Feature Request: Native Collapsible Sections

[ribbal]

Summary

It would be great if LeafWiki provided native support for collapsible sections within page content.

Motivation

As documentation grows, pages can become long and harder to navigate. Being able to collapse optional or advanced content would improve readability while still keeping the information available when needed.

Some examples include:

• Advanced configuration
• Troubleshooting
• Implementation details
• FAQs
• Examples
• Additional notes

Current Workaround

Since LeafWiki supports HTML, it's currently possible to achieve this using the standard HTML <details> and <summary> elements:

<details>
  <summary>Advanced Configuration</summary>

  Hidden content goes here.

</details>

While this works, it requires authors to drop into HTML for what feels like a common documentation pattern.

Proposed Solution

Provide native Markdown support for collapsible sections. For example, a syntax such as (defaults to collapsed):

:::collapsed Advanced Configuration

Hidden content goes here.

and the following (defaults to expanded):

:::collapsible Advanced Configuration

Hidden content goes here.

(or another syntax that fits LeafWiki's existing Markdown standards.)

In both these examples, the markdown would be rendered into the <details>/<summary> html example shown above.

Benefits

• More consistent authoring experience
• Keeps documentation in Markdown without requiring HTML
• Easier to discover than relying on HTML knowledge
• Cleaner, more readable source documents
• Common feature found in many documentation platforms

I'd be happy to help test or provide feedback if this feature is implemented.

A native Markdown syntax would make collapsible sections easier to author.

[perber]

I will add it with the macros support.

[ribbal]

Hi @perber, thank you for your reply, and confirmation that this is something that would add value to LeafWiki.

Looking at the roadmap, it may appear that the macro functionality may be somewhat far into the future?

I have made start on implementing this functionality, which involves extending normalizeMarkdownShoutouts.ts to support the collapsible/collapsed blocks. It means that normalizeMarkdownShoutouts.ts would become more that just rendering shoutout blocks (coloured blocks, info blocks, etc...) and therefore, I would look to rename it to something like normalizeMarkdownBlocks.ts.

Before I continue, is this something that you would entertain as a PR, or would you prefer to implement it in the (future) macro functionality?

---

(PS - I am new to LeafWiki, and have just migrated from another wiki that I have been using for a short while. I'd just like to say, what a great polished product! Keep up the great work.)

[perber]

Hi @ribbal,

Thanks for your kind words.
I have already a plan to implement the macro support, because I already had some request which will fit a macro functionality.

I already generated an implementation plan. If you like I could share it with you.
I would like to focus a bit more on the backend and load testing the API.

If you would like to give it a try. Let me know. My feeling is that I could start with the Macro support in september.

[ribbal]

@perber, I've created a PR #1382 that should support the collapsible block functionality that we discussed above.

Hope it is OK?

I already generated an implementation plan. If you like I could share it with you.

If you could share this, I would be most interested to see it. Thanks.

[perber]

Thanks for the PR. I'll take a look. I haven't checked your PR right now, but keeping it simple is good for now.

Macro extension point for the markdown preview pipeline

Status: planned, not yet implemented.

Several feature requests boil down to the same thing — "render something dynamic inline in a page" — so instead of building each one as a one-off hardcoded feature, I'm building a generic macro extension point in the markdown renderer.

Syntax: directive-style, using :::name ... ::: for macros with content (e.g. collapsible sections, carousel) and ::name{attr=val} for macros without a body. This builds directly on the ::: syntax already used for shoutouts (:::info, :::warning, ...) — same marker, generalized into a registry instead of hardcoded per type.

This round: build the extension point itself, migrate the existing shoutouts onto it (to prove it works end-to-end), and add one new macro (::section-pages, for #1063).

Deferred as fast-follow macros on top of the same registry:

• Collapsible sections (:::collapsed / :::collapsible) — this issue, Feature Request: Native Collapsible Sections #1344
• Image carousel — Feature Request: an idea for organizing images #1137
• Transclusion/snippets — Templates/Re-usable Blocks #1253 (bigger, separate effort)

[perber]

@ribbal shipped in v0.12.1 — and built by you (#1382), thanks for that! :::collapsible / :::collapsed blocks are live. I adjusted the styling a bit afterward to match the shoutout-card design, but the feature is all yours.