# `RedCloth` - Textile parser for Ruby¶ ↑

Homepage

  redcloth.org

Maintainer

  Joshua Siler github.com/joshuasiler

Author

  Jason Garber

Copyright

  © 2011 Jason Garber

License

  MIT

(See redcloth.org/textile/ for a Textile reference.)

# `RedCloth`¶ ↑

`RedCloth` is a Ruby library for converting Textile into HTML.

## Attention - Deprecating JRuby and Windows support in version 4.3¶ ↑

In order to prioritize merging a fix for the long standing vulnerability CVE-2012-6684, our new maintainer has elected to stop maintaining the precompiled versions for Windows and JRuby.

## Installing¶ ↑

`RedCloth` can be installed via RubyGems:

    gem install RedCloth

## Compiling¶ ↑

If you just want to use `RedCloth`, you do NOT need to build/compile it. It is compiled from C sources automatically when you install the gem on the ruby platform. Precompiled binary gems are provided for JRuby and Win32 platforms prior to version 4.3.

`RedCloth` can be compiled with `rake compile`. Ragel 6.3 or greater is required. Again, Ragel is NOT needed to simply use `RedCloth`.

### Supported platforms¶ ↑

By default, the rake compile task builds a native C extension (MRI 1.8 or 1.9). A pure Ruby version can also be generated, but it's super slow and Ruby 1.8-only, and doesn't support multi-byte characters.

The RedCloth::EXTENSION_LANGUAGE constant indicates in which language your copy of `RedCloth` is compiled.

## Bugs¶ ↑

Please submit bugs as issues to this repo.

## Using `RedCloth`¶ ↑

`RedCloth` is simply an extension of the String class that can handle Textile formatting. Use it like a String and output HTML with its RedCloth#to_html method.

Simple use:

    text = "This is *my* text."
    RedCloth.new(text).to_html

Multi-line example:

    doc = RedCloth.new <<EOD
    h2. Test document

    Just a simple test.
    EOD
    puts doc.to_html

## What is Textile?¶ ↑

Textile is a simple formatting style for text documents, loosely based on some HTML conventions.

## Sample Textile Text¶ ↑

    h2. This is a title

    h3. This is a subhead

    This is a bit of paragraph.

    bq. This is a blockquote.

# Writing Textile¶ ↑

A Textile document consists of paragraphs. Paragraphs can be specially formatted by adding a small instruction to the beginning of the paragraph.

    h3.     Header 3.
    bq.     Blockquote.
    #       Numeric list.
    *       Bulleted list.

## Quick Phrase Modifiers¶ ↑

Quick phrase modifiers are also included, to allow formatting of small portions of text within a paragraph.

    _emphasis_
    __italicized__
    *strong*
    **bold**
    ??citation??
    -deleted text-
    +inserted text+
    ^superscript^
    ~subscript~
    @code@
    %(classname)span%

    ==notextile== (leave text alone)

## Links¶ ↑

To make a hypertext link, put the link text in “quotation marks” followed immediately by a colon and the URL of the link.

Optional: text in (parentheses) following the link text, but before the closing quotation mark, will become a title attribute for the link, visible as a tool tip when a cursor is above it.

Example:

    "This is a link (This is a title)":http://www.textism.com

Will become:

    <a href="http://www.textism.com" title="This is a title">This is a link</a>

## Images¶ ↑

To insert an image, put the URL for the image inside exclamation marks.

Optional: text that immediately follows the URL in (parentheses) will be used as the Alt text for the image. Images on the web should always have descriptive Alt text for the benefit of readers using non-graphical browsers.

Optional: place a colon followed by a URL immediately after the closing ! to make the image into a link.

Example:

    !http://www.textism.com/common/textist.gif(Textist)!

Will become:

    <img src="http://www.textism.com/common/textist.gif" alt="Textist" />

With a link:

    !/common/textist.gif(Textist)!:http://textism.com

Will become:

    <a href="http://textism.com"><img src="/common/textist.gif" alt="Textist" /></a>

## Defining Acronyms¶ ↑

HTML allows authors to define acronyms via the tag. The definition appears as a tool tip when a cursor hovers over the acronym. A crucial aid to clear writing, this should be used at least once for each acronym in documents where they appear.

To quickly define an acronym in Textile, place the full text in (parentheses) immediately following the acronym.

Example:

    ACLU(American Civil Liberties Union)

Will become:

    <acronym title="American Civil Liberties Union">ACLU</acronym>

## Adding Tables¶ ↑

In Textile, simple tables can be added by separating each column by a pipe.

    |a|simple|table|row|
    |And|Another|table|row|

Styles are applied with curly braces.

    table{border:1px solid black}.
    {background:#ddd;color:red}. |a|red|row|