Comic Reader

A full-stack comic reading platform with an Android mobile app, Spring Boot backend, and AI-powered OCR/TTS workers. Supports content ingestion via automated crawling, manual upload, and AI-assisted translation pipelines.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        Mobile (Android)                      │
│  Java 11 · MVVM · ViewBinding · Navigation Component         │
│  Retrofit2 · Glide · Room · AdMob · Firebase · LeakCanary    │
└─────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┘
                          │ REST (JSON)
                          ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Backend (Spring Boot 3.3)                  │
│  Java 21 · Spring Security + JWT · Spring Data JPA           │
│  PostgreSQL · Flyway · Lombok · Google OAuth · FCM           │
└──────────┬──────────────────────────────────┬────────────────┘
           │                                  │
           ▼                                  ▼
┌─────────────────────┐        ┌──────────────────────────────┐
│  comic-translate-   │        │   piper-tts-worker           │
│  worker (Python)    │        │   (Python)                   │
│  FastAPI · ONNX     │        │   FastAPI · Piper TTS        │
│  RT-DETR · MangaOCR │        │   Multi-language voice       │
│  PPOCRv5            │        └──────────────────────────────┘
└─────────────────────┘

Repository Structure

Directory	Description
mobile/	Android app (Java, XML layouts, Gradle)
backend/	Spring Boot REST API server
backend/worker/comic-translate-worker/	Python OCR worker for image text extraction
backend/worker/piper-tts-worker/	Python TTS worker for audio narration
docs/	Documentation and reports

Features

Reader Experience

• Vertical-scroll chapter reader with pinch-to-zoom
• Page translation (AI-powered OCR + inpainting pipeline)
• Text-to-speech narration with multi-language voices
• Reading history and progress syncing
• Chapter comments and social sharing

Library & Discovery

• Browse comics by category, search, and ranking
• Personal library with followed comics and reading history
• AI-powered comic discovery and recommendations
• Scheduled content sync from OTruyen source

User System

• Email/password and Google OAuth authentication
• JWT-based session management with secure token storage
• Role-based access (User, Creator, Admin)
• Onboarding flow with interest selection

Monetization

• Virtual wallet with coin-based transactions
• Chapter purchase and premium chapter gating
• VIP subscription tiers
• AdMob integration (banner, rewarded, entry ads)
• Ad-based free chapter access

Admin & Creator Tools

• Admin dashboard with revenue analytics
• Top-up package management
• User management and content moderation
• Creator studio for uploading original comics
• Comment management and reporting system

AI Capabilities

• AI-generated comic summaries
• AI chat assistant for recommendations
• AI-powered comic discovery
• AI sticker generation (premium)
• OCR pipeline for comic page translation
• TTS pipeline for narrated chapter playback

Notification & Engagement

• Push notifications via Firebase Cloud Messaging
• Email notifications (password reset, etc.)
• Notification preferences per user
• Weekly scheduled new-content alerts

Tech Stack

Backend

• Framework: Spring Boot 3.3.5, Java 21
• Security: Spring Security, JWT (jjwt 0.12), Google OAuth
• Database: PostgreSQL 16 with Flyway migrations
• ORM: Spring Data JPA + Hibernate
• Validation: Jakarta Validation (@Valid)
• Storage: Local filesystem uploads (/app/uploads)
• Email: Spring Mail
• Firebase: Admin SDK for FCM push notifications
• Async: @EnableAsync + @EnableScheduling for background jobs

Mobile

• Language: Java 11
• Architecture: MVVM with single-Activity Navigation Component (Safe Args)
• UI: Material 3, XML layouts, ViewBinding, ConstraintLayout
• Networking: Retrofit 2.11 + OkHttp 4.12 + Gson
• Image Loading: Glide 4.16
• Local Storage: Room 2.6.1
• Ads: Google AdMob 24.4
• Auth: Google Play Services Auth
• Firebase: Analytics, Cloud Messaging
• DI: Manual constructor injection via ViewModel factories
• Tools: LeakCanary 2.14, WorkManager 2.9

Workers (Python)

• OCR Worker: FastAPI, RT-DETR v2 ONNX (bubble detection), Manga OCR ONNX (Japanese), PPOCRv5 ONNX (other languages)
• TTS Worker: FastAPI, Piper TTS (Vietnamese, English, Japanese, Korean voices)

DevOps

• Containerization: Docker Compose with multi-profile support
• Build: Maven (backend), Gradle with AGP 8.13.2 (mobile)

Quick Start

Backend (Docker)

cd backend
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up --build

Backend (Local)

cd backend
cp .env.example .env
# Ensure PostgreSQL is running with database 'comic_reader'
./mvnw spring-boot:run

Mobile

cd mobile
cp .env.example .env  # configure MOBILE_BASE_URL
./gradlew assembleDebug
# APK at mobile/app/build/outputs/apk/debug/

With AI Workers

cd backend
TRANSLATION_WORKER_ENABLED=true docker compose --profile ocr up --build
# or with TTS
TRANSLATION_WORKER_ENABLED=true TTS_WORKER_ENABLED=true docker compose --profile ocr --profile tts up --build

Default Accounts

Role	Email	Password
Admin	admin@comicreader.dev	admin123
User	user@comicreader.dev	user123

License

This project is developed for educational purposes as part of a university capstone.