=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