Common steps

This program doesn't have any installer and is installed according to the principle unpack-and-run:

Put (or clone from the VCS) the unpacked directory md2html to the directory by choice.
Define the MD2HTML_HOME environment variable as the absolute path of the directory md2html.
Follow further specific steps for:
- Python version and
- Java version
For Windows, file explorer context menu items may be added, see here.

Tip

After the program is installed, before further reading, you may go to the Quick start section and try out the program.

Python version

Prerequisites

This program requires Python 3 runtime that can be installed in different ways. Here is a short instruction for a typical installation on Windows.

Note

Again, this is just one of the methods intended mainly for less experienced users and those who want to save the time. Other installation methods will most likely work as well.

The installer file name is python-3.8.7-amd64.exe (or choose the other one applicable to your platform). Only the following option (1) must be changed:

Nothing else should be changed in this and the subsequent dialogs.

The following command may be used to check whether Python is installed.

>python --version
Python 3.8.7

Notes

Later versions of Python will very probably be suitable too but they were not completely checked.
In Linux the python command is probably used for running Python 2 that does not suffice for this program. Python 3 may need to be installed separately and called with command python3.

The following Python packages must be installed:

>python -m pip install markdown==3.3.4 markdown-emdash==0.1.0 pymdown-extensions==8.2 jsonschema==3.2.0 chevron==0.14.0

Note

The packages are specified with their versions for stability reason. Future versions of the packages may have changes that noticeably affect the program work.

Installation

Here's how the Python version may be installed:

Fulfill the common steps.
That's it, provided that the prerequisites are matched.

Java version

Prerequisites

Java runtime (JRE) 8 or higher. The following command may be used to check whether Java is installed.

>java -version
java version "1.8.0_05"
.  .  .

Installation

Here's how the Java version may be installed:

Fulfill the common steps.
Take or build the executable artifact (see below).

Unlike the Python version, the Java version in this distribution doesn't contain the executable artifacts. They must be built or taken separately.

Using the release build

The latest built release must be available along with the source code. A release is a file named md2html-bin.jar. Download this file and put it inside the directory %MD2HTML_HOME%\java\target\ (create this directory if it does not exist). That's it.

Building the project

This needs Java Development Kit (JDK, not JRE) 8 or higher and Maven.

In a command line terminal execute:

>cd %MD2HTML_HOME%\java

>release.bat

The following must be output as the process ends:

[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESS
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

File md2html-bin.jar must appear in the directory %MD2HTML_HOME%\java\target\.

Note

Note. The tests and the whole build will fail if the variable MD2HTML_HOME is not set.