Markdown Docs – Documentation

Requirements

• ExpressionEngine 7.2 or later.
• PHP 8.1 or later with the mbstring extension (standard on typical EE hosts).
• Markdown is rendered with Michelf MarkdownExtra, which ExpressionEngine ships and uses for an add-on's Manual page in the control panel, so nothing else is installed.

Installation

1. Unzip the release and copy the markdown_docs/ folder to system/user/addons/markdown_docs/.
2. In the Control Panel go to Developer → Add-ons and install Markdown Docs.

There are no settings. Rendering is controlled by tag parameters, with site-wide defaults available from config.php (see Site-wide defaults under Usage).

Upgrading

Replace the markdown_docs/ folder and run the add-on's Update from the Add-ons page. Rendered pages are cached and keyed on the file and the add-on's rendering version, so a release that changes the output takes effect on the next request without clearing the cache.

Uninstalling

Uninstalling removes the plugin's registration. Your file fields, the uploaded files and the templates stay as they are; the tags simply render nothing until the add-on is installed again.

Usage

Setting up

1. Create (or pick) an upload directory for the documentation files, and allow Markdown files in it: in the directory's settings, Allowed file types must be All file types, or the md extension must be added to the site's Mime type whitelist (text/markdown and text/plain). ExpressionEngine refuses the upload otherwise.
2. Add a File field to the channel whose entries have documentation, one per document: for example addon_manual for the manual and addon_changelog for the changelog.
3. Upload each product's README.md to the manual field and its CHANGELOG.md to the changelog field. To publish a new version, replace the file in place (the File Manager's Replace, or an upload with the same name that overwrites): the file keeps its id, the entry is not touched, and the next request renders the new content.
4. Put the tags below in the templates that show the entry.

A tag names its file through the entry and the field (entry_id and field), or directly by file id (file_id), which needs no channel field at all.

The manual tag

{exp:markdown_docs:manual entry_id="{entry_id}" field="addon_manual"}
    {manual_intro}

    {if manual_section_count > 1}
    <nav aria-label="Table of contents">{manual_toc}</nav>
    {/if}

    {manual_sections}
    <section id="{section_anchor}">
        <h2>{section_heading}</h2>
        {section_body}
    </section>
    {/manual_sections}

    {if no_results}<p>No documentation has been published yet.</p>{/if}
{/exp:markdown_docs:manual}

Parameters:

Variables:

The tag shows its {if no_results} content when the field is empty, the file is missing, or the tag's parameters do not name a file.

The changelog tag

{exp:markdown_docs:changelog entry_id="{entry_id}" field="addon_changelog"}
    <section id="{release_anchor}">
        <h2>{release_version}{if release_date} &middot; {release_date}{/if}</h2>
        {release_notes}
    </section>
    {if no_results}<p>No release notes have been published yet.</p>{/if}
{/exp:markdown_docs:changelog}

The newest release alone, for a "Version 1.2.0, released October 28, 2026" line on an overview page or a listing card:

{exp:markdown_docs:changelog entry_id="{entry_id}" field="addon_changelog" limit="1"}
    Version {release_version}{if release_date}, released {release_date}{/if}
{/exp:markdown_docs:changelog}

Parameters:

Variables, one row per release:

A release is a ## heading that starts with a version number, optionally prefixed v, followed by anything: ## 1.2.0 — 2026-10-28, ## v1.2.0 (2026-10-28), ## 1.2.0. The first YYYY-MM-DD in the heading is the release date. A ## heading that does not start with a version, such as ## Unreleased or ## Pre-release review notes (0.24.0 to 1.0.0), is skipped together with its content, so an in-progress section at the top of the file never reaches the site. Releases are rendered in the file's order, newest first if the file is written that way.

Parameters both tags take

Site-wide defaults

rewrite_links and table_class can be set once in system/user/config/config.php; a tag parameter still overrides them:

$config['markdown_docs'] = [
    'rewrite_links' => 'https://example.com/',
    'table_class' => 'docs__table',
];

How the Markdown is rendered

• The parser is Michelf MarkdownExtra, the one ExpressionEngine uses for an add-on's Manual page in the control panel, so a manual looks the same in both places: fenced code blocks, tables, footnotes, definition lists and inline HTML all work.
• A first line # Title is dropped from the output and offered as {manual_title}.
• Every ## heading starts a section. Every ##, ### and #### heading gets a GitHub-style id (lowercase, punctuation removed, spaces to hyphens, a repeated heading suffixed -1, -2…), so links like [Installation](#installation) inside the document work on the page.
• Content between ``, each on its own line, is left out. Use it for text that only makes sense in the zip or the control panel's Manual page, such as "this manual is also available online at…".
• `