1Text::WikiFormat(3)   User Contributed Perl Documentation  Text::WikiFormat(3)
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NAME

6       Text::WikiFormat - module for translating Wiki formatted text into
7       other formats
8

SYNOPSIS

10               use Text::WikiFormat;
11               my $html = Text::WikiFormat::format($raw);
12

DESCRIPTION

14       The original Wiki web site had a very simple interface to edit and to
15       add pages.  Its formatting rules are simple and easy to use.  They are
16       also easy to translate into other, more complicated markup languages
17       with this module.  It creates HTML by default, but can produce valid
18       POD, DocBook, XML, or any other format imaginable.
19
20       The most important function is format().  It is not exported by
21       default.
22
23   format()
24       format() takes one required argument, the text to convert, and returns
25       the converted text.  It allows two optional arguments.  The first is a
26       reference to a hash of tags.  Anything passed in here will override the
27       default tag behavior.  The second argument is a hash reference of
28       options.  They are currently:
29
30       •   prefix
31
32           The prefix of any links.  In HTML mode, this is the path to the
33           Wiki.  The actual linked item itself will be appended to the
34           prefix.  This is useful to create full URIs:
35
36                   { prefix => 'http://example.com/wiki.pl?page=' }
37
38       •   extended
39
40           A boolean flag, false by default, to use extended linking
41           semantics.  This comes from the Everything Engine
42           (http://everydevel.com/), which marks links with square brackets.
43           An optional title may occur after the link target, preceded by an
44           open pipe.  These are valid extended links:
45
46                   [a valid link]
47                   [link|title]
48
49           Where the linking semantics of the destination format allow it, the
50           result will display the title instead of the URI.  In HTML terms,
51           the title is the content of an "A" element (not the content of its
52           "HREF" attribute).
53
54           You can use delimiters other than single square brackets for
55           marking extended links by passing a value for
56           "extended_link_delimiters" in the %tags hash when calling "format".
57
58       •   implicit_links
59
60           A boolean flag, true by default, to create links from
61           StudlyCapsStringsNote that if you disable this flag, you should
62           probably enable the "extended" one also, or there will be no way of
63           creating links in your documents.  To disable it, use the pair:
64
65                   { implicit_links => 0 }
66
67       •   absolute_links
68
69           A boolean flag, false by default, which treats any links that are
70           absolute URIs (such as http://www.cpan.org/) specially. Any prefix
71           will not apply and the URIs aren't quoted. Use this in conjunction
72           with the "extended" option to detect the link.
73
74           A link is any text that starts with a known schema followed by a
75           colon and one or more non-whitespace characters.  This is a
76           distinct subset of what URI recognizes as a URI, but is a good
77           first-order approximation.  If you need to recognize more complex
78           URIs, use the standard wiki formatting explained earlier.
79
80           The recognized schemas are those defined in the "schema" value in
81           the %tags hash. The defaults are "http", "https", "ftp", "mailto",
82           and "gopher".
83
84       •   nofollow_extended
85
86           When used with the "extended" flag, any extended links will be
87           turned into HTML tags with the "rel="nofollow"" attribute. By
88           default, this option is off.
89
90   Wiki Format
91       Wiki formatting is very simple.  An item wrapped in three single quotes
92       is strong.  An item wrapped in two single quotes is emphasized.  Any
93       word with multiple CapitalLetters (e. g., StudlyCaps) will become a
94       link.  Four or more hyphen characters at the start of a line create a
95       horizontal line.  Newlines turn into the appropriate tags.  Headers are
96       matching equals signs around the header text -- the more signs, the
97       lesser the header.
98
99       Lists are indented text, by one tab or four spaces by default.  You may
100       disable indentation.  In unordered lists, where each item has its own
101       bullet point, each item needs a leading asterisk and space.  Ordered
102       lists consist of items marked with combination of one or more
103       alphanumeric characters followed by a period and an optional space.
104       Any indented text without either marking is code, handled literally.
105       You can nest lists.
106
107       The following is valid Wiki formatting, with an extended link as
108       marked.
109
110               = my interesting text =
111
112               ANormalLink
113               [let the Sun shine|AnExtendedLink]
114
115               == my interesting lists ==
116
117                   * unordered one
118                   * unordered two
119
120                   1. ordered one
121                   2. ordered two
122                               a. nested one
123                               b. nested two
124
125                   code one
126                   code two
127
128               The first line of a normal paragraph.
129               The second line of a normal paragraph.  Whee.
130

EXPORT

132       If you'd like to make your life more convenient, you can optionally
133       import a subroutine that already has default tags and options set up.
134       This is especially handy if you use a prefix:
135
136               use Text::WikiFormat prefix => 'http://www.example.com/';
137               wikiformat( 'some text' );
138
139       Tags are interpreted as, well, tags, except for five special keys:
140
141       •   "prefix", interpreted as a link prefix
142
143       •   "extended", interpreted as the extended link flag
144
145       •   "implicit_links", interpreted as the flag to control implicit links
146
147       •   "absolute_links", interpreted as the flag to control absolute links
148
149       •   "as", interpreted as an alias for the imported function
150
151       Use the "as" flag to control the name by which your code calls the
152       imported functionFor example,
153
154               use Text::WikiFormat as => 'formatTextInWikiStyle';
155               formatTextInWikiStyle( 'some text' );
156
157       You might choose a better name, though.
158
159       The calling semantics are effectively the same as those of the format()
160       function.  Any additional tags or options to the imported function will
161       override the defaults.  This code:
162
163               use Text::WikiFormat as => 'wf', extended => 0;
164               wf( 'some text', {}, { extended => 1 });
165
166       enables extended links, though the default is to disable them.
167
168       Tony Bowden <tony@kasei.com> suggested this feature, but all
169       implementation blame rests solely with me.  Kate L Pugh
170       (<kake@earth.li>) pointed out that it didn't work, with tests.  It
171       works now.
172

GORY DETAILS

174   Tags
175       There are two types of Wiki markup: line items and blocks.  Blocks
176       include lists, which are made up of lines and can also contain other
177       lists.
178
179       Line items
180
181       There are two classes of line items: simple tags, and tags that contain
182       data.  The simple tags are "newline" and "line".  The module inserts a
183       newline tag whenever it encounters a newline character ("\n").  It
184       inserts a line tag whenever four or more dash characters ("----") occur
185       at the start of a line.  No whitespace is allowed.  These default to
186       the <br> and <hr> HTML tags, respectively.  To override either, simply
187       pass tags such as:
188
189               my $html = format($text, { newline => "\n" });
190
191       The three line items are more complex, and require subroutine
192       references. This category includes the "strong" and "emphasized" tags
193       as well as "link"s.  The first argument passed to the subref will be
194       the data found in between the marks.  The second argument is the $opts
195       hash reference.  The default action for a strong tag is equivalent to:
196
197               my $html = format($text, { strong => sub { "<b>$_[0]</b>" } });
198
199       As of version 0.70, you can change the regular expressions used to find
200       strong and emphasized tags:
201
202               %tags = (
203                       strong_tag     => qr/\*(.+?)\*/,
204                       emphasized_tag => qr|(?<!<)/(.+?)/|,
205               );
206
207               $wikitext = 'this is *strong*, /emphasized/, and */emphasized strong/*';
208               $htmltext = Text::WikiFormat::format( $wikitext, \%tags, {} );
209
210       Be aware that using forward slashes to mark anything leads to the hairy
211       regular expression -- use something else.  This interface is
212       experimental and may change if I find something better.  It's nice to
213       be able to override those tags, though.
214
215       Finally, there are "extended_link_delimiters", which allow you to use
216       delimiters other than single square brackets for marking extended
217       links.  Pass the tags as:
218
219               my $html = format( $text, { extended_link_delimiters => [ '[[', ']]' ] });
220
221       This allows you to use double square brackets as UseMod supports:
222
223               [[an extended link]]
224               [[a titled extended link|title]]
225
226       Blocks
227
228       There are five default block types: "paragraph", "header", "code",
229       "unordered", and "ordered".  The parser usually finds these by
230       indentation, either one or more tabs or four or more whitespace
231       characters.  (This does not include newlines, however.)  Any line that
232       does not fall in any of these three categories is a "paragraph".
233
234       Code, unordered, and ordered blocks do not require indentation, but the
235       parser uses it to control nesting in lists.  Be careful.  To mark a
236       block as requiring indentation, use the "indented" tag, which contains
237       a reference to a hash:
238
239               my $html = format($text, {
240                       indented    => { map { $_ => 1 } qw( ordered unordered code )}
241               });
242
243       Block entries in the tag hashes must contain array references.  The
244       first two items are the tags used at the start and end of the block.
245       The last items contain the tags used at the start and end of each line.
246       Where there needs to be more processing of individual lines, use a
247       subref as the third item.  This is how the module numbers ordered lines
248       in HTML lists:
249
250               my $html = format($text, { ordered => [ '<ol>', "</ol>\n",
251                       sub { qq|<li value="$_[2]">$_[0]</li>\n| } ] });
252
253       The first argument to these subrefs is the post-processed text of the
254       line itself.  (Processing removes the indentation and tokens used to
255       mark this as a list and checks the rest of the line for other line
256       formattings.)  The second argument is the indentation level.  The
257       subsequent arguments are captured variables in the regular expression
258       used to find this list type.  The regexp for ordered lists is:
259
260               qr/^([\dA-Za-z]+)\.\s*/;
261
262       The module processes indentation first, if applicable, and stores the
263       indentation level (the length of the indentation removed).  The line
264       must contain one or more alphanumeric character followed by a single
265       period and optional whitespace to be an ordered list item.  The module
266       saves the contents of this last group, the value of the list item, and
267       passes it to the subref as the third argument.
268
269       Lists automatically start and end as necessary.
270
271       Because of the indentation issue, there is a specific blocks processing
272       in a specific order.  The "blockorder" tag governs this order.  It
273       contains a reference to an array of the names of the appropriate blocks
274       to process.  If you add a block type, be sure to add an entry for it in
275       "blockorder":
276
277               my $html = format($text, {
278                       escaped       => [ '', '', '', '' ],
279                       blocks        => {
280                               invisible => qr!^--(.*?)--$!,
281                       },
282                       blockorder    =>
283                               [qw( header line ordered unordered code paragraph invisible )],
284               });
285
286       Finding blocks
287
288       Text::WikiFormat uses regular expressions to find blocks.  These are in
289       the %tags hash under the "blocks" key.  To change the regular
290       expression to find code block items, use:
291
292               my $html     =  format($wikitext, {
293                       blocks   => {
294                               code => qr/^:\s+/,
295                       },
296                       indented => {
297                               code => 1,
298                       },
299               );
300
301       This will require indentation and a colon to mark code lines.  A
302       potential shortcut is to use the "indent" tag to match or to change the
303       indentation marker.
304
305       Note: if you want to mark a block type as non-indented, you cannot use
306       an empty regex such as "qr//".  Use a mostly-empty, always-true regex
307       such as "qr/^/" instead.
308
309       Finding Blocks in the Correct Order
310
311       As intrepid bug reporter Tom Hukins pointed out in CPAN RT bug #671,
312       the order in which Text::WikiFormat searches for blocks varies by
313       platform and version of Perl.  Because some block-finding regular
314       expressions are more specific than others, what you intend to be one
315       type of block may turn into a different list type.
316
317       If you're adding new block types, be aware of this.  The "blockorder"
318       entry in %tags exists to force Text::WikiFormat to apply its regexes
319       from most specific to least specific.  It contains an array reference.
320       By default, it looks for ordered lists first, unordered lists second,
321       and code references at the end.
322

