=head1 NAME HTML::WikiConverter::Dialects - How to add a dialect =head1 SYNOPSIS package HTML::WikiConverter::MySimpleWiki; use base 'HTML::WikiConverter'; sub rules { b => { start => '*', end => '*' }, i => { start => '/', end => '/' }, strong => { alias => 'b' }, em => { alias => 'i' }, hr => { replace => "\n----\n" }, br => { preserve => 1, empty => 1 } } # In a nearby piece of code... my $wc = new HTML::WikiConverter( dialect => 'MySimpleWiki' ); # Outputs "*text*" print $wc->html2wiki( "text" ); # Outputs "/text/" print $wc->html2wiki( "text" ); =head1 DESCRIPTION C is an HTML to wiki converter. It can convert HTML source into a variety of wiki markups, called wiki "dialects". This manual describes how you might create your own dialect to be plugged into C. =head1 DIALECTS C can convert HTML into markup for a variety of wiki dialects. The rules for converting HTML into a given dialect are specified in a dialect module registered in the C namespace. For example, the rules for the MediaWiki dialect are provided in C, while PhpWiki's rules are specified in C. =head2 Conversion rules To interface with C, dialect modules must at a minimum define a single C class method. It returns a reference to a hash of rules that specify how individual HTML elements are converted to wiki markup. =head3 Supported rules The following rules are recognized: start end preserve attributes empty replace alias block line_format line_prefix trim =head3 Simple rules method For example, the following C method could be used for a wiki dialect that uses C<*asterisks*> for bold and C<_underscores_> for italic text: sub rules { return { b => { start => '*', end => '*' }, i => { start => '_', end => '_' } }; } =head3 Aliases To add CstrongE> and CemE> as aliases of CbE> and CiE>, use the C rule: sub rules { return { b => { start => '*', end => '*' }, strong => { alias => 'b' }, i => { start => '_', end => '_' }, em => { alias => 'i' } }; } (The C rule cannot be used with any other rule.) =head3 Blocks Many dialects separate paragraphs and other block-level elements with a blank line. To indicate this, use the C rule: p => { block => 1 } To better support nested block elements, if a block elements are nested inside each other, blank lines are only added to the outermost element. =head3 Line formatting Many dialects require that the text of a paragraph be contained on a single line of text. Or perhaps that a paragraph cannot contain any newlines. These options can be specified using the C rule, which can be assigned the value C<"single">, C<"multi">, or C<"blocks">. If the element must be contained on a single line, then the C rule should be C<"single">. If the element can span multiple lines, but there can be no blank lines contained within, then it should be C<"multi">. If blank lines (which delimit blocks) are allowed, then use C<"blocks">. For example, paragraphs are specified like so in the MediaWiki dialect: p => { block => 1, line_format => 'multi', trim => 'both' } =head3 Trimming whitespace The C rule specifies whether leading or trailing whitespace (or both) should be stripped from the element. To strip leading whitespace only, use C<"leading">; for trailing whitespace, use C<"trailing">; for both, use the aptly named C<"both">; for neither (the default), use C<"none">. =head3 Line prefixes Some elements require that each line be prefixed with a particular string. For example, preformatted text in MediaWiki is prefixed with a space: pre => { block => 1, line_prefix => ' ' } =head3 Replacement In some cases, conversion from HTML to wiki markup is as simple as string replacement. To replace a tag and its contents with a particular string, use the C rule. For example, in PhpWiki, three percent signs '%%%' represents a linebreak Cbr /E>, hence the rule: br => { replace => '%%%' } (The C rule cannot be used with any other rule.) =head3 Preserving HTML tags Some dialects allow a subset of HTML in their markup. While C ignores unknown HTML tags by default, you may specify that they are preserved using the C rule. For example, to allow CfontE> tag in wiki markup: font => { preserve => 1 } Preserved tags may also specify a list of attributes that may likewise pass-through from HTML to wiki markup. This is done with the C rule: font => { preserve => 1, attributes => [ qw/ font size / ] } (The C rule can only be used if the C rule is also present.) Some HTML elements have no content (e.g. line breaks, images), and should be preserved specially. To indicate that a preserved tag should have no content, use the C rule. This will cause the element to be replaced with C<"Etag /E">, with no end tag. For example, MediaWiki handles line breaks like so: br => { preserve => 1, attributes => qw/ id class title style clear /, empty => 1 } This will convert, e.g., C<"Ebr clear='both'E"> into C<"Ebr clear='both' /E">. Without specifying the C rule, this would be converted into the undesirable C<"Ebr clear='both'EE/brE">. (The C rule can only be used if the C rule is also present.) =head2 Dynamic rules Instead of simple strings, you may use