A2S Plugin

Compatible with DokuWiki

• 2024-02-06 "Kaos" unknown
• 2023-04-04 "Jack Jackrum" yes
• 2022-07-31 "Igor" yes
• 2020-07-29 "Hogfather" yes

• Download
• Report bugs

Convert ASCII art diagram to nice embedded SVG images.

Last updated on

2022-06-21

Provides

Syntax

Repository

Source

Similar to diagram, ditaa, flowcharts

Tagged with ascii, diagram, image, images, media, svg

By Schplurtz le Déboulonné

a2s is a little plugin that turns ASCII art boxes, lines and arrows into nice SVG images. It is based on ASCIIToSVG by Devon H. O'Dell. It is very similar to the ditaa plugin but does not require external programs to run. It is compatible with the ODT export plugin.

june 2022: a2s works well with DW igor RC2 and php 8.1. But exports to odt with the odt plugin currently fails. There is no problem with php 7.4. See this bug report.

Search and install the plugin using the Extension Manager. Refer to Plugins on how to install plugins manually.

logo.a2s

<a2s>
 .-------------------------.
 |[Logo]                   |
 | .---.-. .-----. .-----. |
 | | .-. | +-->  | |  <--| |
 | | '-' | |  <--| +-->  | |
 | '---'-' '-----' '-----' |
 |  ascii     2      svg   |
 |                         |
 '-------------------------'
  https://9vx.org/~dho/a2s/
 
[Logo]:     {"fill":"#88d","a2s:delref":true}
</a2s>

tryme.a2s

<a2s> 
          +----+--------+                                :
          |    |        |             .----------------. |
          v    |        |             |[0]             | |
     #---------+---.    |        o----+----> Waow !    | v
     |             |<---+       /     |                | ^
====>| Hello       |           /      '----------------' |
====>| (svg) World '------.   /  #------#   .-------.    |
     |    .-----#         |==+   |      |   |       |    |
     '----#     '---------#      #------#   '-------'
[0]: {"a2s:link":"https://github.com/schplurtz/a2s","fill":"#CE3B83","stroke":"#F50078","stroke-dasharray":"5 5","stroke-width":4,"a2s:type":"cloud","a2s:delref":true}
</a2s>

Please, note that the reference doc is on ASCIIToSVG site.

• There are two kinds of objects : free lines, and closed shapes (usually boxes)
• free lines
  • Plain straight lines are drawn with |, -, \ and /
  • dashed lines : use at least one = (horizontal) or : (vertical) in a line, and it is dashed. Oblique lines can't be dashed.
  • + and o (lower case letter O) are used to connect lines of different orientation.
  • arrowhead. Use <, >, v, and ^. Nothing special here
• closed shapes
  • Borders are drawn with | and - only.
  • ', . and # are used for box angle. Do not use +, as it does not create closed shape.
  • closed shape can be styled.
    1. Identify the shape : In the top left angle of the shape, put some text between square bracket. example [0], [logo], [some text]
    2. At the bottom of the drawing, for each identified shape, add a single line with the identifier and a JSON hash of property:value. See the section just below for details.

Colors are expressed either

• In RGB with 3 or 6 hexdigits preceded by a sharp sign : #88d, #F50078
• or using a colorname such as blue, red, LemonChiffon etc… I just don't know the exact list of valid colornames. Please note that LemonChiffon seems valid, but that lemon chiffon is not, although it is a valid X11 colorname.

It is not possible to choose text color. When background is dark, ASCIIToSVG uses white. When background is light, text is written in black.

Available styling parametre :

• fill color : “fill”:“color”. examples :

  "fill":"#88d"
  "fill":"#F50078"
  "fill":"LemonChiffon"
  "fill":"blue"

• border stroke color : “stroke”:“color”. examples :

  "stroke":"#88d"
  "stroke":"#F50078"
  "stroke":"LemonChiffon"
  "stroke":"blue"

• border stroke width : “stroke-width”:number unit and default value is unknown. Example :

  "stroke-width":7

• border stroke dash : A serie of pair of dash length and space length. Length unit is unknown. Examples

  "stroke-dasharray":"5 5"
  "stroke-dasharray":"5 5 10 3 2 8"

