Integrating dynamic content into a self-parsing Markdown page

Other Questions JavaScript
1

I’ve got a webpage that parses Markdown content using markdown-it. It works fine for static content, but I’m struggling to add dynamic elements. Here’s what I’m trying to do:

<script src="markdown-parser.min.js"></script>
<script src="custom-parser.js"></script>
<noscript>
# Sample Content
**Bold text** and <mark>highlighted text</mark>

<div class="shaded">
Shaded area
</div>
</noscript>

<p id="dynamic-content"></p>
<script src="fetch-data.js"></script>

The custom-parser.js file handles the Markdown conversion:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
  const rawContent = document.querySelector('noscript').textContent;
  const converter = new MarkdownParser({ html: true });
  const parsedContent = converter.convert(rawContent);
  document.body.innerHTML = parsedContent;
});

This part works as expected. However, when I try to add dynamic content using fetch-data.js:

(async () => {
  const infoElement = document.getElementById("dynamic-content");
  try {
    const response = await fetch('https://api.example.com/data');
    const data = await response.json();
    infoElement.textContent = `Data: ${data.info}`;
  } catch (error) {
    infoElement.textContent = `Error: ${error.message}`;
  }
})();

The dynamic content doesn’t appear. How can I make this work with the Markdown parsing setup?

2

The issue you’re facing stems from how the Markdown parsing is implemented. Your current setup replaces the entire body content with the parsed Markdown, which overwrites any dynamically added elements.

To resolve this, you should modify your approach slightly:

  1. Create a dedicated container for your Markdown content.
  2. Parse the Markdown into this container instead of the entire body.
  3. Keep your dynamic content element separate.

Here’s a revised version of your custom-parser.js:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
  const rawContent = document.querySelector('noscript').textContent;
  const converter = new MarkdownParser({ html: true });
  const parsedContent = converter.convert(rawContent);
  const markdownContainer = document.createElement('div');
  markdownContainer.innerHTML = parsedContent;
  document.body.insertBefore(markdownContainer, document.getElementById('dynamic-content'));
});

This approach should allow your dynamic content to coexist with the parsed Markdown content.

3

hey mate, i’ve dealt with this before. try using a MutationObserver to watch for changes in the DOM. somethin like this:

const observer = new MutationObserver(() => {
  // your dynamic content code here
});
observer.observe(document.body, {childList: true, subtree: true});

this way, your dynamic content will be added whenever the DOM changes, including after markdown parsing. hope this helps!

4

I’ve encountered a similar issue when working with dynamic content and Markdown parsing. One approach that worked well for me was to use a custom event system. Here’s what I did:

After parsing the Markdown, I dispatched a custom event to signal that the content was ready:

document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', () => {
  // ... your existing Markdown parsing code ...
  document.dispatchEvent(new Event('markdownParsed'));
});

Then, in fetch-data.js, I listened for this event before fetching and inserting the dynamic content:

document.addEventListener('markdownParsed', async () => {
  // ... your existing fetch and insert code ...
});

This ensures that the dynamic content is added only after the Markdown has been parsed and inserted into the DOM. It’s a simple yet effective way to coordinate the timing between static and dynamic content rendering.