Markdown Extra Plugin
Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).
Thus, "Markdown" is two things: (1) a plain text formatting syntax; and (2) a software tool that converts the plain text formatting to HTML. See
the Syntax page∞ for details pertaining to Markdown's formatting syntax. The overriding design goal for Markdown’s formatting syntax is to make it as readable as possible. The idea is that a Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it's been marked up with tags or formatting instructions. While Markdown's syntax has been influenced by several existing text-to-HTML filters, the single biggest source of inspiration for Markdown's syntax is the format of plain text email.
Markdown was written by John Gruber in Perl and ported to PHP by Michel Fortin. Michel Fortin also extended Markdown a bit and released Markdown Extra. PHP Markdown Extra is a special version of PHP Markdown implementing some features currently not available with the plain Markdown syntax. Markdown, PHP Markdown Extra, and the Aliro Markdown Extra Plugin packages are free software, available under a BSD-style open source license.
An Aliro plugin, called Markdown Extra, has been developed around PHP Markdown Extra. You can find this plugin in the Aliro Extensions repository.
Plugin Usage
To utilize this plugin simply install and publish it. Once published to indicate that a content item should be processed as "Markdown" just surround the content item's text with the following indicator {markdown}{/markdown}. Here is a basic example:
{markdown}
This is an H1 header
=============
This is a normal paragraph:
This is a code block.
{/markdown}
The {markdown} indicator is required since not all content items are required to utilize Markdown. This gives authors the flexibility to use raw HTML or WYSIWYG editors for some content items and Markdown for others. Aliro's Markdown Extra converts Markdown syntax to HTML on the fly at runtime. So while the previous example is stored in the database as you see it in the box above the end result at runtime is raw HTML like so:
<h1>This is an H1</h1>
<p>This is a normal paragraph:</p>
<pre>
<code>This is a code block.</code>
</pre>
Again for more information on Markdown's syntax and examples like the one above see the
official syntax page∞.
Additional Information and/or utilities:
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