Advanced Markdown Guide

Slides -> github.com/DavidWells/advanced-markdown

Why markdown?

Markdown is a universal doc format that is easy to write and easy to add to a version control system.

Open - Anyone can submit content, fix typos & update anything via pull requests
Version control - Roll back & see the history of any given post
No CMS lock in - We can easily port to any static site generator
It's just simple - No user accounts to manage, no CMS software to upgrade, no plugins to install.

Markdown basics

The basics of markdown can be found here & here. Super easy!

Image with alt & title

![Alt text](/path/to/img.jpg "image title")

Advanced Formatting tips

`left` alignment

This is the code you need to align images to the left:

<img align="left" width="100" height="100" src="https://picsum.photos/100/100">

`right` alignment

This is the code you need to align images to the right:

<img align="right" width="100" height="100" src="https://picsum.photos/100/100">

`center` alignment example

<p align="center">
  <img width="460" height="300" src="https://picsum.photos/460/300">
</p>

Horizontal images no gap

via comment

<p>
    <img src="https://picsum.photos/100/100" >
    <img src="https://picsum.photos/100/100" >
</p>

Horizontal images with gap

With hspace property you can set horizontal (left and right) padding for an image

<p>
    <img src="https://picsum.photos/100/100" hspace="10" >
    <img src="https://picsum.photos/100/100" hspace="10" >
</p>

Vertical images with gap

We also have a property "vspace", which does what it sounds like, add vertical spacing. But it doesn't seem to work on GitHub, unlike VSCode's buit in markdown viewer. So probably just add a <p> tag in between.

<p>
    <img src="https://picsum.photos/500/100" >
    <p>
    <img src="https://picsum.photos/500/100" >
    <p>
    <img src="https://picsum.photos/500/100" >
</p>

Adding video

To add video you need to upload your video file and reference it inline

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1702215/158075475-c23004ab-827a-45ad-bdba-aee29ac5b582.mp4

Example:

demo.mp4

light/dark mode images

Tip via this tweet. Swap out images based on theme settings

![Logo](./dark.png#gh-dark-mode-only)
![Logo](./light.png#gh-light-mode-only)

Using footnotes

Here is a simple footnote¹. With some additional text after it.

Here is a simple footnote[^1]. With some additional text after it.

[^1]: My reference.

Strikethru text in markdown

~~text with line through it~~

~~text with line through it~~

Tiny text in markdown

Normal text here.

^{_{Tiny text is here. Awwwww its so cuteeeeeeeeeee}}

How?

<sup><sub>Add your tiny text</sub></sup>

Text box

Add a box with contents to markdown

_{This is text in the box. Much wow}

<div align="center">
<table>
<tbody>
<td align="center">
<img width="2000" height="0"><br>
<sub>This is text in the box. Much wow</sub><br>
<img width="2000" height="0">
</td>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>

`collapse` Sections

Collapsing large blocks of text can make your markdown much easier to digest

"Click to expand"

this is hidden block

<details>
<summary>"Click to expand"</summary>
this is hidden
</details>

Collapsing large blocks of Markdown text

To make sure markdown is rendered correctly in the collapsed section...

Put an empty line after the <summary> block.
Insert your markdown syntax
Put an empty line before the </details> tag

<details>
<summary>To make sure markdown is rendered correctly in the collapsed section...</summary>

 1. Put an **empty line** after the `<summary>` block.
 2. *Insert your markdown syntax*
 3. Put an **empty line** before the `</details>` tag
 
</details>

Mermaid Charts

You can add fancy zoomable charts

%%{ init: { "er" : { "layoutDirection" : "LR" } } }%%
erDiagram
    User ||--o{ Vote : submits
    Vote o{--|| Link : on
    Link o{--|| Score : has

