# Consistent attribute syntax

**URL:** <https://talk.commonmark.org/t/consistent-attribute-syntax/272>\
**Category:** Extensions\
**Created:** [September 4, 2014, 10:28am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/consistent-attribute-syntax/272 "2014-09-04T10:28:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 8

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**Author:** ![Joshua\_Katz](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/joshua_katz/32/2478_2.png) [@Joshua\_Katz](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/Joshua_Katz)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 4:39pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/consistent-attribute-syntax/272/141 "2022-04-28T16:39:16Z")

</div>

Hey all, I was wondering if there was any decision if this would, or would not, be included in cmark? If it isn’t a good fit for cmark could it be implemented as an extension to cmark similar to [tables in gfm](https://github.com/github/cmark-gfm/blob/master/extensions/table.c)? What would the next steps be here?

I think this kind of syntax is liked by many users of other markdown rendering libraries and supporting it some way would be helpful for people who are accustomed to more classic.

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**Author:** ![ApisNecros](https://cdn.commonmark.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/a/a6a055/32.png) [@ApisNecros](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/ApisNecros)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 8:24pm UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/consistent-attribute-syntax/272/142 "2022-07-22T20:24:50Z")

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I’m in the process of writing a static, lightweight, [IndieWeb](https://indieweb.org/)-centric CMS for myself. A key factor in keeping those first two adjectives is writing my blog posts in markdown. In the spirit of being IndieWeb-centric, I’d like to make use of the [XHTML Friends Network](http://gmpg.org/xfn/intro) scheme to denote relationships between myself and the other blogs I link to. To get this working relies entirely on being able to set the `rel` attribute for links.

Like many others in this thread, I’m not too concerned with, though not without opinion on, the specifics, but I would like to see _some_ specific agreed upon.

As for where the braces go for inlines, I personally favor

```auto
[Foo](/index.html "Home" {rel="me"})

```

Or

```auto
[Foo](/index.html "Home"){rel="me"}

```

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**Author:** ![samwilson](https://cdn.commonmark.org/user_avatar/talk.commonmark.org/samwilson/32/2331_2.png) [@samwilson](https://talk.commonmark.org/u/samwilson)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2022, 1:07am UTC](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/consistent-attribute-syntax/272/143 "2022-07-23T01:07:27Z")

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I think the latter makes most sense, if it’s to be also a general attribute system for various things other than links.

I’m also working on an IndieWeb project, and am (foolishly? 😁) starting to add a templating sort of thing somewhat like MediaWiki’s, e.g. a `rel` link could be done with `{link|/index.html|Foo|rel=me}` (and the template will construct whatever HTML _or other format_ is wanted).

[Previous page](https://talk.commonmark.org/t/consistent-attribute-syntax/272.md?page=7)