README.md

wiki-parser-regexp-dev

This project is a small wiki markup parser written in PHP and using regular expressions for parsing. Since purely regexp parsing is quite a tricky task, the chief goal was restricted to correct rendering of a well-formatted markup.

WARNING! This is the development version, which means it is unfinished, it contains outright errors and it is generally unsuitable for serious usage.

Class synopsis

Wiki_Parser::__construct()
constructor

Wiki_Parser::set_link($prefix, $suffix)
defines the internal link by prefix ($prefix) and suffix ($suffix) of the page identifier

Wiki_Parser::parse($in)
parses markup into HTML; the markup syntax is defined in the following part of this documentation

Wiki_Parser::clean($in)
performs some basic cleaning tasks on a markup text, chiefly removing some leading and trailing whitespaces; intended for use prior to storing the markup text

Wiki markup

The chosen wiki markup is an arbitrary selection based on the knowledge of existing markups.

There are some general principles:

• Every element of block markup like headers, paragraphs, lists and tables needs to be separated from each other by an empty line.

Inline markup

//italics//
**bold**
$$monospaced$$

[[link]]
[[caption|link]]
[[caption|http://external.link.net]]

Headers and paragraphs

! Title

!! Chapter

!!! Section

!!!! Subsection

Paragraph written in a continuous way.

Still
one
paragraph.

Headers are restricted to single lines. In case of paragraphs, single line break doesn't influence the rendering.

Lists

Unordered list

* element
* element
** element
** element
*** element
** element
* element

Ordered list

# element
# element
## element
## element
### element
## element
# element

Mixed list

* element
* element
#* element
#* element
#*# element
#* element
* element

Tables

[...]

Inspiration and references

Writing this version of wiki parser I consulted various sources, most notably:

• my old unpublished attempts at regexp-based wiki parser
• [WikiMatrix] (http://www.wikimatrix.org/) -- a good source on various wikis, including markup comparison
• [Wiki Creole] (http://www.wikicreole.org/) -- an attempt at standarizing wiki markup
• [Toni Lähdekorpi's Wiky.php] (https://github.com/lahdekorpi/Wiky.php) -- a minimalistic regexp-only attempt at parsing wiki markup in PHP