Links

• Redmine Markdown Plugin
• Redmine Syntax

Redmine links

Just recently became a Redmine user/administrator. Started with 2.4.2, but upgrading to 2.5.0 yesterday once I learned about the new Markdown support in the core: #15520. This plugin replaced the default Redmine formatter with the Markdown formatter, which uses the Redcarpet library. This is the same library that is used by Github. Therefore the syntax provided with the Redcarpet plugin is compatible with Github's Markdown syntax. If you asked what formatter I recommend, I would answer Textile. It follows the same syntax as regular Markdown code blocks, with ways to tell the highlighter what language to use for the code block. The language will be detected automatically, if possible. Or you can specify it on the first line with 3 colons and the language name. There were attempts to add different syntaxes to Redmine Wiki but the only successful and still active non-native Wiki syntax plugin is the Markdown Redcarpet plugin (This plugin replaced the default Redmine formatter with the Markdown formatter, which uses the Redcarpet library. Redmine is a flexible project management web application. See the official site for more details. What is Markdown Extra? PHP Markdown Extra is a special version of PHP Markdown implementing some features currently not available with the plain Markdown syntax. (excerpt from http://michelf.com/projects/php-markdown/extra/).

Redmine allows hyperlinking between resources (issues, changesets, wiki pages..) from anywhere wiki formatting is used.

• Link to an issue: #124 (displays #124, link is striked-through if the issue is closed)
• Link to an issue including tracker name and subject: ##124 (displays Bug #124: bulk edit doesn't change the category or fixed version properties)
• Link to an issue note: #124-6, or #124#note-6
• Link to an issue note within the same issue: #note-6

Wiki links:

• [[Guide]] displays a link to the page named 'Guide': Guide
• [[Guide#further-reading]] takes you to the anchor 'further-reading'. Headings get automatically assigned anchors so that you can refer to them: Guide
• [[#further-reading]] link to the anchor 'further-reading' of the current page: #further-reading
• [[Guide|User manual]] displays a link to the same page but with a different text: User manual

You can also link to pages of an other project wiki:

• [[sandbox:some page]] displays a link to the page named 'Some page' of the Sandbox wiki
• [[sandbox:]] displays a link to the Sandbox wiki main page

Wiki links are displayed in red if the page doesn't exist yet, eg: Nonexistent page.

Links to other resources:

• Documents:
  • document#17 (link to document with id 17)
  • document:Greetings (link to the document with title 'Greetings')
  • document:'Some document' (double quotes can be used when document title contains spaces)
  • sandbox:document:'Some document' (link to a document with title 'Some document' in other project 'sandbox')

• Versions:
  • version#3 (link to version with id 3)
  • version:1.0.0 (link to version named '1.0.0')
  • version:'1.0 beta 2'
  • sandbox:version:1.0.0 (link to version '1.0.0' in the project 'sandbox')

• Attachments:
  • attachment:file.zip (link to the attachment of the current object named file.zip)
  • For now, attachments of the current object can be referenced only (if you're on an issue, it's possible to reference attachments of this issue only)

• Changesets:
  • r758 (link to a changeset)
  • commit:c6f4d0fd (link to a changeset with a non-numeric hash)
  • svn1|r758 (link to a changeset of a specific repository, for projects with multiple repositories)
  • commit:hg|c6f4d0fd (link to a changeset with a non-numeric hash of a specific repository)
  • sandbox:r758 (link to a changeset of another project)
  • sandbox:commit:c6f4d0fd (link to a changeset with a non-numeric hash of another project)

• Repository files:
  • source:some/file (link to the file located at /some/file in the project's repository)
  • source:some/file@52 (link to the file's revision 52)
  • source:some/file#L120 (link to line 120 of the file)
  • source:some/file@52#L120 (link to line 120 of the file's revision 52)
  • source:'some file@52#L120' (use double quotes when the URL contains spaces
  • export:some/file (force the download of the file)
  • source:svn1|some/file (link to a file of a specific repository, for projects with multiple repositories)
  • sandbox:source:some/file (link to the file located at /some/file in the repository of the project 'sandbox')
  • sandbox:export:some/file (force the download of the file)

• Forums:
  • forum#1 (link to forum with id 1
  • forum:Support (link to forum named Support)
  • forum:'Technical Support' (use double quotes if forum name contains spaces)

• Forum messages:
  • message#1218 (link to message with id 1218)

• Projects:
  • project#3 (link to project with id 3)
  • project:some-project (link to project with name or slug of 'some-project')
  • project:'Some Project' (use double quotes for project name containing spaces)

• News:
  • news#2 (link to news item with id 2)
  • news:Greetings (link to news item named 'Greetings')
  • news:'First Release' (use double quotes if news item name contains spaces)

• Users:
  • user#2 (link to user with id 2)
  • user:jsmith (Link to user with login jsmith)
  • @jsmith (Link to user with login jsmith)

Escaping:

• You can prevent Redmine links from being parsed by preceding them with an exclamation mark: !