• shape : “a2s:type”:“shapename” where shapename is one of cloud, computer, diamond, document, storage, printer. Examples

  "a2s:type":"cloud"
  "a2s:type":"storage"

• link : “a2s:link”:“linktext” where linktext is either an internal wiki link, an interwiki link, or a classic protocol://server/resource link. Since SVG can be included in ODT and PDF file, a2s does not obey the canonical setting and always generate absolute links. Since neither libreoffice nor dw2pdf use this link, this seems rather useless and may change in the future.
  Examples:

  "a2s:link":"[[.:]]"
  "a2s:link":"[[:start]]"
  "a2s:link":"[[:start|The start page]]"
  "a2s:link":"[[doku>interwiki|interwiki link]]
  "a2s:link":"https://github.com/schplurtz/a2s"
  "a2s:link":"ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/README"

• identifier removal. By default the id is left in the image. This is useful when you have enough room to use a meaningful word as id. However, it is possible to remove it using this code

  "a2s:delref":true

here is a full example example :

[0]: {"fill":"#d48","stroke":"#F50078","stroke-dasharray":"5 5","stroke-width":4,"a2s:type":"cloud","a2s:delref":true,"a2s:link":"https://github.com/schplurtz/a2s"}

Just like with regular images, you can align your SVG graphics by inserting spaces after < and before >. If there are more spaces on the left of the word a2s, then the image is right-aligned, if there are more spaces on the right, the image is left-aligned. When there is the same number of spaces on both sides of a2s, the image is centered

< a2s>
 .---------.
 |[1]      |
 | .-----. |
 | |  <--+ |
 | +-->  | |
 | '-----' |
 |   svg   |
 |<    a2s>|
 '---------'

[1]:     {"fill":"#E97B11","a2s:delref":true}
</a2s>
<a2s  >
 .---------.
 |[blue]   |
 | .---.-. |
 | | .-. | |
 | | '-' | |
 | '---'-' |
 |  ascii  |
 |<a2s    >|
 '---------'

[blue]:     {"fill":"blue","a2s:delref":true}
</a2s>
<  a2s  >
 .---------.
 |[lc]     |
 | .-----. |
 | +-->  | |
 | |  <--+ |
 | '-----' |
 |    2    |
 |<  a2s  >|
 '---------'

[lc]:     {"fill":"LemonChiffon","a2s:delref":true}
</a2s>

< a2s>
 .---------.
 |[1]      |
 | .-----. |
 | |  <--+ |
 | +-->  | |
 | '-----' |
 |   svg   |
 |<    a2s>|
 '---------'
[1]:     {"fill":"#bcd2ee","a2s:delref":true}
</a2s>
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed accumsan nec
odio quis aliquet. Nulla gravida ac est venenatis rhoncus. Aenean viverra
felis semper turpis commodo, ut vehicula dui mattis. Vivamus malesuada
vulputate justo. Suspendisse potenti. Etiam porttitor elementum nulla in
ultricies. Vestibulum volutpat nibh eu faucibus scelerisque. Suspendisse
eleifend arcu neque, at tristique metus tempus semper. Nullam ante leo,
convallis sit amet accumsan sed, semper nec quam. Curabitur fringilla,
orci id scelerisque varius, enim est ultrices est, et elementum magna
metus sit amet eros. Sed pharetra semper ligula sit amet efficitur. Mauris
congue accumsan egestas. Suspendisse potenti. Curabitur tincidunt
metus non justo tempus lacinia. Donec ornare velit a massa semper
ullamcorper. Donec dapibus ante vel lacus efficitur sodales. Integer
pretium eleifend nulla, at ullamcorper ipsum pellentesque placerat. Cras
condimentum iaculis leo. Sed sit amet pretium sem, sit amet suscipit
nibh. Nulla congue molestie purus sed congue. Fusce tincidunt ipsum
id molestie pellentesque. Curabitur lobortis placerat risus eget
vulputate. Maecenas ac feugiat ex, at facilisis nulla. Etiam rutrum
quis eros et facilisis. Nulla sodales molestie odio, id egestas massa
aliquam vel. Mauris vulputate ante sed volutpat euismod. Sed eleifend,
urna vitae auctor consequat, dui felis elementum ex, ut laoreet nunc
nisl convallis mi. Nullam id bibendum justo.