Here's another cool example of a sequence diagram

sequenceDiagram
    actor Extension
    participant API
    participant Database
    Extension->>API: POST /vote {link, vote, user_id}`
		activate API
		API->>API: Validate parameters
    alt Invalid parameters
        API->>Extension: Error: Invalid parameters
    end
		API->>Database: Check user history & settings. GetBatchItems(___________)
		Note over API,Database: Voting disabled? GetItem(PK=settings, SK=settings)
		Note over API,Database: Too many votes? GetItem(PK=date, SK=user_id)
		Note over API,Database: User exists? User banned? GetItem(PK=user_id, SK=user_id)
		Note over API,Database: Already voted? GetItem(PK=link, SK=user_id)
		activate Database
    alt Database Error
        Database->>API: Database Error (connection / server...)
        API->>Extension: Server Error
    end
		Database->>API: Return UserHistory & Settings
		deactivate Database
		API->>API: Check user history & Settings
    alt Failed
        API->>Extension: 403 Forbidden: Too many votes / banned / voting disabled
    end
		activate Database
		API->>Database: Submit vote. BatchWriteItems(_________________)
    alt If user does not exist
		Note over API,Database: Put(PK=user_id, SK=user_id | not_banned,created_at)
		Note over API,Database: <run [First time user voting on link]>
		else First time user voting on link
		Note over API,Database: Put(PK=link, SK=user_id | vote)
		Note over API,Database: Update(PK=link, SK=link | count_of_votes++, sum_of_votes+=vote)
		Note over API,Database: -- Add history
		Note over API,Database: Update(PK=day, SK=link | count++, sum+=vote)
		Note over API,Database: Update(PK=day, SK=user | count++, sum+=vote)
    else If user already voted on link
		Note over API,Database: Put(PK=link, SK=user_id | vote)
		Note over API,Database: Update(PK=link, SK=link | sum_of_votes+=(-old_vote+new_vote))
		Note over API,Database: -- Undo old history
		Note over API,Database: Update(PK=old_day, SK=link | count--, sum-=old_vote)
		Note over API,Database: Update(PK=old_day, SK=user | count--, sum-=old_vote)
		Note over API,Database: -- Add history
		Note over API,Database: Update(PK=day, SK=link | count++, sum+=vote)
		Note over API,Database: Update(PK=day, SK=user | count++, sum+=vote)
		end
		activate Database
    alt Database Error
        Database->>API: Database Error (connection / server...)
        API->>Extension: Server Error
    end
		Database->>API: Return success
		API->>Extension: Return success
    deactivate Database
    deactivate API

Call outs

Add call outs in markdown

Note

Highlights information that users should take into account, even when skimming.

Tip

Optional information to help a user be more successful.

Important

Crucial information necessary for users to succeed.

Warning

Critical content demanding immediate user attention due to potential risks.

Caution

Negative potential consequences of an action.

> [!NOTE]  
> Highlights information that users should take into account, even when skimming.

> [!TIP]
> Optional information to help a user be more successful.

> [!IMPORTANT]  
> Crucial information necessary for users to succeed.

> [!WARNING]  
> Critical content demanding immediate user attention due to potential risks.

> [!CAUTION]
> Negative potential consequences of an action.

`additional links`

Website • Email Updates • Gitter • Forum • Meetups • Twitter • Facebook • Contact Us

[Website](http://www.serverless.com) • [Email Updates](http://eepurl.com/b8dv4P) • [Gitter](https://gitter.im/serverless/serverless) • [Forum](http://forum.serverless.com) • [Meetups](https://github.com/serverless-meetups/main) • [Twitter](https://twitter.com/goserverless) • [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/serverless) • [Contact Us](mailto:[email protected])

Badges

<div align="center">

[![CI](https://github.com/fastify/fastify/workflows/ci/badge.svg)](https://github.com/fastify/fastify/actions/workflows/ci.yml)
[![Package Manager CI](https://github.com/fastify/fastify/workflows/package-manager-ci/badge.svg)](https://github.com/fastify/fastify/actions/workflows/package-manager-ci.yml)
[![Web SIte](https://github.com/fastify/fastify/workflows/website/badge.svg)](https://github.com/fastify/fastify/actions/workflows/website.yml)
[![Known Vulnerabilities](https://snyk.io/test/github/fastify/fastify/badge.svg)](https://snyk.io/test/github/fastify/fastify)
[![Coverage Status](https://coveralls.io/repos/github/fastify/fastify/badge.svg?branch=main)](https://coveralls.io/github/fastify/fastify?branch=main)
[![js-standard-style](https://img.shields.io/badge/code%20style-standard-brightgreen.svg?style=flat)](https://standardjs.com/)

</div>

Nice looking file tree

For whatever reason the graphql syntax will nicely highlight file trees like below:

