Inheriting included attributes

[bostrt]

Hello! I'm a new user to asciidoctor and asciidoctor-multipage so please bare with me 😅 . I have a main.adoc where I'm including some attributes use throughout. For example:

= My page

include::data/shared-metadata.adoc[]
{metadata_0}

== Page 1
{metadata_1}

== Page 2
{metadata_2}

data/shared-metadata.adoc contains the attributes referenced.

When I build the adoc normally, they are rendered as expected. However, when I build using asciidoctor-multipage, The resulting output only shows attributes on the main page (metadata_0) but pages 1 and 2 only show the place holders.

asciidoctor -r ~/code/asciidoctor-multipage/lib/asciidoctor-multipage.rb -b multipage_html5 main.adoc -D out

Is it possible for the included adoc to be inherited and render those attributes in other HTML pages?

[owenh000]

This will work if you define the attributes in the document header, like this:

= My page
include::data/shared-metadata.adoc[]

{metadata_0}

== Page 1
{metadata_1}

== Page 2
{metadata_2}

[bostrt]

Yes! Thank you and that solves it 👍

[bostrt]

Apologies, but after some more testing, I tend to see defining the attributes include in document header was a workaround to the root issue. I guess I expect the asciidoc to build the same no matter if I am using multipage or not.

Does the workaround you mentioned have to do with a technical limitation of the asciidoctor API you extend and the point at which attributes are able to be inherited?

[owenh000]

I guess I expect the asciidoc to build the same no matter if I am using multipage or not.

Well, that seems reasonable, but it's not perfect. (And we are also literally expecting it to not build the same, in that we want it to generate multiple HTML output pages rather than just one.)

Does the workaround you mentioned have to do with a technical limitation of the asciidoctor API you extend and the point at which attributes are able to be inherited?

I suppose so, but I cannot answer that for sure. I do know that asciidoctor-multipage works by taking the single, entire Asciidoctor::Document object (of which there is normally only one) and creates multiple Asciidoctor::Document objects (one for each page) from the document tree. Perhaps the earlier include:: is not processed at all in the scope of the later child pages, leaving the attributes missing.

[bostrt]

@owenh000 Thanks for the follow-up.

[bostrt]

Just by chance, I found that if I only mention in the include in the top level section then multipage renders as I would expect. Internally, this may be acting the same as the workaround you already mentioned. So the following works and renders correctly no matter the placement of the include:

= My page

include::testing.adoc[]

== Page 1

{metadata_0}

{metadata_1}

== Page 2
{metadata_2}

[owenh000]

@bostrt, thanks for sharing the example.

[gabriel-rh]

It would appear that this is a specific instance of the more general #23

Here is what works and what fails for me:

FAILS - Content in preamble

= test issue #23

include::attributes.adoc[]

If this preamble is removed, the attribute below (in Chapter) will work.

== Chapter

This should be *myvalue*: {myattr}

WORKS - No content in preamble

= test issue #23

include::attributes.adoc[]

//If this preamble is removed, the attribute below (in Chapter) will work.

== Chapter

This should be *myvalue*: {myattr}

WORKS - Move attributes definitions into header

= test issue #23
include::attributes.adoc[]

If this preamble is removed, the attribute below (in Chapter) will work.

== Chapter

This should be *myvalue*: {myattr}

WORKS - Move title into preamble

include::attributes.adoc[]

= test issue #23

If this preamble is removed, the attribute below (in Chapter) will work.

== Chapter

This should be *myvalue*: {myattr}

[owenh000]

I think this could be considered a bug in asciidoctor-multipage. It would be easier to work on with issue #46 completed.