lachenmayer / smarkt

📃 Hyper-readable plain text structure

📃 smarkt

Hyper-readable structure for defining fields and values in plain text

Usage

Transform some structured plain text including Markdown and YAML into JSON, and visa versa. Super useful for archivability and readability. Feature parity with Kirby’s file structure.

var smarkt = require('smarkt')

var str = smarkt.parse(`
title: Cyber Mysticism
----
tags:
  - technopastoral
  - ambient
----
text: Art has always been a focusing device, the frame is a focusing device. What I’m trying to do is eliminate the frame, eliminate all those distractions and put you in direct relationship to the real experience and the real power: your ability to perceive.
`)

var obj = smarkt.stringify({
  title: 'Cyber Mysticism',
  { tags: ['technopastoral', 'ambient']},
  text: 'Art has always been a focusing device, the frame is a focusing device. What I’m trying to do is eliminate the frame, eliminate all those distractions and put you in direct relationship to the real experience and the real power: your ability to perceive.'
})

Structure

A plain-text file is separated into fields delineated by four dashes.

----

Give the field a name and define it’s value.

title: Cyber Mysticism

The value can also be YAML.

tags:
  - technopastoral
  - ambient

Plain text input expanded

title: Cyber Mysticism
----
tags:
  - technopastoral
  - dark-ux
----
design:
  desktop:
    background: red
    navigation: false
  mobile:
    background: blue
    navigation: true
----
text:

We won the **battle** and lost the *war*. What Debord called détournement became not just an avant-garde but a popular cultural practice. As I wrote in [A Hacker Manifesto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hacker_Manifesto): Information wants to be free but is everywhere in chains. It broke free from the commodity form.

JSON output expanded

{
  "title": "Cyber Mysticism",
  "tags": ["technopastoral", "dark-ux"],
  "design": {
    "desktop": {
      "background": "red",
      "navigation": false
    },
    "mobile": {
      "background": "blue",
      "navigation": true
    }
  },
  "text": "We won the **battle** and lost the *war*. What Debord called détournement became not just an avant-garde but a popular cultural practice. As I wrote in [A Hacker Manifesto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hacker_Manifesto): Information wants to be free but is everywhere in chains. It broke free from the commodity form."
}

Methods

stringify

Accepts a single argument which must be type string. Returns an object.

parse

Accepts a single argument which must be type object. Returns a string.

Alternate usage

var stringify = require('smarkt/stringify')
var parse = require('smarkt/parse')

Sometimes it’s handy just to access a single method to reduce bundle size. To do this, simple require the desired method name.

Todo

• Tests
• Expanded YAML support
• .stringify Remove quotes around YAML array values