External links

URLs (starting with: www, http, https, ftp, ftps, sftp and sftps) and email addresses are automatically turned into clickable links:

displays: http://www.redmine.org, someone@foo.bar

If you want to display a specific text instead of the URL, you can use the standard markdown syntax:

displays: Redmine web site

Text formatting

For things such as headlines, bold, tables, lists, Redmine supports Markdown syntax. See http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax for information on using any of these features. A few samples are included below, but the engine is capable of much more of that.

Font style

Display:

• bold
• italic
• bold italic
• underline
• strike-through

Inline images

•  displays an image located at image_url (markdown syntax)
• If you have an image attached to your wiki page, it can be displayed inline using its filename: 
• Images in your computer's clipboard can be pasted directly using Ctrl-v or Command-v (note that Internet Explorer is not supported).
• Image files can be dragged onto the text area in order to be uploaded and embedded.

Headings

Redmine assigns an anchor to each of those headings thus you can link to them with '#Heading', '#Subheading' and so forth.

Blockquotes

Start the paragraph with >

Display:

Rails is a full-stack framework for developing database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern.
To go live, all you need to add is a database and a web server.

Table of content

Horizontal Rule

Macros

Redmine has the following builtin macros:

Sample macro.

Displays a list of all available macros, including description if available.

Displays a list of child pages. With no argument, it displays the child pages of the current wiki page. Examples:

Include a wiki page. Example:

or to include a page of a specific project wiki:

Inserts of collapsed block of text. Example:

Displays a clickable thumbnail of an attached image. Examples:

Inserts a link to an issue with flexible text. Examples:

Code highlighting

Default code highlightment relies on Rouge, a syntax highlighting library written in pure Ruby. It supports many commonly used languages such as c, cpp (c++), csharp (c#, cs), css, diff (patch, udiff), go (golang), groovy, html, java, javascript (js), kotlin, objective_c (objc), perl (pl), php, python (py), r, ruby (rb), sass, scala, shell (bash, zsh, ksh, sh), sql, swift, xml and yaml (yml) languages, where the names inside parentheses are aliases. Please refer to https://www.redmine.org/projects/redmine/wiki/RedmineCodeHighlightingLanguages for the full list of supported languages.

You can highlight code at any place that supports wiki formatting using this syntax (note that the language name or alias is case-insensitive):

Example:

Overview

Nearly all Markdown applications support the basic syntax outlined in John Gruber’s original design document. There are minor variations and discrepancies between Markdown processors — those are noted inline wherever possible.

Headings

To create a heading, add number signs (#) in front of a word or phrase. The number of number signs you use should correspond to the heading level. For example, to create a heading level three (<h3>), use three number signs (e.g., ### My Header).

Alternate Syntax

Alternatively, on the line below the text, add any number of characters for heading level 1 or -- characters for heading level 2.

Heading Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle a missing space between the number signs (#) and the heading name. For compatibility, always put a space between the number signs and the heading name.

Paragraphs

To create paragraphs, use a blank line to separate one or more lines of text.

Paragraph Best Practices

Unless the paragraph is in a list, don’t indent paragraphs with spaces or tabs.

Line Breaks

To create a line break (<br>), end a line with two or more spaces, and then type return.

Line Break Best Practices

You can use two or more spaces (commonly referred to as “trailing whitespace”) for line breaks in nearly every Markdown application, but it’s controversial. It’s hard to see trailing whitespace in an editor, and many people accidentally or intentionally put two spaces after every sentence. For this reason, you may want to use something other than trailing whitespace for line breaks. Fortunately, there is another option supported by nearly every Markdown application: the <br> HTML tag.

For compatibility, use trailing white space or the <br> HTML tag at the end of the line.

There are two other options I don’t recommend using. CommonMark and a few other lightweight markup languages let you type a backslash () at the end of the line, but not all Markdown applications support this, so it isn’t a great option from a compatibility perspective. And at least a couple lightweight markup languages don’t require anything at the end of the line — just type return and they’ll create a line break.

