Blocks

What is a block?

A block (or block element) is a line-oriented, discrete chunk of content in an AsciiDoc document. Some blocks may contain other blocks.

A block is defined as one or more contiguous lines of text or optionally contiguous lines enclosed in block delimiters. A block (including its metadata lines) should be surrounded by a blank line or document boundary on either side.

Examples of a block include a paragraph, a section, a list, a delimited block, a table, a block macro, and the document itself.

Blocks form the backbone of the structure in an AsciiDoc document.

Block context, style, and content model

Each block has a primary type, known as its context. The context is typically inferred by the AsciiDoc syntax.

For example, consider the following normal section:

== Section Title

The context of this block is section. The writer does not have to do anything to specify the context in this case as it’s implied by the syntax. We often just say that this is a section block, using the context as an adjective to describe the block.

The context dictates the content model. The content model determines how the content inside of the block is processed. The content models are as follows:

compound

a block that only contains other blocks (e.g., a section block)

simple

a block that is treated as contiguous lines of paragraph text (and subject to normal substitutions) (e.g., a paragraph block)

verbatim

a block that holds verbatim text (displayed "as is") (and subject to verbatim substitutions) (e.g., a listing block)

raw

a block that holds unprocessed content passed directly through to the output with no substitutions applied (e.g., a passthrough block)

empty

a block that has no content (e.g., an image block)

All sections have the compound content model because they can only contain other blocks.

For some blocks, you may notice a name enclosed in square brackets above the block (e.g., [source]). In this case, the first positional (unnamed) attribute in the block attribute list is being used to specify the block style.

The block style elaborates the block’s context. The style is almost always to be specified by the writer.

Consider the following example of a source block:

[source]
----
puts "Hello, World!"
----

The context of a source block is listing (inferred from the listing block delimiters) and the style is source (as specified by the writer). We say that the style specialized the block.

The first positional attribute may also be used to change the context of a block. In these cases, the name between the square brackets is interpreted not as the block style, but rather as the block context.

Consider the case of this alternate syntax for a listing block, known a block masquerading.

[listing]
....
a > b
....

Since the first positional attribute matches the name of a context, the context of the block becomes listing (and the block does not have a block style).

To get a complete picture of the block’s type, you must consider both the context and the style. The context is always set and is often inferred from the syntax. The style extends the context to give it special behavior.

The context is what the converter uses to dispatch to a convert method. The style is used by the converter to apply special behavior to blocks of the same type.

Block commonalities

All blocks can accomodate zero or more lines of metadata stacked directly on top of the block. These lines populate the properties of the block, such as the ID, title, and options. These metadata lines are as follows:

  • Zero or more block attribute lines (which populate the block’s attributes)

  • An optional block anchor line

  • An optional block title line (many blocks also support a corresponding caption)

  • An optional ID

  • An optional set of roles

  • An optional set of options

For example, consider a sidebar block with a title and ID:

[#music-styles]
.Styles of music
****
Describes what a style of music is.
****

When it comes to processing content, blocks split off into different groups. These groups are primarily associated with the block’s content model.

All delimited blocks are enclosed in a matching pair of delimiter lines.

All paragraph blocks must be contiguous lines.

Paragraph blocks and verbatim blocks have an implicit and modifiable set of substitutions. Substitutions do not apply to compound blocks (i.e., blocks that may contain nested blocks).