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mdex

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Fast and extensible Markdown for Elixir

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README.md 

# MDEx



<!-- MDOC -->



<div align="center">

  <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/leandrocp/mdex/main/assets/images/mdex_logo.png" width="360" alt="MDEx logo" />

  <br>



  <a href="https://hex.pm/packages/mdex">

    <img alt="Hex Version" src="https://img.shields.io/hexpm/v/mdex">

  </a>



  <a href="https://hexdocs.pm/mdex">

    <img alt="Hex Docs" src="http://img.shields.io/badge/hex.pm-docs-green.svg?style=flat">

  </a>



  <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT">

    <img alt="MIT" src="https://img.shields.io/hexpm/l/mdex">

  </a>



  <p align="center">Fast and Extensible Markdown for Elixir.</p>

</div>



## Features



- Fast

- Compliant with the [CommonMark spec](https://commonmark.org)

- [Plugins](https://hexdocs.pm/mdex/plugins.html)

- Formats:

  - Markdown (CommonMark)

  - HTML

  - JSON

  - XML

  - [Quill Delta](https://quilljs.com/docs/delta/)

- Floki-like [Document AST](https://hexdocs.pm/mdex/MDEx.Document.html)

- Req-like [Pipeline API](https://hexdocs.pm/mdex/MDEx.Pipe.html)

- [GitHub Flavored Markdown](https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/writing-on-github/getting-started-with-writing-and-formatting-on-github/basic-writing-and-formatting-syntax)

- Discord and GitLab Flavored-ish Markdown

- Wiki-style links

- [Emoji](https://www.webfx.com/tools/emoji-cheat-sheet) shortcodes

- Built-in [Syntax Highlighting](https://autumnus.dev) for code blocks

- [Code Block Decorators](https://hexdocs.pm/mdex/code_block_decorators-2.html)

- HTML sanitization

- [~MD Sigil](https://hexdocs.pm/mdex/MDEx.Sigil.html) for Markdown, HTML, JSON, and XML



## Examples



Livebook examples are available at [Pages / Examples](https://hexdocs.pm/mdex/gfm.html)



## Installation



Add `:mdex` dependency:



```elixir

def deps do

  [

    {:mdex, "~> 0.8"}

  ]

end

```



Or use [Igniter](https://hexdocs.pm/igniter):



```sh

mix igniter.install mdex

```



## Usage



```elixir

iex> MDEx.to_html!("# Hello :smile:", extension: [shortcodes: true])

"<h1>Hello πŸ˜„</h1>"

```



```elixir

iex> import MDEx.Sigil

iex> ~MD[

...> # Hello :smile:

...> ]HTML

"<h1>Hello πŸ˜„</h1>"

```

```elixir

iex> import MDEx.Sigil

iex> ~MD[

...> # Hello :smile:

...> ]

%MDEx.Document{nodes: [%MDEx.Heading{nodes: [%MDEx.Text{literal: "Hello "}, %MDEx.ShortCode{code: "smile", emoji: "πŸ˜„"}], level: 1, setext: false}]}

```



## Foundation



The library is built on top of:



- [comrak](https://crates.io/crates/comrak) - a fast Rust port of [GitHub's CommonMark parser](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm)

- [ammonia](https://crates.io/crates/ammonia) for HTML Sanitization

- [autumnus](https://crates.io/crates/autumnus) for Syntax Highlighting



<!-- MDOC -->



## Used By



- [BeaconCMS](https://github.com/BeaconCMS/beacon)

- [Tableau](https://github.com/elixir-tools/tableau)

- [Bonfire](https://github.com/bonfire-networks/bonfire-app)

- [00](https://github.com/technomancy-dev/00)

- [Plural Console](https://github.com/pluralsh/console)

- [Exmeralda](https://github.com/bitcrowd/exmeralda)

- [Algora](https://github.com/algora-io/algora)

- [Ash AI](https://github.com/ash-project/ash_ai)

- [Canada Navigator](https://github.com/canada-ca/navigator)

- And [more...](https://github.com/search?q=lang%3Aelixir+%3Amdex&type=code)



_Are you using MDEx and want to list your project here? Please send a PR!_



## Motivation



MDEx was born out of the necessity of parsing CommonMark files, to parse hundreds of files quickly, and to be easily extensible by consumers of the library.



