Provided by: libhtml-wikiconverter-perl_0.68-2_all bug

NAME

       HTML::WikiConverter::Dialects - How to add a dialect

SYNOPSIS

         # In your dialect module:

         package HTML::WikiConverter::MySlimWiki;
         use base 'HTML::WikiConverter';

         sub rules { {
           b => { start => '**', end => '**' },
           i => { start => '//', end => '//' },
           strong => { alias => 'b' },
           em => { alias => 'i' },
           hr => { replace => "\n----\n" }
         } }

         # In a nearby piece of code:

         package main;
         use Test::More tests => 5;

         my $wc = new HTML::WikiConverter(
           dialect => 'MySlimWiki'
         );

         is( $wc->html2wiki( '<b>text</b>' ), '**text**', b );
         is( $wc->html2wiki( '<i>text</i>' ), '//text//', i );
         is( $wc->html2wiki( '<strong>text</strong>' ), '**text**', 'strong' );
         is( $wc->html2wiki( '<em>text</em>' ), '//text//', 'em' );
         is( $wc->html2wiki( '<hr/>' ), '----', 'hr' );

DESCRIPTION

       HTML::WikiConverter (or H::WC, for short) 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 to create your own dialect to be plugged into HTML::WikiConverter.

DIALECTS

       Each dialect has a separate dialect module containing rules for converting HTML into wiki
       markup specific for that dialect. Currently, all dialect modules are in the
       "HTML::WikiConverter::" package space and subclass HTML::WikiConverter. For example, the
       MediaWiki dialect module is HTML::WikiConverter::MediaWiki, while PhpWiki's is
       HTML::WikiConverter::PhpWiki. However, dialect modules need not be in the
       "HTML::WikiConverter::" package space; you may just as easily use "package MyWikiDialect;"
       and H::WC will Do The Right Thing.

       From now on, I'll be using the terms "dialect" and "dialect module" interchangeably.

   Subclassing
       To interface with H::WC, dialects need to subclass it. This is done like so at the start
       of the dialect module:

         package HTML::WikiConverter::MySlimWiki;
         use base 'HTML::WikiConverter';

   Conversion rules
       Dialects guide H::WC's conversion process with a set of rules that define how HTML
       elements are turned into their wiki counterparts.  Each rule corresponds to an HTML tag
       and there may be any number of rules. Rules are specified in your dialect's "rules()"
       method, which returns a reference to a hash of rules. Each entry in the hash maps a tag
       name to a set of subrules, as in:

           $tag => \%subrules

       where $tag is the name of the HTML tag (e.g., "b", "em", etc.)  and %subrules contains
       subrules that specify how that tag will be converted when it is encountered in the HTML
       input.

       Subrules

       The following subrules are recognized:

         start
         end

         preserve
         attributes
         empty

         replace
         alias

         block
         line_format
         line_prefix

         trim

       A simple example

       The following rules could be used for a dialect that uses "*asterisks*" for bold and
       "_underscores_" for italic text:

         sub rules {
           b => { start => '*', end => '*' },
           i => { start => '_', end => '_' },
         }

       Aliases

       To add "<strong>" and "<em>" as aliases of "<b>" and "<i>", use the "alias" subrule:

         strong => { alias => 'b' },
         em => { alias => 'i' },

       (The "alias" subrule cannot be used with any other subrule.)

       Blocks

       Many dialects separate paragraphs and other block-level elements with a blank line. To
       indicate this, use the "block" subrule:

         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.)

       Line formatting

       Many dialects require that the text of an element be contained on a single line of text,
       or that it cannot contain any newlines, etc. These options can be specified using the
       "line_format" subrule, which can be assigned the value "single", "multi", or "blocks".

