Welcome to markdown-snippet-injector

A tool for injecting code snippets into MarkDown files:

1. Define snippets in your source by using a simple notation
2. Put placeholders associated with the snippets in your MarkDown files
3. Run MarkDown injector to replace the placeholders during your documentation build:

mdinject --root=<path-to-source-code> --docsroot=<path-to-docs>

Using markdown-snippet-injector

Defining snippets in JavaScript and TypeScript source files

Defining code snippets in your source files is done by enclosing them as shown below:

// >> sum-snippet
export function sum(a, b){
    return a + b;
}
// << sum-snippet

// >> multiplication-snippet
export function multiply(a, b){
    return a * b;
}
// << multiplication-snippet

// >> division-snippet
export function divide(a, b){
    return a / b;
}
// << division-snippet

Defining source snippets in XML files

If you want to define a code-snippet in a XML file you should use the following approach:

<!-- >> listview-first-look -->
<navigation:ExamplePage xmlns:navigation="navigation/example-page" loaded="onPageLoaded" xmlns:lv="nativescript-telerik-ui/listview" xmlns="http://www.nativescript.org/tns.xsd">
    <lv:RadListView items="{{ dataItems }}" >
        <lv:RadListView.listViewLayout>
            <lv:ListViewLinearLayout scrollDirection="Vertical"/>
        </lv:RadListView.listViewLayout>
        <lv:RadListView.itemTemplate>
            <StackLayout orientation="vertical">
                <Label fontSize="20" text="{{ itemName }}"/>
                <Label fontSize="14" text="{{ itemDescription }}"/>
            </StackLayout>
        </lv:RadListView.itemTemplate>
    </lv:RadListView>
</navigation:ExamplePage>
<!-- << listview-first-look -->

Defining source snippets in CSS files

Code snippets inside CSS files are defined as follows:

/* >> css-snippet */
.btn {
    color: green;
    text-align: center;
}
/* << css-snippet */

Defining placeholders for the snippets in your MarkDown files

Use the <snippet id='<your-snippet-id>'/> notation to define the corresponding placeholders in your markdown files. They will be replaced by the snippet injector when run:

    # Using the multiply function:
        <snippet id='multiplication-snippet'/>
    # Using the sum function:
        <snippet id='sum-snippet'/>

If you set -w flag your snippets will be wrapped around the snippet notation you have been provided. This way when you update your snipet source - the markdown-snippet-injector will reflect the changes in your markdown as well.

Example:

mdinject -w --root=<path-to-source-code> --docsroot=<path-to-docs>

main.css

/* >> css-snippet */
.btn {
    color: green;
    text-align: center;
}
/* << css-snippet */

README.MD

This is a CSS snippet
<snippet id='css-snippet'/>

After first build the README.MD will looks like:

This is a CSS snippet
<snippet id='css-snippet'>

.btn { color: green; text-align: center; }

</snippet>

Then when you update main.css, your README.MD will be updated as well.

Advanced features

Nested snippets

Nested snippets are also supported. This is helpful in scenarios where you want to explain parts of a larger snippet in steps:

// >> view-model-snippet
export class ViewModel {

    private _items: ObservableArray<DataItem>;

    constructor() {
        this.initDataItems();
    }

    get dataItems() {
        return this._items;
    }
// >> handling-event-snippet
    public onShouldRefreshOnPull(args: listViewModule.ListViewEventData) {
        var that = new WeakRef(this);
        console.log("Event fired");
        timer.setTimeout(function() {
            for (var i = 0; i < 25; i++) {
                that.get()._items.splice(0, 0, new DataItem(that.get()._items.length, "Item " + that.get()._items.length, "This is item description."));

            }
            var listView = args.object;
            listView.notifyPullToRefreshFinished();
        }, 1000);

    }    
// << handling-event-snippet

    private initDataItems() {
        this._items = new ObservableArray<DataItem>();

        for (var i = 0; i < 25; i++) {
            this._items.push(new DataItem(i, "Item " + i, "This is item description."));
        }
    }
}

export class DataItem {
    public id: number;
    public itemName;
    public itemDescription;

    constructor(id: number, name: string, description: string) {
        this.id = id;
        this.itemName = name;
        this.itemDescription = description;
    }
}
// << view-model-snippet

This will produce two code snippets: one containing the whole view-model class and the other containing the onShouldRefreshOnPull function.

Hiding Blocks

You can mark parts of the original code to be hidden - not shown in the documentation:

// >> ts-snippet-with-hidden-section
export function div(a, b){
    // >> (hide)
    console.log("You should not see this!")
    // << (hide)    
    return a / b;
}
// << ts-snippet-with-hidden-section

The syntax is similar in XML and CSS.

Defining file extension filters

You can choose what kind of files will be processed during snippet injection by using the --sourceext and --targetext parameters. The default values of these properties are .ts and .md respectively.

Multiple source and target extension types

You can define multiple source or target extension types by setting the corresponding parameters to a set of extensions separated by a |:

mdinject --root=. --docsroot=../ --sourceext=".ts|.js" --targetext=".md|.txt"

In this way all target files will be processed and the corresponding snippet placeholders will be replaced.

Defining a title for the injected snippet

When injected, a snippet is formatted using the default MarkDown code-snippet format. You can append a title to the injected snippet by using the --snippettitles parameter. By default, .js and .ts files are recognized and the snippets coming from them are titled JavaScript or TypeScript. You can define custom snippet titles by setting the --snippettitles parameter to a set of titles separated by a |:

mdinject --root=. --docsroot=../ --sourceext=".java|.cs" --targetext=".md|.txt" --snippettitles="Java|C#"

Note that the order of the snippet titles must be the related to the order of the source extension types so that they match.

Run e2e tests

1. Clone repo
2. npm install
3. npm test

E2E tests are developed with Mocha.