title: Meta-Data Extension

Meta-Data
=========

Summary
-------

The Meta-Data extension adds a syntax for defining meta-data about a document.
It 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.

This extension is included in the standard Markdown library.

[MultiMarkdown]: http://fletcherpenney.net/MultiMarkdown_Syntax_Guide#metadata

Syntax
------

Meta-data consists of a series of keywords and values defined at the beginning
of a markdown document like this:

```md
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 by 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.

Alternatively, You may use YAML style deliminators to mark the start and/or end
of your meta-data. When doing so, the first line of your document must be `---`.
The meta-data ends at the first blank line or the first line containing an end
deliminator (either `---` or `...`), whichever comes first. Even though YAML
deliminators are supported, meta-data is not parsed as YAML.

All meta-data is stripped from the document prior to any further processing
by Markdown.

Usage
-----

See [Extensions](index.md) for general extension usage. Use `meta` as the name
of the extension.

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:

```pycon
>>> 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 extensions are currently known to work with the Meta-Data
extension. The keywords they are known to support are also listed.

* [WikiLinks](wikilinks.md)
    * `wiki_base_url`
    * `wiki_end_url`
    * `wiki_html_class`