       If the element must be contained on a single line, then the "line_format" subrule should
       be "single". If the element can span multiple lines, but there can be no blank lines
       contained within, then use "multi". If blank lines (which delimit blocks) are allowed,
       then use "blocks". For example, paragraphs are specified like so in the MediaWiki dialect:

         p => { block => 1, line_format => 'multi', trim => 'both' },

       Trimming whitespace

       The "trim" subrule specifies whether leading or trailing whitespace (or both) should be
       stripped from the element. To strip leading whitespace only, use "leading"; for trailing
       whitespace, use "trailing"; for both, use the aptly named "both"; for neither (the
       default), use "none".

       Line prefixes

       Some elements require that each line be prefixed with a particular string. This is
       specified with the "line_prefix" subrule. For example, preformatted text in MediaWiki is
       prefixed with a space:

         pre => { block => 1, line_prefix => ' ' },

       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 "replace" subrule. For
       example, in PhpWiki, three percent signs, "%%%", represents a line break, "<br>", hence:

         br => { replace => '%%%' },

       (The "replace" subrule cannot be used with any other subrule.)

       Preserving HTML tags

       Some dialects allow a subset of HTML in their markup. While H::WC ignores unhandled HTML
       tags by default (i.e., if H::WC encounters a tag that does not exist in a dialect's rule
       specification, then the contents of the tag is simply passed through to the wiki markup),
       you may specify that some be preserved using the "preserve" subrule. For example, to allow
       "<font>" tag in wiki markup:

         font => { preserve => 1 },

       Preserved tags may also specify a list of attributes that may also passthrough from HTML
       to wiki markup. This is done with the "attributes" subrule:

         font => { preserve => 1, attributes => [ qw/ style class / ] },

       (The "attributes" subrule can only be used if the "preserve" subrule is also present.)

       Some HTML elements have no content (e.g., line breaks, images) and the wiki dialect might
       require them to be preserved in a more XHTML-friendly way. To indicate that a preserved
       tag should have no content, use the "empty" subrule. This will cause the element to be
       replaced with "<tag />" and 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, for example, "<br clear='both'>" into "<br clear='both' />". Without
       specifying the "empty" subrule, this would be converted into the (probably undesirable)
       "<br clear='both'></br>".

       (The "empty" subrule can only be used if the "preserve" subrule is also present.)

       Rules that depend on attribute values

       In some circumstances, you might want your dialect's conversion rules to depend on the
       value of one or more attributes. This can be achieved by producing rules in a conditional
       manner within "rules()". For example:

         sub rules {
           my $self = shift;

           my %rules = (
             em => { start => "''", end => "''" },
             strong => { start => "'''", end => "'''" },
           );

           $rules{i} = { preserve => 1 } if $self->preserve_italic;
           $rules{b} = { preserve => 1 } if $self->preserve_bold;

           return \%rules;
         }

   Dynamic subrules
       Instead of simple strings, you may use coderefs as values for the "start", "end",
       "replace", and "line_prefix" subrules. If you do, the code will be called when the subrule
       is applied, and will be passed three arguments: the current H::WC object, the current
       HTML::Element node being operated on, and a reference to the hash containing the dialect's
       subrules associated with 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' },

       It then defines "_li_start()":

         sub _li_start {
           my( $self, $node, $subrules ) = @_;
           my $bullet = '';
           $bullet = '*'  if $node->parent->tag eq 'ul';
           $bullet = '1.' if $node->parent->tag eq 'ol';
           return "\n$bullet ";
         }

       This prefixes every unordered list item with "*" and every ordered list item with "1.",
       which MoinMoin requires. It also puts each list item on its own line and places a space
       between the prefix and the content of the list item.

   Subrule validation
       Certain subrule combinations are not allowed. Hopefully it's intuitive why this is, but in
       case it's not, prohibited combinations have been mentioned above parenthetically. For
       example, the "replace" and "alias" subrules cannot be combined with any other subrules,
       and "attributes" can only be specified alongside "preserve". Invalid subrule combinations
       will trigger a fatal error when the H::WC object is instantiated.

