Nested Publications

Why Nested Publications?

All major web browser are able to display text and images natively, which is to say without any outside assistance. When linking to more advanced media content however, such as a video or PDF file, use of a direct link is typically ill-advised; this often results in inconsistent cross-platform behavior. If for example, you were to link from your publication directly to a MP4 file, an iPad would play it directly but a PC would try to download it instead.

This is why it's a good idea to use a 'player' or equivalent when linking to advanced media content. Your MP4 could be uploaded to Zmags and embedded in a publication using our built-in video tools, or uploaded to YouTube and embedded via our HTML5 widgets or light box links.

Adding an outside PDF to your publication is no different. When linking to a PDF file directly, some web browsers will try to download rather than view it; you are afforded more control and customization by instead hosting the PDF as a Zmags publication and embedding that. This is referred to as "nesting" publications:
 

Nested Publication Inside a Lightbox Link

Using light box links, you can have one or more call-to-action in your publication which will display another publication in a pop-up box when clicked. The primary benefit of this is that the nested publication does not take up screen real estate until such time that your reader decides to open it.

To set up such a link, simply create a light box link and for the URL use the standard link of the publication you would like to nest. Here is the format for a publication's standard link:

A publication's ID can be found by clicking on its name in the "All Publications" list of your Publicator account.

When nesting publications in this fashion, please bear in mind the following caveats: The fullscreen button will not work for the nested publication. If the outside publication is in fullscreen when a light box link is clicked, fullscreen mode will be exited before the link is opened.

Nested Publication Inside a HTML5 Widget

Using HTML5 widgets, you can have one or more publications nested directly into the pages of the outside publication, without any clicking of links required before they are visible. An additional benefit is that the fullscreen mode of both the outer and nested publication are fully functional with this approach.

To nest a publication in this way, first create a HTML5 widget and for the "iframe URL" use the standard link of the publication you would like to nest. Here is the format for a publication's standard link:

A publication's ID can be found by clicking on its name in the "All Publications" list of your Publicator account.

Please note that in order to use HTML5 widgets, your publication must have HTML5 selected as its "preferred desktop viewer" in the viewer settings.

Deep Linking and Nested Publications

If you would like one of your nested publications to default to another page other than the first, please use the following format in your URL:

Normally there are a few other ways to 'deeplink' a specific page of your publication, but in the case of nested publications, this specific method is the one you'll need to use.

Preferred Desktop Viewer and Nested Publications

The HTML5 widgets section above briefly mentioned the "preferred desktop viewer" in the viewer settings. When nesting publications, please be sure this setting is the same for all publications involved (outside and nested), otherwise unexpected behavior may result.