Pass multiline html string(markdown text) from rails to javascript

Question

I have a markdown text saved in the databse and I want to show it as html to the user. I am using markdown.js as the processor and I pass the big multiline html string from rails to javascript by rendering a js.erb file from the controller.

But since it is multiline, the javascript becomes invalid. Is there any rails function which will take the whole string and assign it as a single line string to javascript variable. I cannot use html_safe also as some things might be escaped. What is the best way to handle markdown?

sample markdown

![enter image description here](https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRiOb7-0qeyx73XuXNqzLpxgXTlf5UMrMnF5zm-UKn3wLaXCW0UUw "enter image title here")

Hello

If you render erb server-side anyway, why not have markdown rendered server-side as well? — EugZol
– EugZol, Commented Jul 31, 2015 at 17:28

EugZol · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-02 13:54:41Z

2

If you render erb server-side anyway, you will probably be better rendering Markdown server-side as well. You can use Redcarpet for that.

Add gem redcarpet to your Gemfile.
Run bundle install

Use it:

text = "my _markdown_ *variable*"
markdown = Redcarpet::Markdown.new(Redcarpet::Render::HTML)
markdown.render(text)

It will be a good idea to save rendered HTML in the database, to save CPU time on re-rendering the same text every time you want to show it to client. So you can add something like this to your model:

class Article
  # let's say that model has 'source' attributes with Markdown
  # and we want to put resulting HTML into 'html' attribute
  before_save :markdown

  def markdown
    self.html = Redcarpet::Markdown.new(Redcarpet::Render::HTML).render(source)
  end
end

edited Aug 2, 2015 at 13:54

answered Aug 1, 2015 at 12:46

EugZol

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