   Dialect attributes
       H::WC's constructor accepts a number of attributes that help determine how conversion
       takes place. Dialects can alter these attributes or add their own by defining an
       "attributes()" method, which returns a reference to a hash of attributes. Each entry in
       the hash maps the attribute's name to an attribute specification, as in:

         $attr => \%spec

       where $attr is the name of the attribute and %spec is a Params::Validate specification for
       the attribute.

       For example, to add a boolean attribute called "camel_case" which is disabled by default:

         sub attributes {
           camel_case => { default => 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;
         $wc->camel_case(0);

       You may override the default H::WC attributes using this mechanism. For example, while
       H::WC considers the "base_uri" attribute optional, it is required for the PbWiki dialect.
       PbWiki can override this default-optional behavior by saying:

         sub attributes {
           base_uri => { optional => 0 }
         }

   Preprocessing
       The first step H::WC takes in converting HTML source to wiki markup is to parse the HTML
       into a syntax tree using HTML::TreeBuilder. It is often useful for dialects to preprocess
       the tree prior to converting it into wiki markup. Dialects that need to preprocess the
       tree can define a "preprocess_node" method that will be called on each node of the tree
       (traversal is done in pre-order). The method receives two arguments, the H::WC object, and
       the current HTML::Element node being traversed. It may modify the node or decide to ignore
       it; its return value is discarded.

       Built-in preprocessors

       Because they are commonly needed, H::WC automatically carries out two preprocessing steps,
       regardless of the dialect: 1) relative URIs in images and links are converted to absolute
       URIs (based upon the "base_uri" parameter), and 2) ignorable text (e.g. between a "</td>"
       and "<td>") is discarded.

       H::WC also provides additional preprocessing steps that may be explicitly enabled by
       dialect modules.

       strip_aname
           Removes any anchor elements that do not contain an "href" attribute.

       caption2para
           Removes table captions and reinserts them as paragraphs before the table.

       Dialects may apply these optional preprocessing steps by calling them as methods on the
       dialect object inside "preprocess_node". For example:

         sub preprocess_node {
           my( $self, $node ) = @_;
           $self->strip_aname($node);
           $self->caption2para($node);
         }

   Postprocessing
       Once the work of converting HTML is complete, 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 "postprocess_output"
       method that will be called just before the "html2wiki" method returns to the client. The
       method will be passed two arguments, the H::WC object and a reference to the wiki markup.
       The method 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/<br>\s*<br>/\n\n/gs;
         }

       (This example assumes that HTML line breaks were replaced with "<br>" in the wiki markup.)

   Dialect utility methods
       H::WC defines a set of utility methods that dialect modules may find useful.

       get_elem_contents

         my $wiki = $wc->get_elem_contents( $node );

       Converts the contents of $node into wiki markup and returns the resulting wiki markup.

       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, "undef" on failure. If "wiki_uri" is empty, this method always return "undef".
       See "ATTRIBUTES" in HTML::WikiConverter for details on how the "wiki_uri" attribute is
       interpreted.

       is_camel_case

         my $ok = $wc->is_camel_case( $str );

       Returns true if $str is in CamelCase, false otherwise. CamelCase-ness is determined using
       the same rules that Kwiki's formatting module uses.

       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 $node contains the
       HTML

         <style id="ht" class="head" onclick="editPage()">Header</span>

       and @attrs contains "id" and "class", then "get_attr_str()" will return 'id="ht"
       class="head"'.

       _attr

         my $value = $wc->_attr( $name );

       Returns the value of the named attribute. This is rarely needed since you can access
       attribute values by treating the attribute name as a method (i.e., "$wc->$name"). This
       low-level method of accessing attributes is provided for when you need to override an
       attribute's accessor/mutator method, as in:

         sub attributes { {
           my_attr => { default => 1 },
         } }

         sub my_attr {
           my( $wc, $name, $new_value ) = @_;
           # do something special
           return $wc->_attr( $name => $new_value );
         }

AUTHOR

       David J. Iberri <diberri@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

       Copyright 2006 David J. Iberri, all rights reserved.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.