quotebacks-mdx

Python-Markdown extension to support the Quotebacks format.

Installation

Copy quotebacks_mdx.py into your script directory.

Python-Markdown is required. Python 3 is required.

Motivation

This allows the final webpage to display a Quotebacks embed without having to have custom HTML in the content source files.

The Markdown format has been chosen such that it will look natural even if this extension is not used.

There have been small changes to the final HTML so that the blockquote and citation are still well formatted even when quotebacks.js is not loaded. See comparisons for details.

Usage

Include a citation in a Markdown blockquote using the following format:

> QUOTED-CONTENT
>
> -- AUTHOR, [LINKTEXT](URL)

The citation MUST be within the blockquote, and start with "--" and the author must terminate with ",". The citation must be preceded by a blank line.

Use the extension with Python-Markdown:

import markdown
import quotebacks_mdx

md = markdown.Markdown(extensions=[quotebacks_mdx.QuotebacksExtension()])
html = md.convert(markdown_source)

print(html)

# Include quotebacks.js at the bottom of page, if quotebacks were found
if md.quotebacks_found:
    html += quotebacks_mdx.QUOTEBACKS_SCRIPT_TAG

The HTML output is:

<blockquote class="quoteback"  data-title="LINKTEXT" data-author="AUTHOR" cite="URL">
<p>QUOTED-CONTENT</p>
<footer>– AUTHOR, <cite><a href="URL">LINKTEXT</a></cite></footer>
</blockquote>

Status

This is a proof of concept, but in use at Interconnected, e.g. this post.

Main to-dos:

• Get feedback on the Markdown format
• Package the extension