Strip Markdown #

What is it? #

strip_markdown is a Dart package that removes (strips) Markdown formatting from text. This is a port of the popular Node.js remove-markdown package.

Markdown formatting means pretty much anything that doesn't look like regular text, like square brackets, asterisks, hash symbols, etc.

When do I need it? #

The typical use case is to display an excerpt from some Markdown text, without any of the actual Markdown syntax - for example in a list of posts, search results, or content previews.

Installation #

Add this to your package's pubspec.yaml file:

dependencies:
  strip_markdown: ^1.0.0

Then run:

dart pub get

Usage #

import 'package:strip_markdown/strip_markdown.dart';

void main() {
  const markdown = '''
# This is a heading

This is a paragraph with [a link](http://www.example.com/) in it.

- List item 1
- List item 2

> This is a blockquote
''';

  final plainText = removeMd(markdown);
  print(plainText);
  // Output: This is a heading
  //
  // This is a paragraph with a link in it.
  //
  // List item 1
  // List item 2
  //
  // This is a blockquote
}

You can also supply an options object to the function. Currently, the following options are supported:

final plainText = removeMd(markdown, RemoveMarkdownOptions(
  stripListLeaders: true,    // strip list leaders (default: true)
  listUnicodeChar: '•',      // char to insert instead of stripped list leaders (default: null)
  gfm: true,                 // support GitHub-Flavored Markdown (default: true)
  useImgAltText: true,       // replace images with alt-text, if present (default: true)
  replaceLinksWithURL: false, // replace links with their URLs instead of link text (default: false)
  htmlTagsToSkip: [],        // HTML tags to skip when removing (default: [])
  throwError: false,         // throw errors instead of returning original text (default: false)
));

Setting stripListLeaders to false will retain any list characters (*, -, +, (digit).).

Setting listUnicodeChar to a string (e.g., '•') will replace list leaders with that character instead of removing them entirely.

Features #

This package supports removing:

• Headers (both ATX # and Setext === styles)
• Emphasis (bold and italic with * and _)
• Links and images
• Code blocks and inline code
• Lists (ordered and unordered)
• Blockquotes
• Horizontal rules
• HTML tags
• Strikethrough text
• And more!

Credits #

This is a Dart port of the Node.js remove-markdown package.

The original JavaScript code is based on Markdown Service Tools - Strip Markdown by Brett Terpstra.

Original Authors #

• Stian Grytøyr (original creator)
• zuchka (maintainer since 2023)

Dart Port #

• Fabian Freund (Dart implementation)

License #

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.