markdown-it-multimd-table

MultiMarkdown table syntax plugin for markdown-it markdown parser

Intro

In general Markdown syntax, we have to write raw HTML tags when colspan attribute is needed. Luckily, I found that MultiMarkdown had defined complete and clear rules for advanced Markdown table syntax, and compatible to general Markdown table syntax.

So I extend the table parser in markdown-it to support MultiMarkdown table syntax. For now, the following features are provided:

• Cells spanning multiple columns
• Grouped table headers
• Grouped table rows
• Table captions
• Lists in table cell (optional)
• Line breaks in table cells (optional)

Noted that the plugin might behave differently from MultiMarkdown in some edge cases; since the plugin was developed to follow the rules in MultiMarkdown User's Guide.

Usage

var md = require('markdown-it')()
            .use(require('markdown-it-multimd-table'));

md.render(/*...*/)

To simply test this plugin, you can do these in terminal:

$ mkdir markdown-it-multimd-table
$ cd markdown-it-multimd-table
$ npm install markdown-it-multimd-table --prefix .
$ vim test.js

    var md = require('markdown-it')()
                .use(require('markdown-it-multimd-table'));

    const exampleTable =
    "|             |          Grouping           || \n" +
    "First Header  | Second Header | Third Header | \n" +
    " ------------ | :-----------: | -----------: | \n" +
    "Content       |          *Long Cell*        || \n" +
    "Content       |   **Cell**    |         Cell | \n" +
    "                                               \n" +
    "New section   |     More      |         Data | \n" +
    "And more      | With an escaped '\\|'       || \n" +
    "[Prototype table]                              \n";

    console.log(md.render(exampleTable));

$ node test.js > test.html
$ firefox test.html

And you will see the rendered table in the browser:

Prototype table

	Grouping
First Header	Second Header	Third Header
Content	Long Cell
Content	Cell	Cell
New section	More	Data
And more	With an escaped '|'

Multiple lines of row (optional)

Put backslashes to indicate line-breaks to allow the table rows being parsed in multiple rows. This feature is contributed by Lucas-C.

First header | Second header
-------------|---------------
List:        | More  \
- over       | data  \
- several    |       \
- lines      |

would be parsed as

First header	Second header
List: over several lines	More data

Here's how you can enable the feature.

var md = require('markdown-it')()
            .use(require('markdown-it-multimd-table'), {enableMultilineRows: true});

Credits

• MultiMarkdown, Lightweight markup processor to produce HTML, LaTeX, and more.
• markdown-it, Markdown parser, done right. 100% CommonMark support, extensions, syntax plugins & high speed.

License

This software is licensed under the MIT license © RedBug312.