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Author.Today (author.today) is a Russian online literature platform where authors publish their works. ReUCM supports downloading both free and purchased books from this portal.

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Overview

Portal information

URL: https://author.today
Code: AT
Authentication: Token-based or web-based login
Content: Free and purchased books with encryption support

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Features

  • Download free and purchased books where downloading is normally restricted
  • Support for both authentication methods (token and web login)
  • Automatic handling of encrypted chapter content
  • Book metadata extraction including authors, genres, series, and tags
  • Multi-author support (up to 3 co-authors)

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Authentication

Author.Today requires authentication to download books. ReUCM supports two authentication methods:

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Web-based login

The recommended method for most users:
  1. Open ReUCM settings and navigate to Author.Today
  2. Select “Вход через web” (Login via web)
  3. A browser window will open to Author.Today login page
  4. Enter your credentials and log in
  5. ReUCM will automatically capture the session and extract your authentication token
The app uses a mobile user agent to ensure compatibility: 
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) 
Chrome/127.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36 EdgA/127.0.0.0 okhttp/4.12.0 X_AT_API

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Token-based login

For advanced users who have direct access to their API token:
  1. Open ReUCM settings and navigate to Author.Today
  2. Select “Вход с помощью токена” (Login with token)
  3. Paste your Bearer token
  4. ReUCM will validate the token and store your user ID
To obtain your token manually:
  • Log in to Author.Today in a browser
  • Extract the LoginCookie value from your browser’s cookies
  • Use the API endpoint /account/bearer-token to exchange the cookie for a token

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Token refresh

ReUCM automatically handles token expiration by calling the /account/refresh-token endpoint. If refresh fails, you’ll need to re-authenticate.

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Downloading books

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Supported URL formats

ReUCM accepts Author.Today book URLs in the following formats:
  • https://author.today/work/[id] - Standard book page
  • https://author.today/reader/[id] - Reader page
Where [id] is the numeric book identifier.

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Download process

  1. Copy the book URL from Author.Today
  2. Paste it into ReUCM or use the system “Share” menu
  3. ReUCM will:
    • Extract the book ID from the URL
    • Fetch book metadata via /v1/work/{id}/details
    • Download all chapter texts via /v1/work/{id}/chapter/many-texts
    • Decrypt encrypted chapter content
    • Generate an FB2 file with complete metadata

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Content decryption

Author.Today encrypts chapter content to prevent unauthorized downloads. ReUCM implements the decryption algorithm used by the official mobile app.

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Encryption details

Each chapter is encrypted with AES-128 in CBC mode:
  • Algorithm: AES/CBC/PKCS7Padding
  • Key derivation: MD5 hash of user-specific key material
  • Key material: Reverse(chapter_key) + user_id + app_certificate
  • Encoding: Base64-encoded ciphertext
The decryption key is generated from: 
generateUserKey(
  inputString: chapter.key,  // Per-chapter encryption key
  userId: settings.userId,    // Your Author.Today user ID
  certHash: xATCertificate,   // App certificate signature
)
Guest users (not logged in) use “Guest” as the user ID component.

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Book metadata

ReUCM extracts comprehensive metadata from Author.Today:

Basic information

  • Book ID and title
  • Annotation (description)
  • Cover image URL
  • Last update timestamp
  • Completion status
  • Total text length

Author information

  • Primary author name and username
  • Co-author (if present)
  • Second co-author (if present)
  • All authors are included in FB2 export

Classification

  • Primary genre ID
  • First sub-genre ID
  • Second sub-genre ID
  • Custom tags array

Series information

  • Series ID and title
  • Book number in series
  • Proper series ordering in FB2

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API endpoints

ReUCM communicates with Author.Today’s REST API:
EndpointMethodPurpose
/account/bearer-tokenGETExchange cookie for token
/account/current-userGETValidate token and get user info
/account/refresh-tokenPOSTRefresh expired token
/v1/work/{id}/detailsGETGet book metadata
/v1/work/{id}/chapter/many-textsGETDownload all chapters
Base URL: https://api.author.today/v1 All authenticated requests include: 
Authorization: Bearer {token}
X-AT-Client: android_1.8.013-GMS

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Implementation reference

The Author.Today module is located in re_ucm_author_today/ and serves as a reference implementation for adding new portals:
  • lib/re_ucm_author_today.dart - Portal implementation at re_ucm_author_today/lib/re_ucm_author_today.dart:6
  • lib/author_today_service.dart - Service logic at re_ucm_author_today/lib/author_today_service.dart:11
  • lib/data/author_today_api.cg.dart - REST API client at re_ucm_author_today/lib/data/author_today_api.cg.dart:11
  • lib/domain/utils/decrypt.dart - Content decryption at re_ucm_author_today/lib/domain/utils/decrypt.dart:64
  • lib/domain/utils/metadata_parser.dart - Metadata transformation

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Troubleshooting

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Authentication failed

  • Ensure you’re logged in to Author.Today
  • Try the web-based login method if token login fails
  • Check that your account has access to the book you’re trying to download

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Token expired

  • ReUCM will attempt to refresh the token automatically
  • If refresh fails, log out and log back in through settings

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Decryption errors

  • Ensure you’re authenticated (guest access may have limited decryption)
  • Verify your user ID is correctly stored in settings
  • Some books may require purchase to access encrypted content
  • Ensure the URL matches the format: https://author.today/work/{id} or https://author.today/reader/{id}
  • The ID must be numeric
  • Some content types (user profiles, collections) are not supported

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