. Android isnt too different from Ubuntu/Windows in terms of user experience, but iOS is still quite new(and proprietary) for me as well.

Ill give an update a shot even though it is iOS 13.
From what I understand iPads use a separate OS from other Apple devices. This seem like one big proprietary mess but I’ll have to adapt for now unless I can get my hands on a unit of the superior race of computer: used old ThinkPads.

1 Like