shapes

<a2s>
Shapes :
.----------.     .----------.     .----------.
|[cloud]   |     |[computer]|     |[diamond] |
|          |  +->|          |<-o->|          |
|          |  |  |          |  |  |          |
.----------.  |  .----------.  |  .----------.
--------------o----------------+
.----------.  |  .----------.  |  .----------.
|[document]|  :  |[storage] |  |  |[printer] |
|          |<-+->|          |  |  | Some txt |
|          |     |          |<-+->|          |
.----------.     .----------.     '----------'
 
.----------.     .----------.     .----------.
|[cl]      |     |[c]       |     |[yn]      |
|          |  +->|          |<-o->|          |
|          |  |  |          |  |  |          |
.----------.  |  .----------.  |  .----------.
--------------o----------------+
.----------.  |  .----------.  |  .----------.
|[d]       |  :  |[st]      |  |  |[p]       |
|          |<-+->|          |  |  | Some txt |
|          |     |          |<-+->|          |
.----------.     .----------.     '----------'
 
 
[printer]:  {"a2s:type":"printer","fill":"#ff1493"}
[computer]: {"a2s:type":"computer"}
[cloud]:    {"a2s:type":"cloud"}
[diamond]:  {"a2s:type":"diamond"}
[document]: {"a2s:type":"document"}
[storage]:  {"a2s:type":"storage"}
[p]:        {"a2s:type":"printer","fill":"#ff1493","a2s:delref":true}
[c]:        {"a2s:type":"computer","a2s:delref":true}
[cl]:       {"a2s:type":"cloud","a2s:delref":true}
[yn]:       {"a2s:type":"diamond","a2s:delref":true}
[d]:        {"a2s:type":"document","a2s:delref":true}
[st]:       {"a2s:type":"storage","a2s:delref":true}
</a2s>

Transparency is obtained by using an invalid colorname. This is undocumented. This may change depending on the browser or rendering library.

<a2s>
.---------------------------.   .----------.
|[storage]                  |   |[document]|
|         STORAGE           |   |          |
|                           |   |          |
|                           |   .----------.
|       .----------.    .---+-------.
|       |[document]|    |[0]|TRANS  |
|       |          |    |   |PARENT |
|       |          |    '---+-------'
|       .----------.        |
.---------------------------.


storage:          : document :
"fill":"#a7ffbe"  : "stroke":"#d627d8"
"a2s:delref":true : "stroke-width":9
                  : "stroke-dasharray":"5 3 3 7 10 5"
  5       3     3      7          10          5
.-----. .---. .---. .-------. .----------. .-----.
|[r]  | |   | |[r]| |       | |[r]       | |     |
'-----' '---' '---' '-------' '----------' '-----'

[document]: {"a2s:type":"document","stroke":"#d627d8","stroke-width":9,"stroke-dasharray":"5 3 3 7 10 5"}
[storage]:  {"a2s:type":"storage","fill":"#a7ffbe","a2s:delref":true}
[0]:        {"stroke":"#FFEE49","stroke-width":9,"a2s:delref":true,"fill":"caramba"}
[r]:        {"fill":"#d627d8","a2s:delref":true}
</a2s>

There is nothing to configure.

• prepare for DW release > hogfather (2022-06-21 00:06)
• correct version number (2018-04-26 14:40)
• mostly cosmetic: with and indent (2018-02-06 06:33)
• Possibility to convert demo.txt to dokuwiki.org page (2018-02-05 08:31)
• changed the version number (2017-12-17 21:44)
• support ODT⇒PDF export mode of the odt plugin (2017-12-17 21:43)
• 2017-10-31 has interwiki links (2017-10-31 07:34)
• interwiki links (2017-10-31 07:23)

When I export to pdf with dw2pdf, the arrowheads on line are not drawn, and alignment is not respected. Can you/I do something about that ?
No. As of 2017/07/27, unless you are the a developer of dw2pdf or mpdf, its PDF library, there is nothing to do. Sorry.

Is it possible to alter the line color using css or a configuration value? under the bootstrap / bootswatch / cyborg theme which is dark the lines are black on a black background. For now I've just worked around it using the following in a less css file to alter the background color

&.cyborg {
  svg.a2s {
    background-color:#303030;
  }
}