Can't Make a Reference-Style Link That's Part of a Bulleted List Render in a Markdown File on GitLab.com

How to Use GitLab
1

(Poster’s note: Posted in/under the ‘General’ because the ‘Questions & Answers’ category is for posts discussing ‘installing, configuring, and running GitLab,’ presumably in reference to a local instance.)

     I’m trying to use a reference-stye link inside a bulleted list that’s part of a Markdown file that’s hosted in a repository at GitLab.com, but I can’t get said link to render; I just get whitespace. I’ve tried a few possible syntax variations — namely ‘[reference-text]: <link-text> "title-attribute-text",’ ‘[reference-text]: link-text "title-attribute-text",’ and ‘[reference-text]: link-text’ without any text for the active Markdown parser to process into what would be the resulting raw HTML link’s ‘title’ attribute — to try and get it to work, but with no success.
     Am I possibly hitting a bug in GitLab? Should I file an issue? Alternatively, am I doing something wrong, and, if so, what? I’m not 100& sure I have the syntax right here. I also saw The DevSecOps Platform | GitLab, but that’s just with respect to GitLab’s documentation style guide, which said issue links to.

2

Hello there, have you looked into GitLab flavoured markdown docs?

If my reply solved your problem, please mark it as the solution in this thread - else, please provide more information

Kind regards,
Aljaz S.

3

@aljaxus:

     Yes, and they still list reference-style links as being available:

⋮

Links

There are two ways to create links, inline-style and reference-style:

⋮

Using references:

- This is a [reference-style link, see below][Arbitrary case-insensitive reference text]
- You can [use numbers for reference-style link definitions, see below][1]
- Or leave it empty and use the [link text itself][], see below.

⋮

Using references:

⋮

I notice multiple instances of the following HTML comment in that file’s raw source text, though:

<!--
Do not edit the following codeblock. It uses HTML to skip the Vale ReferenceLinks test.
-->

Finally, what additional information do you need? I can provide a link the file that I’m having trouble with, if that helps. (And I’m running the following browser and OS:

  • Safari v11.1.2, build 11605.3.8.1
  • OS X v10.11.6 ‘El Capitan,’ build 15G22010.)

(And, yes, I know this is old, but I can’t update past that major OS version on my current hardware, and I’ve currently frozen my local configuration temporarily while I migrate to another, newer machine.)

4

Hi,

I’d love to see the file and its content with your current state of trying this. I don’t think it is related to your client’s OS but more of a problem with Markdown formatting itself.

Cheers,
Michael

5

@dnsmichi:

     Here you go! The offending line is the first one under its ‘References’ section’s ‘Useful Links’ sub-section.

(Edit: P. S.:

     I also have an issue open for this on the repository hosting that file.)

6

@dnsmichi:

      Have you filed a GitLab core issue for this, or should/shall I? I searched for one, but I couldn’t find that you had.

7

Hi,

I am really busy and am reading and answering in bulk when I get the time to. In order to avoid an - imho - unnecessary issue, I am writing this late in the evening :wink:

Here’s a merge request for your project with a fix for the reference style URL:

I figured that explaining is hard, seeing the results and learning from that should be easier :slight_smile: The MR also has some html comment blocks explaining the things going on.

Cheers,
Michael

2 Likes