The tiniest Markdown editor for the web
This project provides the simplest imaginable writing aid
for Markdown-enabled <textarea>
elements.
It only supports a handful of features, mostly to save you keystrokes. There's no GUI, no WYSIWYG features, and no preview.
It is also quite small at 2.5 KB minified & gzipped.
Check out the demo!
Installation
npm install --save mdarea
Or you can download the raw archive from the Releases section.
Add the mdarea.js
or mdarea.min.js
script to your page. You might
need to use something like the keyboardevent-key-polyfill if you wish
to support older browsers.
Since version 2.0 mdarea
is written in TypeScript and therefore includes
native typings out of the box. The package exposes the editor class
as the default export and type declarations for the options object
are available as named exports:
import MarkdownArea, { MarkdownAreaOptions } from 'mdarea';
Initialise your textareas like this:
<textarea id="mdarea"></textarea>
<script type="application/javascript">
var editor = new MarkdownArea(document.getElementById('mdarea'));
</script>
API
-
new MarkdownArea(element[, options])
Creates a new editor instance for the given element. See below for the constructor options.
-
editor.getElement()
Returns the DOM element the editor instance is attached to.
-
editor.setElement(element)
Reattaches the editor instance to another textarea element.
-
editor.getValue()
Returns the current contents of the editor. Same as
editor.getElement().value
. -
editor.setValue(value)
Sets the editor contents. Use this instead of
editor.getElement().value = value
, otherwise undo history will break! -
editor.destroy()
Destroys the editor instance. This will unbind all event handlers and nullify all references to objects which might keep the editor in memory including the active textarea element. Remember to clear the reference to the editor instance that you kept until calling the
destroy()
method - the easiest way to do so is to calldestroy()
like this:editor = editor.destroy();
Constructor options
-
indent
(number | string
, default:4
)How many spaces to use for indentation. If you specify a string, its length will be used - beware that the tab character has a length of 1!
-
keyMap
(object
)Lets you customize the default key mapping of the editor. The keys of the object are action names, and the values are the key combinations as either comma-separated strings or arrays. See below for an explanation of the known actions and the default key combinations attached to them.
Key bindings
Shortcuts in the keyMap
are specified as strings (or arrays
thereof). Each shortcut is a combination of zero or more modifiers
and a single key, separated by +
. There are five supported modifiers:
Ctrl
, Shift
, Alt
, Meta
and Cmd
. The Cmd
modifier
represents the Cmd
key on a Mac and the Ctrl
key otherwise;
the Ctrl
modifier always means the Ctrl
key and the Meta
modifier always means the Windows
/ Cmd
meta key. You'll
probably always want to use the Cmd
modifier in place of Ctrl
or Meta
. The key should be one of the known key values.
Note that regular character keys a
to z
should be specified
in lowercase, regardless of the presence or absence of the
Shift
modifier.
The four currently supported actions of the editor are:
-
enter
(default keys:Enter
,Shift+Enter
)This action takes care of smart
Enter
key handling. Invoked inside of a list item it will insert a new item at the current level, incrementing its number if applicable, or an indented newline within the current item if theShift
key is pressed. If invoked at the start of an empty list item it will remove the current item and place the cursor at the start of the line (exit the list, similarly to visual document editors). If invoked after an opening parenthesis an indented newline is inserted, similarly to common code editors. -
inline
(default keys:"
,'
,`
,*
,_
,[
,]
,(
,)
,{
,}
,<
,>
)This action inserts smart pairs of inline formatting characters. If the current selection is already surrounded by a formatting character and this action is invoked with the same character, the existing characters are removed (so selecting a word and pressing
*
will behave as "toggle bold"). -
indent
(default keys:Tab
,Ctrl+m
)This action indents the current line or the currently selected block of text. Note that the default key mapping for this action includes the
Tab
key, which will prevent navigation between form elements once the editor gains focus. -
outdent
(default keys:Shift+Tab
,Ctrl+Shift+m
)This action performs the inverse of
indent
. TheShift+Tab
default mapping will also similarly hamper form navigation.