Markdown Support in PocketPages

PocketPages supports rendering .md files, treating them similarly to .ejs files but with an additional step: Markdown parsing.

How It Works:

1. EJS Processing: Any file with the .md extension is first processed through the EJS engine, just like a regular .ejs file. This means you can use all the dynamic templating features of EJS within your Markdown files.

2. Markdown Parsing: After EJS processing, the content is passed through a Markdown parser. This ensures that any Markdown syntax (such as headers, lists, and links) is properly rendered into HTML.

3. Final Output: The last step in the pipeline is Markdown parsing, so the final output is HTML content that reflects both your EJS logic and your Markdown formatting.

Frontmatter Support

Any frontmatter properties defined at the top of your Markdown file will be automatically available through the request context's meta function. For example:

---
title: My Blog Post
description: A detailed guide about something interesting
author: John Doe
---

# Content starts here...

You can then access these values in your layouts or other templates using the meta function:

<title><%= meta('title') %></title>
<meta name="description" content="<%= meta('description') %>">
<meta name="author" content="<%= meta('author') %>">

Important Notes:

• Layouts Cannot Be Markdown: While .md files can include dynamic content through EJS and Markdown, they cannot be used as layouts. Layouts must be .ejs files.

By supporting Markdown in this way, PocketPages allows you to combine the power of dynamic EJS templates with the simplicity and readability of Markdown, making it easier to manage content-heavy projects.