Kiwix HTML5 for Windows

Port of the Kiwix HTML5 app for Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform

This is a port of the Kiwix Offline Wikipedia (and other Wiki) reader for UWP on Windows 10. It enables offline reading of a ZIM file downloaded from the Kiwix repository, including full Wikipedia versions with or without images in many different languages. It has only been tested on Wikipedia ZIM files to date.

This is a simple port of the HTML5 web app provided on this git-hub repository. This port is primarily intended for Windows Mobile, but it should run as a UWP Store App on any Windows 10 platform: x86, x64, ARM, on Mobile, tablets, Xbox, Holographic and PC. It has been tested on Lumia 950XL (Mobile), Tablet/PC x64 (Windows 10), and a Windows 10 Mobile VM.

If you would like to test the current build on a Windows Mobile device running Windows 10 Mobile, download the .appxbundle under AppPackages/KiwixWebApp_0.x.x.x_Test/ and save it in your downloads folder, or other accessible folder, on the phone. Enable Developer mode on your device (Settings / Updates and security / For developers). Open the File Explorer on the phone, navigate to the downloads folder and tap the KiwixWebApp bundle. You will be asked if you wish to install, but it then installs silently in the background. Be patient: it can take a minute or so for the Kiwix icon to appear in the All Apps list. You will also need to download a ZIM file to use with the app (see below).

Installation on a Windows 10 PC involves sideloading with the PowerShell script. Download the full AppPackages/KiwixWebApp_0.x.x.x_Test/ folder to your PC (you can use https://minhaskamal.github.io/DownGit to do this). Turn on Developer mode (Settings / Update and security / For developers). Open the folder in File Explorer, Right-click the Add-AppDevPackage.ps1 inside the folder and choose to run with PowerShell. You may be prompted to install the developer's certificate.

You will need a ZIM file to work with this app. For testing, you can download the Ray Charles ZIM file in the tests folder on this repository. You only need the wikipedia_en_ray_charles_2015-06.zim file, not all the files ending .zimaa, .zimab, etc., as these are more cumbersome to use on mobile. Place the file in an accessible location on your device, and use the Browse button in the app to open it. Download further files from http://wiki.kiwix.org/wiki/Content_in_all_languages. The single non-indexed ZIM files work best. However, if you plan to store your ZIM file on an SD card formatted as FAT32, you will only be able to use the split files (.zimaa, .zimab, etc.) in the pre-indexed archives. If your SD card is formatted as exFAT or NTFS, you can use either, but single file is easiest.

Our intention is to make this app available in the Windows Store, when ready.

The authors of the HTML5 app for Kiwix did all the work. Their source code runs almost "as is" on the UWP platform. This initial port for Windows 10 (Mobile) is by Geoffrey Kantaris. I can be contacted by email: egk10 at cam ac uk.