Emphasis

You can add emphasis by making text bold or italic.

Bold

To bold text, add two asterisks or underscores before and after a word or phrase. To bold the middle of a word for emphasis, add two asterisks without spaces around the letters.

Bold Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to bold the middle of a word for emphasis.

Italic

To italicize text, add one asterisk or underscore before and after a word or phrase. To italicize the middle of a word for emphasis, add one asterisk without spaces around the letters.

Italic Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to italicize the middle of a word for emphasis.

Bold and Italic

To emphasize text with bold and italics at the same time, add three asterisks or underscores before and after a word or phrase. To bold and italicize the middle of a word for emphasis, add three asterisks without spaces around the letters.

Bold and Italic Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to bold and italicize the middle of a word for emphasis.

Blockquotes

To create a blockquote, add a > in front of a paragraph.

The rendered output looks like this:

Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her castle.

Blockquotes with Multiple Paragraphs

Blockquotes can contain multiple paragraphs. Add a > on the blank lines between the paragraphs.

The rendered output looks like this:

Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her castle.

The Witch bade her clean the pots and kettles and sweep the floor and keep the fire fed with wood.

Nested Blockquotes

Blockquotes can be nested. Add a >> in front of the paragraph you want to nest.

The rendered output looks like this:

Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her castle.

The Witch bade her clean the pots and kettles and sweep the floor and keep the fire fed with wood.

Blockquotes with Other Elements

Blockquotes can contain other Markdown formatted elements. Not all elements can be used — you’ll need to experiment to see which ones work.

The rendered output looks like this:

The quarterly results look great!

• Revenue was off the chart.
• Profits were higher than ever.

Everything is going according to plan.

Lists

You can organize items into ordered and unordered lists.

Ordered Lists

To create an ordered list, add line items with numbers followed by periods. The numbers don’t have to be in numerical order, but the list should start with the number one.

Ordered List Best Practices

CommonMark and a few other lightweight markup languages let you use a parenthesis ()) as a delimiter (e.g., 1) First item), but not all Markdown applications support this, so it isn’t a great option from a compatibility perspective. For compatibility, use periods only.

Unordered Lists

To create an unordered list, add dashes (-), asterisks (*), or plus signs (+) in front of line items. Indent one or more items to create a nested list.

Starting Unordered List Items With Numbers

If you need to start an unordered list item with a number followed by a period, you can use a backslash () to escape the period.

Unordered List Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle different delimiters in the same list. For compatibility, don’t mix and match delimiters in the same list — pick one and stick with it.

Adding Elements in Lists

To add another element in a list while preserving the continuity of the list, indent the element four spaces or one tab, as shown in the following examples.

Paragraphs

The rendered output looks like this:

• This is the first list item.

• Here’s the second list item.

  I need to add another paragraph below the second list item.

• And here’s the third list item.

Blockquotes

The rendered output looks like this:

• This is the first list item.

• Here’s the second list item.

  A blockquote would look great below the second list item.

• And here’s the third list item.

Code Blocks

Code blocks are normally indented four spaces or one tab. When they’re in a list, indent them eight spaces or two tabs.

The rendered output looks like this:

1. Open the file.

2. Find the following code block on line 21:

3. Update the title to match the name of your website.

Images

The rendered output looks like this:

1. Open the file containing the Linux mascot.

2. Marvel at its beauty.

3. Close the file.

Redmine Markdown Plugin

Lists

You can nest an unordered list in an ordered list, or vice versa.

The rendered output looks like this:

1. First item
2. Second item
3. Third item
   • Indented item
   • Indented item
4. Fourth item

Code

To denote a word or phrase as code, enclose it in backticks (`).

Escaping Backticks

If the word or phrase you want to denote as code includes one or more backticks, you can escape it by enclosing the word or phrase in double backticks (``).

Code Blocks

To create code blocks, indent every line of the block by at least four spaces or one tab.

The rendered output looks like this:

Horizontal Rules

To create a horizontal rule, use three or more asterisks (***), dashes (---), or underscores (___) on a line by themselves.

The rendered output of all three looks identical:

Horizontal Rule Best Practices

For compatibility, put blank lines before and after horizontal rules.

Links

To create a link, enclose the link text in brackets (e.g., [Duck Duck Go]) and then follow it immediately with the URL in parentheses (e.g., (https://duckduckgo.com)).

