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Highlightjs in Fossil
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Highlightjs in Fossil

Integrating Highlightjs with a Fossil SCM Skin

Highlightjs is a relatively small, expansive syntax-highlighting library for JavaScript:

https://highlightjs.org/

Before we begin:

  1. These instructions require modifying a repository's "skin". The structure of a fossil skin, and exactly how to edit them, are described on the fossil web site. This page describes only the specifics of the edits necessary to integrate highlightjs.

  2. These instructions assume that the user will check a copy of highlightjs's JavaScript and CSS code into the repository. They are not large: they may be as small as ~35kb, depending on whether the user uses a custom highlightjs build which only includes the language(s) they need.

Fossil Skin Header

Normally fossil creates and injects its own HTML header as part of its skinning process. In order to integrate syntax highlighting we need to customize that header. To integrate highlightjs we first need to import its CSS via the page header. e.g. this site's fossil skin header looks something like:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="$baseurl/doc/ckout/doc/highlightjs/hybrid.css" type="text/css" />
<!-- ----------------------- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     see below for multiple options for how to link to that.
-->
...then the rest... (typically the site's main menu)

Pick ONE CSS file from highlightjs's expansive collection (each CSS file is a different highlighting theme):

<!-- Default CSS: -->
<!-- link rel="stylesheet" href="$baseurl/doc/ckout/doc/highlightjs/default.min.css" type="text/css" /-->
<!-- _OR_ theme CSS: -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="$baseurl/doc/ckout/doc/highlightjs/hybrid.css" type="text/css"/>

Delivery of the JS and CSS from a fossil repository can be achieved via multiple fossil-provided URIs...

The /doc/ckout path, demonstrated above, uses local files if fossil is serving directly from a checkout via fossil ui or fossil server. If there is no checkout it serves the tip version (the newest version, regardless of which branch it lives in).

Alternatively, serve a specific static version of a file with:

$baseurl/raw/doc/highlightjs/hybrid.css?name=THE_UUID

Where THE_UUID is the UUID of the version of that file you want. Using a checkin tag/branch name here does not work - it must be the hash of some version of the file's contents. Note that the path passed to /raw is largely irrelevant, and is primarily used by the /raw route to determine which mimetype to set on the response. Thus passing foo.css will work, so long as the name=UUID part is correct.

Or deliver a version from a given branch:

$baseurl/raw?ci=trunk&filename=doc/highlightjs/hybrid.css

Noting that in the ci=trunk part, trunk may be replaced by any tag or checkin UUID (as opposed to the file content's UUID).

Fossil Skin Footer

Add this, or something like it, to the bottom of the skin footer, adjusting the paths for your installation:

<script src="$baseurl/doc/ckout/doc/highlightjs/highlight.pack.js"></script>
<script nonce="$<nonce>">
if( "undefined"!==typeof hljs
    && /\/doc\/\w+/.test(window.location.pathname)
    // ^^^^ OPTIONAL: only init on /doc/... pages, noting that the skin-editing
    // process might inject a path element *before* /doc, so don't use the
    // regex ^ anchor: ^/doc
    ){
   hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad();
}</script>

Note that the various path-linking options for the CSS (described in the previous section) work the same for serving JS files.

The above script block will tell highlightjs to perform its default behaviour on any pre > code blocks. That means that it will look for a language-XYZ class on each such block to determine its syntax-highlighting format or, if there is no such class, it will attempt to guess the language via brute-force trial and error (which will, at least on Firefox, generate unsightly noise on the development console as various brute-force attempts fail).

To control exactly which language highlighting highlightjs applies, which stops it from attempting brute-force and squelches the above-mentioned warnings, use something like:

<script nonce="$<nonce>">
if( "undefined"!==typeof hljs
    && /doc\/\w+/.test(window.location.pathname) ){
    // ^^^^ optional - see the snippet above for why this might be desired.
  document.addEventListener(
    "DOMContentLoaded",
    function(event){
      /**
        Jump through some hoops to squelch hljs's console warnings about
        unknown language blocks which we style ourselves (e.g. language-s2-member).
        This approach also stops hljs from brute-force guessing what
        any given block is, which is an unnecessary CPU hog/battery drain.
      */
      [
          "bash", "c", "console", "cpp",
          "css", "h", "hpp", "html", "javascript",
          "js", "json", "makefile",
          "markdown", "plaintext",
          "shell", "sql",
          "s2" // s2 requires /doc/highlightjs/hljs-s2.js from this site
      ].forEach(function(L){
        document.querySelectorAll(
          "pre > code.language-"+L
        ).forEach((block)=>hljs.highlightBlock(block));
      });
    }
  );
}</script>

Highlightjs Custom Build

To trim a few bytes from the highlightjs download, it's possible to create a custom highlightjs which includes only the language packs one wants:

https://highlightjs.org/download/

The following hjs language packges "might" be useful for this tree: