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authorWaylan Limberg <waylan@gmail.com>2009-03-19 21:35:21 -0400
committerWaylan Limberg <waylan@gmail.com>2009-03-19 21:35:21 -0400
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+Meta-Data
+=========
+
+Summary
+-------
+
+An extension to Python-Markdown that adds a syntax for defining meta-data about
+a document. The Meta-Data extension is inspired by and follows the syntax of
+[MultiMarkdown][]. Currently, this extension does not use the meta-data in any
+way, but simply provides it as a `Meta` attribute of a markdown instance for
+use by other extensions or directly by your python code.
+
+[MultiMarkdown]: http://fletcherpenney.net/MultiMarkdown_Syntax_Guide#metadata
+
+This extension has been a part of the Markdown library since 2.0.
+
+Syntax
+------
+
+Meta-data consists of a series of keywords and values defined at the beginning
+of a markdown document like this:
+
+ Title: My Document
+ Summary: A brief description of my document.
+ Authors: Waylan Limberg
+ John Doe
+ Date: October 2, 2007
+ blank-value:
+ base_url: http://example.com
+
+ This is the first paragraph of the document.
+
+The keywords are case-insensitive and may consist of letters, numbers,
+underscores and dashes and must end with a colon. The values consist of
+anything following the colon on the line and may even be blank. If a line is
+indented 4 or more spaces, that line is assumed to be an additional line of the
+value for the previous keyword. A keyword may have as many lines as desired.
+The first blank line ends all meta-data for the document. Therefore, the first
+line of a document must not be blank. All meta-data is stripped from the
+document prior to any further processing by markdown.
+
+Accessing the Meta-Data
+-----------------------
+
+The meta-data is made available as a python Dict in the `Meta` attribute of an
+instance of the Markdown class. For example, using the above document:
+
+ >>> md = markdown.Markdown(extensions = ['meta'])
+ >>> html = md.convert(text)
+ >>> # Meta-data has been stripped from output
+ >>> print html
+ <p>This is the first paragraph of the document.</p>
+
+ >>> # View meta-data
+ >>> print md.Meta
+ {
+ 'title' : ['My Document'],
+ 'summary' : ['A brief description of my document.'],
+ 'authors' : ['Waylan Limberg', 'John Doe'],
+ 'date' : ['October 2, 2007'],
+ 'blank-value' : [''],
+ 'base_url' : ['http://example.com']
+ }
+
+Note that the keys are all lowercase and the values consist of a list of
+strings where each item is one line for that key. This way, one could preserve
+line breaks if desired. Or the items could be joined where appropriate. No
+assumptions are made regarding the data. It is simply passed as found to the
+`Meta` attribute.
+
+Perhaps the meta-data could be passed into a template system, or used by
+various markdown extensions. The possibilities are left to the imagination of
+the developer.
+
+Compatible Extensions
+---------------------
+
+The following are extensions currently known to work with the Meta-Data
+Extension and the keywords they are known to support:
+
+* [[HeaderId]]
+ * `header_level`
+ * `header_forceid`
+* [[WikiLinks]]
+ * `wiki_base_url`
+ * `wiki_end_url`
+ * `wiki_html_class`
+