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PhpStorm 8: Markdown Support in PHPDoc Blocks

rustam.vishnyakov

Since PhpDocumentor allows Markdown in documentation blocks (as stated here), we have added Markdown support to PhpStorm 8 too when showing a quick documentation of classes, functions, etc. Here is a list of what is actually supported from Markdown syntax specification, with some examples:

Paragraphs separated by one or more line breaks. There is a continuous flow of text inside a paragraph without line breaks from the original description.
Headers. You can use the following style, for example:
```
My Header  OR  My Header
---------      =========
```
or use the number sign (#):
```
# My Header 1
## My Header 2
```
Emphasis. A piece of text surrounded with underscore characters (_) or asterisks (*) is rendered as underlined. You can also use double asterisks (**) to make it bold. Note that if the underscore character appears inside a name, for example my_variable, it is left as is.
Lists. You can use asterisks (*) or short dashes (-) at the beginning of a line to mark a list item. For example:
```
...
* * First item
* * Second item
* * Third item
```
These will be translated to an HTML list as follows:
- First item
- Second item
- Third item
Code blocks. Wrap the code into backtick quotes (`) as follows:
```
* ```
* // This is a code fragment
* $this->x = 0;
* ```
```

Note: It is possible to use HTML markup in combination with Markdown.

And finally, a larger sample:

/**
 * # MyClass Documentation
 *
 *  Describes _how to use_ the class with some examples:
 * ```
 * // Create new instance
 * $obj = new MyClass();
 * ```
 * HTML tags are properly escaped:
 * ```
 * <html><div></div></html>
 * ```
 * Steps:
 * * Step 1
 * * Step 2
 * * Step 3
 *
 * **Note:** <i>Some important note.</i>
 */

The example above will be rendered like so: