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박준희
박준희

Posted on • Originally published at aicoreutility.com

Dev.to Markdown Tables/Bold Broken? Fixing the `markdownify` Double Processing Issue

#devto #markdownify

I had a bit of trouble with Markdown tables and bold text getting messed up on Dev.to. It was pretty annoying to see my posts come out all jumbled every time I published. I wanted to share how I solved this issue.

Attempts and Pitfalls

When I tried to publish my posts on Dev.to, the tables and bold text I wrote in Markdown weren't displaying correctly and were showing up broken. At first, I thought I had written the Markdown syntax wrong and double-checked it multiple times.


| Header 1 | Header 2 |
|---|---|
| **Bold Text** | Some Data |
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Even with a simple table and bold text like the above, it looked strange on Dev.to. It was definitely rendering fine locally.

It seemed like there was some kind of post-processing happening on the server that was handling the Markdown again. So, I started suspecting that if I was using a library like markdownify, maybe it was being processed twice.

The Cause

In the end, the problem was with the content_en field. This field already contained the content in Markdown format, and I was processing it again with markdownify, which caused a double Markdown conversion. Since it was already Markdown, trying to convert it to Markdown again messed up the syntax.

The Solution

The fix was simple. I modified the logic to use the content_en field directly if it was already in Markdown format, instead of reprocessing it with markdownify.

# Original code (assumed)
# content_en = "..." # Already in Markdown format
# processed_content = markdownify(content_en)

# Modified code
content_en = "..." # Already in Markdown format
if not is_already_markdown(content_en): # In reality, you'd need logic to check the format of content_en
    processed_content = markdownify(content_en)
else:
    processed_content = content_en

# When applying this in practice, it might vary depending on what values the content_en field holds
# and how a function like is_already_markdown is implemented.
# The important thing is to avoid extra conversion when it's already Markdown.
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By skipping the markdownify processing for data that was already in Markdown format, the issue was resolved.

Results

  • Markdown tables in posts published on Dev.to are now displayed correctly.
  • Text formatting like bold and italics is no longer broken and appears as intended.
  • I no longer spend time worrying about my content breaking after publishing.

In Summary — To Avoid the Same Pitfall

  • [ ] When using Markdown conversion libraries, make it a habit to check if the input data is already in Markdown format.
  • [ ] Clearly understand the format of data stored in fields like content_en and design your processing logic accordingly.
  • [ ] Double processing is a common culprit for unexpected bugs. Always pay close attention to your data flow.

💬 This is part of *Riel** — a full AI product I'm building solo, in public (failures and all). Read more build logs → · See the product →*

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