- [earmark](https://hex.pm/packages/earmark) is extensible but [can't parse](https://github.com/RobertDober/earmark_parser/issues/126) all kinds of documents and is slow to convert hundreds of markdowns.

- [md](https://hex.pm/packages/md) is very extensible but the doc says "If one needs to perfectly parse the common markdown, Md is probably not the correct choice" and CommonMark was a requirement to parse many existing files.

- [markdown](https://hex.pm/packages/markdown) is not precompiled and has not received updates in a while.

- [cmark](https://hex.pm/packages/cmark) is a fast CommonMark parser but it requires compiling the C library, is hard to extend, and was archived on Apr 2024.



## Comparison



|Feature|MDEx|Earmark|md|cmark|

| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |

|Active|βœ…|βœ…|βœ…|❌|

|Pure Elixir|❌|βœ…|βœ…|❌|

|Extensible|βœ…|βœ…|βœ…|❌|

|Syntax Highlighting|βœ…|❌|❌|❌|

|Code Block Decorators|βœ…|❌|❌|❌|

|AST|βœ…|βœ…|βœ…|❌|

|AST to Markdown|βœ…|⚠️²|❌|❌|

|To HTML|βœ…|βœ…|βœ…|βœ…|

|To JSON|βœ…|❌|❌|❌|

|To XML|βœ…|❌|❌|βœ…|

|To Manpage|❌|❌|❌|βœ…|

|To LaTeX|❌|❌|❌|βœ…|

|To Quill Delta|βœ…|❌|❌|❌|

|Emoji|βœ…|❌|❌|❌|

|GFMΒ³|βœ…|βœ…|❌|❌|

|GitLab⁴|⚠️¹|❌|❌|❌|

|Discord⁡|⚠️¹|❌|❌|❌|



1. Partial support

2. Possible with [earmark_reversal](https://hex.pm/packages/earmark_reversal)

3. GitHub Flavored Markdown

4. GitLab Flavored Markdown

5. Discord Flavored Markdown



## Benchmark



A [simple script](benchmark.exs) is available to compare existing libs:



```

Name              ips        average  deviation         median         99th %

cmark          7.17 K       0.139 ms     Β±4.20%       0.138 ms       0.165 ms

mdex           2.71 K        0.37 ms     Β±7.95%        0.36 ms        0.45 ms

md            0.196 K        5.11 ms     Β±2.51%        5.08 ms        5.55 ms

earmark      0.0372 K       26.91 ms     Β±2.09%       26.77 ms       30.25 ms



Comparison:

cmark          7.17 K

mdex           2.71 K - 2.65x slower +0.23 ms

md            0.196 K - 36.69x slower +4.98 ms

earmark      0.0372 K - 193.04x slower +26.77 ms

```



The most performance gain is using the `~MD` sigil to compile the Markdown instead of parsing it at runtime,

prefer using it when possible:



```

Comparison:

mdex_sigil_MD    176948.46 K

cmark                31.47 K - 5622.76x slower +31.77 ΞΌs

mdex_to_html/1        7.32 K - 24184.36x slower +136.67 ΞΌs

md                    2.05 K - 86176.93x slower +487.01 ΞΌs

earmark               0.21 K - 855844.67x slower +4836.68 ΞΌs

```



To finish, a friendly reminder that all libs have their own strengths and trade-offs so use the one that better suits your needs.



## Acknowledgements



- [comrak](https://crates.io/crates/comrak) crate for all the heavy work on parsing Markdown and rendering HTML

- [Floki](https://hex.pm/packages/floki) for the AST

- [Req](https://hex.pm/packages/req) for the pipeline API

- Logo based on [markdown-mark](https://github.com/dcurtis/markdown-mark)