The rendered output looks like this:

My favorite search engine is Duck Duck Go.

Adding Titles

You can optionally add a title for a link. This will appear as a tooltip when the user hovers over the link. To add a title, enclose it in parentheses after the URL.

The rendered output looks like this:

My favorite search engine is Duck Duck Go.

URLs and Email Addresses

To quickly turn a URL or email address into a link, enclose it in angle brackets.

The rendered output looks like this:

https://www.markdownguide.org
fake@example.com

Formatting Links

To emphasize links, add asterisks before and after the brackets and parentheses. To denote links as code, add backticks in the brackets.

The rendered output looks like this:

I love supporting the EFF.
This is the Markdown Guide.
See the section on code.

Reference-style Links

Reference-style links are a special kind of link that make URLs easier to display and read in Markdown. Reference-style links are constructed in two parts: the part you keep inline with your text and the part you store somewhere else in the file to keep the text easy to read.

Formatting the First Part of the Link

The first part of a reference-style link is formatted with two sets of brackets. The first set of brackets surrounds the text that should appear linked. The second set of brackets displays a label used to point to the link you’re storing elsewhere in your document.

Although not required, you can include a space between the first and second set of brackets. The label in the second set of brackets is not case sensitive and can include letters, numbers, spaces, or punctuation.

This means the following example formats are roughly equivalent for the first part of the link:

• [hobbit-hole][1]
• [hobbit-hole] [1]

Formatting the Second Part of the Link

The second part of a reference-style link is formatted with the following attributes:

1. The label, in brackets, followed immediately by a colon and at least one space (e.g., [label]: ).
2. The URL for the link, which you can optionally enclose in angle brackets.
3. The optional title for the link, which you can enclose in double quotes, single quotes, or parentheses.

This means the following example formats are all roughly equivalent for the second part of the link:

• [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle
• [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle 'Hobbit lifestyles'
• [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle 'Hobbit lifestyles'
• [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle (Hobbit lifestyles)
• [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> 'Hobbit lifestyles'
• [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> 'Hobbit lifestyles'
• [1]: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobbit#Lifestyle> (Hobbit lifestyles)

You can place this second part of the link anywhere in your Markdown document. Some people place them immediately after the paragraph in which they appear while other people place them at the end of the document (like endnotes or footnotes).

An Example Putting the Parts Together

Say you add a URL as a standard URL link to a paragraph and it looks like this in Markdown:

Though it may point to interesting additional information, the URL as displayed really doesn’t add much to the existing raw text other than making it harder to read. To fix that, you could format the URL like this instead:

In both instances above, the rendered output would be identical:

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

and the HTML for the link would be:

Redmine Syntax

Link Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle spaces in the middle of a URL. For compatibility, try to URL encode any spaces with %20.

Images

To add an image, add an exclamation mark (!), followed by alt text in brackets, and the path or URL to the image asset in parentheses. You can optionally add a title after the URL in the parentheses.

The rendered output looks like this:

Linking Images

To add a link to an image, enclose the Markdown for the image in brackets, and then add the link in parentheses.

The rendered output looks like this:

Escaping Characters

To display a literal character that would otherwise be used to format text in a Markdown document, add a backslash () in front of the character.

The rendered output looks like this:

* Without the backslash, this would be a bullet in an unordered list.

Characters You Can Escape

You can use a backslash to escape the following characters.

HTML

Many Markdown applications allow you to use HTML tags in Markdown-formatted text. This is helpful if you prefer certain HTML tags to Markdown syntax. For example, some people find it easier to use HTML tags for images. Using HTML is also helpful when you need to change the attributes of an element, like specifying the color of text or changing the width of an image.

To use HTML, place the tags in the text of your Markdown-formatted file.

The rendered output looks like this:

This word is bold. This word is italic.

HTML Best Practices

For security reasons, not all Markdown applications support HTML in Markdown documents. When in doubt, check your Markdown application’s documentation. Some applications support only a subset of HTML tags.

Use blank lines to separate block-level HTML elements like <div>, <table>, <pre>, and <p> from the surrounding content. Try not to indent the tags with tabs or spaces — that can interfere with the formatting.

You can’t use Markdown syntax inside block-level HTML tags. For example, <p>italic and **bold**</p> Metabase our analytics. won’t work.

Take your Markdown skills to the next level.

Learn Markdown in 60 pages. Designed for both novices and experts, The Markdown Guide book is a comprehensive reference that has everything you need to get started and master Markdown syntax.

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