AUTHOR

324       chromatic, "chromatic@wgz.org", with much input from the Jellybean team
325       (including Jonathan Paulett).  Kate L Pugh has also provided several
326       patches, many failing tests, and is usually the driving force behind
327       new features and releases.  If you think this module is worth buying me
328       a beer, she deserves at least half of it.
329
330       Alex Vandiver added a nice patch and tests for extended links.
331
332       Tony Bowden, Tom Hukins, and Andy H. all suggested useful features that
333       are now implemented.
334
335       Sam Vilain, Chris Winters, Paul Schmidt, and Art Henry have all found
336       and reported silly bugs.
337
338       Blame me for the implementation.
339

BUGS

341       The link checker in format_line() may fail to detect existing links
342       that do not follow HTML, XML, or SGML style.  They may die with some
343       SGML styles too.  Sic transit gloria mundi.
344

TODO

346       •   Find a nicer way to mark list as having unformatted lines
347
348       •   Optimize format_line() to work on a list of lines
349
350       •   Handle nested "strong" and "emphasized" markings better
351

OTHER MODULES

353       Brian "Ingy" Ingerson's CGI::Kwiki has a fairly nice parser.
354
355       John McNamara's Pod::Simple::Wiki looks like a good project.
356
357       Matt Sergeant keeps threatening to write a nice SAX-throwing Wiki
358       formatter.
359
361       Copyright (c) 2002 - 2006, chromatic.  All rights reserved.  This
362       module is distributed under the same terms as Perl itself.
363
364
365
366perl v5.36.0                      2023-01-20               Text::WikiFormat(3)
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