This is a library for parsing ZIM (http://openzim.org) files. ZIM files contain offline web content (eg, Wikipedia) which can be browsed locally without an Internet connection.

The high-level functions can be used if it is not a problem to re-open and close the ZIM file on each invocation. For simple browsing on a local device, this should suffice. This also works if the underlying ZIM file is changing.

The other functions can be used if the caller opts to have more control over resource management.

Behind the scenes, conduit is used to read from files so memory usage should be constant.

Below is a full example of a Scotty web server that serves a ZIM file (specified on command line) on localhost port 3000:

{-# LANGUAGE OverloadedStrings #-}

import Control.Monad.IO.Class (liftIO)
import Data.Text.Lazy (toStrict, fromStrict)
import Data.Text.Encoding (decodeUtf8, encodeUtf8)
import System.Environment (getArgs)
import Network.HTTP.Types.Status (status404)
import Web.Scotty
import Codec.Archive.Zim.Parser (getZimMainPageUrl, getZimUrlContent)

main :: IO ()
main = do
    [fp] <- getArgs
    scotty 3000 $ do
      get "/" (redirectToZimMainPage fp)
      get (regex "^/(./.*)$") (serveZimUrl fp)
      notFound $ text "Invalid URL!"

redirectToZimMainPage :: FilePath -> ActionM ()
redirectToZimMainPage fp = do
    res <- liftIO $ getZimMainPageUrl fp
    case res of
      Nothing -> do
        status status404
        text "This ZIM file has no main page specified!"
      Just url -> redirect . fromStrict $ decodeUtf8 url

serveZimUrl :: FilePath -> ActionM ()
serveZimUrl fp = do
    url <- (encodeUtf8 . toStrict) <$> param "1"
    res <- liftIO $ getZimUrlContent fp url
    case res of
      Nothing -> do
        liftIO . putStrLn $ "Invalid URL: " ++ show url
        status status404
        text $ "Invalid URL!"
      Just (mimeType, content) -> do
        liftIO . putStrLn $ "Serving: " ++ show url
        setHeader "Content-Type" (fromStrict $ decodeUtf8 mimeType)
        raw content

Feedback and contributions are welcome on http://github.com/robbinch/zim-parser.

The following high-level functions are sufficient to program a simple webserver that serves ZIM files (see example above).

Following is a short summary of the ZIM file format. The authoritative reference is at http://www.openzim.org/wiki/ZIM_file_format.

1. ZIM header

This is an 80-byte header (see ZimHeader). Among other things, it contains file offsets to the below.

2. List of MIME types

This is a sequence of null-terminated strings (eg. text/html, text/javascript). The last string is zero length, so the end always consists of 2 consecutive null bytes.

3. List of URLs

This is a sequence of 8-byte file offsets, each pointing to a directory entry. This list is sorted by the directory entries' URL.

getZimDirEntByUrlIndex looks up this table to return a directory entry.

4. List of Titles

This is a sequence of 4-byte indices, each pointing to a URL above (which in turn point to a directory entry). This list is sorted by the directory entries' Title.

getZimDirEntByTitleIndex uses this table to return a directory entry.

5. Directory Entries

This is a sequence of Directory Entries (see ZimDirEnt). The first 2 bytes determine the type of this entry, which also determine the length. Contents include:

a. MIME type

This 2-byte field means:

0xffff

This directory entry is a ZimRedirectEntry.

0xfffe

This directory entry is a ZimLinkTarget.

0xfffd

This directory entry is a ZimDeletedEntry.

any other value

This directory entry is a ZimArticleEntry and this index into the MIME list from above determines its MIME type.

b. Namespace

This single character determines the directory entry's namespace. (eg. A for articles, I for images, etc.) The comprehensive list is at http://www.openzim.org/wiki/ZIM_file_format#Namespaces.

c. Cluster and Blob number

Only for ZimArticleEntry, this is the directory entry's Cluster and Blob number. The Cluster number is a 4-byte index into the list of Clusters below. The Blob number refers to a block inside the (decompressed) cluster. Together, they provide the content of this directory entry.

d. URL and Title

These 2 null-terminated strings represent the URL and Title of this directory entry respectively. If the Title is empty, it is taken to be the same as the URL.

6. List of Clusters

This is a list of 8-byte file offsets, each pointing to a cluster in the file. The end of a cluster is also the start of the next cluster. Therefore, the length of a cluster is the difference between the adjacent offsets. For the last cluster, the end is the Checksum file offset, as the Checksum is always the last 16 bytes of a ZIM file.

a. Compression Type

The first byte of the cluster determines if it is uncompressed (eg. PNG image) or compressed with LZMA (eg. HTML).

0 or 1

No compression

4

Compressed with LZMA

b. List of Blobs

This is a list of 4-byte offsets, each pointing inside this cluster. The end of a blob is also the start of the next blob. Therefore, the length of a blob is the difference between the adjacent offsets. The last offset points to the end of the data area so there is always one more offset than blobs.