layout: default title: Basic Usage description: Basic usage of the CommonMark parser redirect_from:

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Basic Usage

Important: See the security section for important details on avoiding security misconfigurations.

The CommonMarkConverter class provides a simple wrapper for converting Markdown to HTML:

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use League\CommonMark\CommonMarkConverter;

$converter = new CommonMarkConverter();
echo $converter->convert('# Hello World!');

// <h1>Hello World!</h1>

Or if you want GitHub-Flavored Markdown:

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use League\CommonMark\GithubFlavoredMarkdownConverter;

$converter = new GithubFlavoredMarkdownConverter();
echo $converter->convert('# Hello World!');

// <h1>Hello World!</h1>

Using Extensions

The CommonMarkConverter and GithubFlavoredMarkdownConverter shown above automatically configure the environment for you, but if you want to use additional extensions you'll need to avoid those classes and use the generic MarkdownConverter class instead to customize the environment with whatever extensions you wish to use:

require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

use League\CommonMark\Environment\Environment;
use League\CommonMark\Extension\InlinesOnly\InlinesOnlyExtension;
use League\CommonMark\Extension\SmartPunct\SmartPunctExtension;
use League\CommonMark\Extension\Strikethrough\StrikethroughExtension;
use League\CommonMark\MarkdownConverter;

$environment = new Environment();

$environment->addExtension(new InlinesOnlyExtension());
$environment->addExtension(new SmartPunctExtension());
$environment->addExtension(new StrikethroughExtension());

$converter = new MarkdownConverter($environment);
echo $converter->convert('**Hello World!**');

// <p><strong>Hello World!</strong></p>

Configuration

If you're using the CommonMarkConverter or GithubFlavoredMarkdownConverter class you can pass configuration options directly into their constructor:

use League\CommonMark\CommonMarkConverter;
use League\CommonMark\GithubFlavoredMarkdownConverter;

$converter = new CommonMarkConverter($config);
// or
$converter = new GithubFlavoredMarkdownConverter($config);

Otherwise, if you’re using MarkdownConverter to customize the extensions in your parser, pass the configuration into the Environment's constructor instead:

use League\CommonMark\Environment\Environment;
use League\CommonMark\Extension\InlinesOnly\InlinesOnlyExtension;
use League\CommonMark\MarkdownConverter;

// Here's where we set the configuration array:
$environment = new Environment($config);

// TODO: Add any/all the extensions you wish; for example:
$environment->addExtension(new InlinesOnlyExtension());

// Go forth and convert you some Markdown!
$converter = new MarkdownConverter($environment);

See the configuration section for more information on the available configuration options.

Supported Character Encodings

Please note that only UTF-8 and ASCII encodings are supported. If your Markdown uses a different encoding please convert it to UTF-8 before running it through this library.

Return Value

The convert() method actually returns an instance of League\CommonMark\Output\RenderedContentInterface. You can cast this (implicitly, as shown above, or explicitly) to a string or call getContent() to get the final HTML output.