FMDB-flavored Markdown

Descriptions, notes and biographies on FMDB are written in Markdown: plain text with a few characters that add formatting. FMDB follows the CommonMark standard and adds two things of its own, links to entries and mentions of other users.

Formatting

Each example below shows what you type and what FMDB shows for it. The right-hand side is rendered by the same code that renders your text.

Emphasis

Music by **John Williams**, conducted *by the composer*.

Paragraphs and line breaks

An empty line starts a new paragraph. A single line break inside a paragraph is shown as a space; end the line with two spaces to keep the break.

First line  
second line

A new paragraph.

Lists

- Main Title
- The Asteroid Field

1. Recorded in London
2. Mixed in Los Angeles

Quotes

> The score was recorded in eight sessions.

Links

Write the text in square brackets and the address in parentheses, or put an address in angle brackets.

Read the [liner notes](https://example.com/notes) or visit <https://example.com>.

Code

The catalogue number is `VCL 0123 1234`.

Headings

A line that starts with # becomes a heading; the more #, the smaller the heading. Keep headings for long texts; most notes read better without them.

### Recording sessions

The score was recorded in London.

Links to entries

A link to an artist, release, production or label is written with double square brackets: the type of the entry, a colon and its ID. FMDB shows it as a link with the entry's current name, so the link stays correct when the entry is renamed. Upper or lower case in the type and ID makes no difference.

Music by [[artist:aea8208e-167f-4824-b51d-29a6a348d82b]].

Your own text

To show your own text instead of the name, add it after a |.

Music by [[artist:aea8208e-167f-4824-b51d-29a6a348d82b|Johnny Williams]].

Productions

A link to a production also shows its country and year, even with your own text.

From [[production:ad457493-a2c0-423c-adfb-1874464d303b]] and [[production:ad457493-a2c0-423c-adfb-1874464d303b|Ridley Scott's Alien]].

Deleted entries

If the entry is deleted, the link turns into plain text: your own text if you gave one, otherwise nothing. The ID in this example belongs to no entry.

Music by [[artist:00000000-0000-4000-8000-000000000000|Johnny Williams]].

Brackets and pipes in your own text

Inside your own text, a ] has to be written as \], because ]] ends the link. In the same way \[, \| and \\ stand for [, | and \; any other backslash is shown as typed. Both of these show the text Alien [Expanded]:

[[release:278fde20-5267-11e7-ae76-fa163ef5db36|Alien \[Expanded\]]]

[[release:278fde20-5267-11e7-ae76-fa163ef5db36|Alien [Expanded\]]]

Mentioning users

Type @ followed by a username to link to that user's public collection. Upper and lower case do not matter. A name that belongs to no user stays plain text, and an email address is not a mention.

Scans by @daFish, sent to me@example.com.

What does not work

FMDB supports standard CommonMark only. Extensions you may know from other sites are not available and stay plain text:

Tables

| Track | Length |
|---|---|
| Main Title | 5:24 |

Strikethrough

~~Limited to 3000 copies~~

Task lists

- [ ] Check the credits

Bare addresses

An address on its own is not turned into a link. Put it in angle brackets instead, as shown under Formatting.

Details: see https://example.com

Footnotes are not supported either.

A list can hold one more list inside it, and quotes can be nested four deep; anything deeper is shown as plain text. Links work with http and https addresses and with pages on FMDB; other kinds, such as mailto:, are shown as text without a link. Some HTML is accepted, but it is filtered: scripts, styles and unsafe content are removed. Use Markdown wherever you can.