title: Library Reference
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Using Markdown as a Python Library
==================================
First and foremost, Python-Markdown is intended to be a python library module
used by various projects to convert Markdown syntax into HTML.
The Basics
----------
To use markdown as a module:
import markdown
html = markdown.markdown(your_text_string)
The Details
-----------
Python-Markdown provides two public functions (`markdown.markdown` and
`markdown.markdownFromFile`) both of which wrap the public class
`markdown.Markdown`. If you're processing one document at a time, the
functions will serve your needs. However, if you need to process
multiple documents, it may be advantageous to create a single instance
of the `markdown.Markdown` class and pass multiple documents through it.
### `markdown.markdown(text [, **kwargs])`
The following options are available on the `markdown.markdown` function:
* __`text`__ (required): The source text string.
Note that Python-Markdown expects **Unicode** as input (although
a simple ASCII string may work) and returns output as Unicode.
Do not pass encoded strings to it! If your input is encoded, (e.g. as
UTF-8), it is your responsibility to decode it. For example:
input_file = codecs.open("some_file.txt", mode="r", encoding="utf-8")
text = input_file.read()
html = markdown.markdown(text)
If you want to write the output to disk, you must encode it yourself:
output_file = codecs.open("some_file.html", "w",
encoding="utf-8",
errors="xmlcharrefreplace"
)
output_file.write(html)
* __`extensions`__: A list of extensions.
Python-Markdown provides an API for third parties to write extensions to
the parser adding their own additions or changes to the syntax. A few
commonly used extensions are shipped with the markdown library. See
the [extension documentation](extensions) for a list of available extensions.
The list of extensions may contain instances of extensions or stings of
extension names. If an extension name is provided as a string, the
extension must be importable as a python module either within the
`markdown.extensions` package or on your PYTHONPATH with a name starting
with `mdx_`, followed by the name of the extension. Thus,
`extensions=['extra']` will first look for the module
`markdown.extensions.extra`, then a module named `mdx_extra`.
* __`extension-configs`__: A dictionary of configuration settings for extensions.
The dictionary must be of the following format:
extension-configs = {'extension_name_1':
[
('option_1', 'value_1'),
('option_2', 'value_2')
],
'extension_name_2':
[
('option_1', 'value_1')
]
}
See the documentation specific to the extension you are using for help in
specifying configuration settings for that extension.
* __`output_format`__: Format of output.
Supported formats are:
* `"xhtml1"`: Outputs XHTML 1.x. **Default**.
* `"xhtml5"`: Outputs XHTML style tags of HTML 5
* `"xhtml"`: Outputs latest supported version of XHTML (currently XHTML 1.1).
* `"html4"`: Outputs HTML 4
* `"html5"`: Outputs HTML style tags of HTML 5
* `"html"`: Outputs latest supported version of HTML (currently HTML 4).
Note that it is suggested that the more specific formats ("xhtml1",
"html5", & "html4") be used as "xhtml" or "html" may change in the future
if it makes sense at that time. The values can either be lowercase or
uppercase.
* __`safe_mode`__: Disallow raw html.
If you are using Markdown on a web system which will transform text
provided by untrusted users, you may want to use the "safe_mode"
option which ensures that the user's HTML tags are either replaced,
removed or escaped. (They can still create links using Markdown syntax.)
The following values are accepted:
* `False` (Default): Raw HTML is passed through unaltered.
* `replace`: Replace all HTML blocks with the text assigned to
`html_replacement_text` To maintain backward compatibility, setting
`safe_mode=True` will have the same effect as `safe_mode='replace'`.
To replace raw HTML with something other than the default, do:
md = markdown.Markdown(safe_mode='replace',
html_replacement_text='--RAW HTML NOT ALLOWED--')
* `remove`: All raw HTML will be completely stripped from the text with
no warning to the author.
* `escape`: All raw HTML will be escaped and included in the document.
For example, the following source:
Foo bar.
Will result in the following HTML:
Foo <b>bar</b>.
Note that "safe_mode" does not alter the `enable_attributes` option, which
could allow someone to inject javascript (i.e., `{@onclick=alert(1)}`). You
may also want to set `enable_attributes=False` when using "safe_mode".
* __`html_replacement_text`__: Text used when safe_mode is set to `replace`.
Defaults to `[HTML_REMOVED]`.
* __`tab_length`__: Length of tabs in the source. Default: 4
* __`enable_attributes`__: Enable the conversion of attributes. Default: True
* __`smart_emphasis`__: Treat `_connected_words_` intelligently Default: True
* __`lazy_ol`__: Ignore number of first item of ordered lists. Default: True
Given the following list:
4. Apples
5. Oranges
6. Pears
By default markdown will ignore the fact the the first line started
with item number "4" and the HTML list will start with a number "1".
If `lazy_ol` is set to `True`, then markdown will output the following
HTML:
- Apples
- Oranges
- Pears
### `markdown.markdownFromFile(**kwargs)`
With a few exceptions, `markdown.markdownFromFile` accepts the same options as
`markdown.markdown`. It does **not** accept a `text` (or Unicode) string.
Instead, it accepts the following required options:
* __`input`__ (required): The source text file.
`input` may be set to one of three options:
* a string which contains a path to a readable file on the file system,
* a readable file-like object,
* or `None` (default) which will read from `stdin`.
* __`output`__: The target which output is written to.
`output` may be set to one of three options:
* a string which contains a path to a writable file on the file system,
* a writable file-like object,
* or `None` (default) which will write to `stdout`.
* __`encoding`__: The encoding of the source text file. Defaults to
"utf-8". The same encoding will always be used for input and output.
The 'xmlcharrefreplace' error handler is used when encoding the output.
**Note:** This is the only place that decoding and encoding of unicode
takes place in Python-Markdown. If this rather naive solution does not
meet your specific needs, it is suggested that you write your own code
to handle your encoding/decoding needs.
### `markdown.Markdown([**kwargs])`
The same options are available when initializing the `markdown.Markdown` class
as on the `markdown.markdown` function, except that the class does **not**
accept a source text string on initialization. Rather, the source text string
must be passed to one of two instance methods:
* `Markdown.convert(source)`
The `source` text must meet the same requirements as the `text` argument
of the `markdown.markdown` function.
You should also use this method if you want to process multiple strings
without creating a new instance of the class for each string.
md = markdown.Markdown()
html1 = md.convert(text1)
html2 = md.convert(text2)
Note that depending on which options and/or extensions are being used,
the parser may need its state reset between each call to `convert`.
html1 = md.convert(text1)
md.reset()
html2 = md.convert(text2)
You can also change calls to `reset` togeather:
html3 = md.reset().convert(text3)
* `Markdown.convertFile(**kwargs)`
The arguments of this method are identical to the arguments of the same
name on the `markdown.markdownFromFile` function (`input`, `output`, and
`encoding`). As with the `convert` method, this method should be used to
process multiple files without creating a new instance of the class for
each document. State may need to be `reset` between each call to
`convertFile` as is the case with `convert`.