# Code & components for pages
./src/* 
  ├─ src/assets - # Minified images, fonts, icon files
  ├─ src/components - # Individual smaller components
  ├─ src/fragments - # Larger chunks of a page composed of multiple components
  ├─ src/layouts - # Page layouts used for different types of pages composed of components and fragments
  ├─ src/page - # Custom pages or pages composed of layouts with hardcoded data components, fragments, & layouts
  ├─ src/pages/* - # Next.js file based routing
  │  ├─ _app.js - # next.js app entry point
  │  ├─ _document.js - # next.js document wrapper
  │  ├─ global.css - #  Global CSS styles
  │  └─ Everything else... - # File based routing
  └─ src/utils - # Utility functions used in various places

Using CSS in Readme

Use HTML/CSS in a readme via an SVG! source

The above image is embedded like so:

<div align="center">
  <br/>
  <a href="https://github.com/DavidWells/advanced-markdown/blame/master/svg-with-css.svg">
    <img alt="Click to see the source" height="400" src="svg-with-css.svg" width="800" />
  </a>
  <br/>
</div>

Useful packages

gray-matter

YAML front-matter is your friend. You can keep metadata in markdown files

title: Serverless Framework Documentation
description: "Great F'in docs!"
menuText: Docs
layout: Doc

Remark

Useful for rendering markdown in HTML/React

Markdown Magic

Repo
Plugins
Show automatic doc generation. Example 1 | Example 2

Useful utilities

Schedule Posts - Post scheduler for static sites

Show DEMO

Zero friction inline content editing

Show DEMO

Byword & Typora - Good Editors
Monodraw - Flow charts for days
Kap - Make gifs
IDE markdown preview
Stuck on WordPress? Try easy-markdown plugin

How Serverless uses markdown

Serverless.com is comprised of 3 separate repositories

Why multiple repos?

We wanted documentation about the framework to live in the serverless github repo for easy access
We wanted our blog content to be easily portable to any static site generator separate from the implementation (site)
prebuild npm script pulls the content together & processes them for site build

A single repo is easier to manage but harder for people to find/edit/PR content.

DEMO

Site structure
Serverless build process
Validation
Editing Flow
Github optimizations
- Link from top of each doc to live link on site
- use markdown magic =) to auto generate tables etc
- Hide yaml frontmatter from github folks
- consider linking everything to site

Other Markdown Resources

Extended markdown syntax
Markdown snippets
Verb - Documentation generator for GitHub projects
ACSII docs - Markdown alternative
Markdown parser performance comparison
Handy markdown templates

Example footnote ↩

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 52 Commits
other-examples		other-examples
.gitignore		.gitignore
README.md		README.md
demo.js		demo.js
demo.md		demo.md
package.json		package.json
svg-with-css.svg		svg-with-css.svg

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Repository files navigation

Advanced Markdown Guide

Table of Contents

Why markdown?

Markdown basics

Image with alt & title

Advanced Formatting tips

`left` alignment

`right` alignment

`center` alignment example

Horizontal images no gap

Horizontal images with gap

Vertical images with gap

Adding video

light/dark mode images

Using footnotes

Strikethru text in markdown

Tiny text in markdown

Text box

`collapse` Sections

Mermaid Charts

Call outs

`additional links`

Badges

Nice looking file tree

Using CSS in Readme

Useful packages

Useful utilities

How Serverless uses markdown

DEMO

Other Markdown Resources

About

Releases

Sponsor this project

Packages

Contributors 2

Languages

DavidWells/advanced-markdown

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

Advanced Markdown Guide

Table of Contents

Why markdown?

Markdown basics

Image with alt & title

Advanced Formatting tips

left alignment

right alignment

center alignment example

Horizontal images no gap

Horizontal images with gap

Vertical images with gap

Adding video

light/dark mode images

Using footnotes

Strikethru text in markdown

Tiny text in markdown

Text box

collapse Sections

Mermaid Charts

Call outs

additional links

Badges

Nice looking file tree

Using CSS in Readme

Useful packages

Useful utilities

How Serverless uses markdown

DEMO

Other Markdown Resources

Footnotes

About

Resources

Code of conduct

Security policy

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases

Sponsor this project

Packages 0

Contributors 2

Languages

`left` alignment

`right` alignment

`center` alignment example

`collapse` Sections

`additional links`

Packages