[Request] Markdown Support

[Covar]

Markdown.

It's powerful, flexible, and makes writing rich text content for the web super easy.

 

[strawman]

*That* would be **awesome**.

 

[Covar]

I _know_ right?

1. Markdown is great
2. Markdown is easy
3. Markdown is readable
4. This is an ordered list in Markdown

 

[Dave]

What does it do in layman's terms and how will it benefit everyone?

 

[Covar]

It's a simple and common sense way to define the text formatting available in HTML that keeps what you write human readable.

So while I can go and click a button to get an unordered list

• bada
• bing
• bada
• boom

I could with markdown enabled just write

+bada
+bing
+bada
+boom

and when I click submit the forum will parse the markdown into html, just like it does with BBCode. It's also worth noting Markdown is not as limited as BBCode in it's functionality.

 

[Dave]

We do have BBCode that will do that already.

 

[strawman]

The difference between

[i]Italic[/i]

and

*Italic*

is significant enough. Markdown wouldn't replace bbcode, it would simply allow a different style of text styling, which would be much friendlier to keyboard users.
Added at: 13:47
That is, of course, if there's a xenforo plugin for it, and I don't see one with a simple google search.

 

[Dave]

There's not. But I'll look at it a bit more.

 

[Dave]

Looking on Xenforo.com I see that it's basically the Reddit interface. Interesting. And probably better than BBCode. If we could get both systems to work that would be okay.

 

[Covar]

Looking on Xenforo.com I see that it's basically the Reddit interface. Interesting. And probably better than BBCode. If we could get both systems to work that would be okay.

It's also used on Stack Overflow (and the entire Stack Exchange network), and a subset of markdown is used on Google+

 

[fade]

I third or fourth this. Whatever we're up to.

 

[Covar]

well _let's_ see:

People who want Markdown Support
--------------------------------------------

1. Covar
2. Stienman
3. Amorous Eyes
4. Fade

So you would be the *fourth*.

Markdown **ALL** the Posts!

 

[Dave]

I wish it were an easy thing to add. People have also been talking about it at Xenforo.com, but I think it would have to be a plugin and I'm discovering I don't think I have the chops to make one myself. I'm trying with my TW2 clone, but holy hell am I lost.

 

[Covar]

Dave 2 questions

1. Does xenforo store the posts in the db as html? and if so
2. Could you get me a link to some kind of guide for building xenforo plugins?

 

[Dave]

If you want I'll put you as a contact at Xenforo.com and you can look at their stuff there. You have to have an associated account to get everywhere. Let me know once you create an account over there.

 

[Covar]

Done. Using the same username.

 

[Dave]

You're in.

Here's where the conversation on Markdown starts.

 

[Covar]

Ok, after doing some quick poking around, It looks like I'll need to wait until this weekend to take a crack at it, get a forum up and running locally, poke around in the source, etc.

I've found a php port of markdown. Current plan is to parse a post right before it gets written to the db, once I get a look at the xenforo architecture I'll know more.

 

[Covar]

GHAH!

I have the place where I can insert code, I can't seem to get the addon format to work correctly and override the existing method. Soon!

 

[Covar]

 

[Dave]

The bold and italics seem to work on the test site, but not ordered lists.

 

[Covar]

I think I'm going to need to scrap the php markdown script I'm using and write one that's better integrated into the BbCode parser XenForo uses. Running them side by side should fix the issues with lists, headers, and BbCode's auto linking.

 

[Dave]

It's your dime, boss.