coderefs as values for the C, C, C, and C rules. If you do, the code will be called when the rule is applied, and will be passed three arguments: the current C instance, the current L node being operated on, and a hashref of the dialect's rules for processing elements of that type. For example, MoinMoin handles lists like so: ul => { line_format => 'multi', block => 1, line_prefix => ' ' } li => { start => \&_li_start, trim => 'leading' } ol => { alias => 'ul' } And then defines C<_li_start>: sub _li_start { my( $self, $node, $rules ) = @_; my $bullet = ''; $bullet = '*' if $node->parent->tag eq 'ul'; $bullet = '1.' if $node->parent->tag eq 'ol'; return "\n$bullet "; } This ensures that every unordered list item is prefixed with C<*> and every ordered list item is prefixed with C<1.>, required by the MoinMoin formatting rules. It also ensures that each list item is on a separate line and that there is a space between the prefix and the content of the list item. =head2 Rule validation Certain rule combinations are not allowed. For example, the C and C rules cannot be combined with any other rules, and C can only be specified alongside C. Invalid rule combinations will trigger a fatal error when the C object is instantiated. =head2 Dialect attributes The attributes that are recognized by the C are given in the C method, which returns a hash of attribute names and their defaults. Dialects that wish to alter the set of recognized attributes must override this method. For example, to add a boolean attribute called C with is disabled by default, a dialect would define an C method like so: sub attributes { ( shift->SUPER::attributes, camel_case => 0 ) } Attributes defined liks this are given accessor and mutator methods via Perl's AUTOLOAD mechanism, so you can later say: my $ok = $wc->camel_case; # accessor $wc->camel_case(0); # mutator =head2 Preprocessing The first step in converting HTML source to wiki markup is to parse the HTML into a syntax tree using L. It is often useful for dialects to preprocess the tree prior to converting it into wiki markup. Dialects that need to preprocess the tree define a C method that will be called on each node of the tree (traversal is done in pre-order). As its only argument the method receives the current L node being traversed. It may modify the node or decide to ignore it. The return value of the C method is discarded. =head3 Built-in preprocessors Because they are commonly needed, two preprocessing steps are automatically carried out by C, regardless of the dialect: 1) relative URIs in images and links are converted to absolute URIs (based upon the C parameter), and 2) ignorable text (e.g. between a C/tdE> and CtdE>) is discarded. C also provides additional preprocessing steps that may be explicitly enabled by dialect modules. =over =item strip_aname Removes from the HTML input any anchor elements that do not contain an C attribute. =item caption2para Removes table captions and reinserts them as paragraphs before the table. =back Dialects may apply these optional preprocessing steps by calling them as methods on the dialect object inside C. For example: sub preprocess_node { my( $self, $node ) = @_; $self->strip_aname($node); $self->caption2para($node); } =head2 Postprocessing Once the work of converting HTML, it is sometimes useful to postprocess the resulting wiki markup. Postprocessing can be used to clean up whitespace, fix subtle bugs introduced in the markup during conversion, etc. Dialects that want to postprocess the wiki markup should define a C object method that will be called just before theC method returns to the client. The method will be passed a single argument, a reference to the wiki markup. It may modify the wiki markup that the reference points to. Its return value is discarded. For example, to replace a series of line breaks with a pair of newlines, a dialect might implement this: sub postprocess_output { my( $self, $outref ) = @_; $$outref =~ s/
\s*
/\n\n/gs; } (This example assumes that HTML line breaks were replaced with CbrE> in the wiki markup.) =head2 Dialect utility methods C defines a set of utility methods that dialect modules may find useful. =over =item get_elem_contents my $wiki = $wc->get_elem_contents( $node ); Converts the contents of C<$node> into wiki markup and returns the resulting wiki markup. =item get_wiki_page my $title = $wc->get_wiki_page( $url ); Attempts to extract the title of a wiki page from the given URL, returning the title on success, C on failure. If C is empty, this method always return C. It assumes that URLs to wiki pages are constructed using "Iwiki-uriEEpage-nameE>". =item is_camel_case my $ok = $wc->is_camel_case( $str ); Returns true if C<$str> is in CamelCase, false otherwise. CamelCase-ness is determined using the same rules that L's formatting module uses. =item get_attr_str my $attr_str = $wc->get_attr_str( $node, @attrs ); Returns a string containing the specified attributes in the given node. The returned string is suitable for insertion into an HTML tag. For example, if C<$node> refers to the HTML