Can you capture a code block's content in a shortcode?

[zachcp]

Description

• I would like to capture a block of text for use in a shortcode.
• the example below gives an idea of what I was thinking - e.g. place. a shortcode on a CodeBlock and capture the contents.
  • get the syntax highlighting and ease of the code block
  • handle all the tricky bits of conversion to JS/HTML via the shortcode.
• I'm not sure if this is the best approach and would appreciate suggestions on the approach.
• Background Thoughts:
  • I see that there is context awareness but I don't see context capture.
  • include-code identifies a code block and populates the contents. although its not clear to me how this is triggered (via .python?)
  • code-visibility adds a code block directive. Maybe this method can be used to capture and replace the entire code-block. I suppose I could scan for the addition of special key and then replace the code block with html+js

     # Capture-JS

    Capture-JS will use the json you can edit here and convert it into a live HTML component

    ```json {{< capture-js >}}
     {name:  "zach"} 
    ```

Edit: it looks like the lightbox filter is a good example. and the addition of .lightbox as a class seems to be what's done in the include-code above. So one possibility is a filter where the code block is tagged. Not sure if you get syntax highlighting but I can try.

[mcanouil]

Sorry, I don't get what your shortcode is supposed to do. What does "capture" mean?
A shortcode is intrinsically a Lua filter that reads the AST to output something.
You can find quite few extensions using those (see https://m.canouil.dev/quarto-extensions/).

I suggest to take a deeper look at the documentation:

• https://quarto.org/docs/authoring/markdown-basics.html
• https://quarto.org/docs/extensions/

Note that the syntax you showed is really a bad idea. Use {.lang attributes} to ensure it will be properly read by Quarto/Pandoc (See Markdown basics).

[zachcp]

thank you @mcanouil .

I think what I am looking for is actually a filter similar to include-code. I will replace the the Codeblock with an HTML div (+JS). by "capture" I mean that I will use the CodeBlock text/content in the HTML. Previously I've used shortcodes so that was what I was reaching for.

[mcanouil]

Then you don't want a shortcode, you want a regular filter that changes the content of certain code block with something else which are not really what the extensions you mentioned are doing.

So write a Lua Filter that reads CodeBlock with class capture or whatever and process the content as you need.

[zachcp]

Thank you. I've been looking for examples of existing functionality but haven't found any. I am now on the right track but if you are aware of a similar functionality in another extension, I would be interested to look at it.

[zachcp]

As per @mcanouil above the basics of what I want are the following. Note this is a filter.

    ```{.json .livemol}.             //  <--- note the `.livemol` tag
    {name:  "zach"} 
    ```

-- _extensions/livemol/livemol.lua
function CodeBlock(el)
    if el.classes and el.classes:includes("livemol") then.    --  <--- process blocks with this tag
        ....
    end
end

[mcanouil]

Yes, that's the basic logic.

Additionally you might want to add format conditioning to ensure your extension will work as expected in a multiformat context.

[zachcp]

FYI: WIP here - code, web