Multi-Parapgraph Markdown-quote is rendered incorrectly

[pludi]

Description

Markdown-quoting of multiple paragraphs into a single quote does not insert paragraphs, but instead renders into a single line.

Steps to reproduce

In any channel post a multi-paragraph quote, eg.

> This is a quote-test with
>
> multiple paragraphs

The expected result would be (through pandoc -f markdown -t html5)

<blockquote>
<p>This is a quote-test with</p>
<p>Multiple paragraphs</p>
</blockquote>

Instead the resulting formatted_body content is

<blockquote>\nThis is a quote-test withMultiple paragraphs\n</blockquote>\n

Version information

• Server: Self-hosted, Synapse 0.99.1.1+stretch1
• Platform: Web and Desktop

For the web app:

• Browser: Chrome 72.0.3626.109
• OS: Ubuntu 18.04
• URL: riot.im/app

For the desktop app:

• OS: Ubuntu 18.0.4
• Version: 1.0.1

[hpdeifel]

This still happens in riot 1.5.0, so I believe the type:old-composer label is incorrect.

[t3chguy]

Tested against commonmark dingus and indeed we are doing something wrong

[PeterNerlich]

I had a few furious encounters with this recently (I was posting messages and whole emails into a room for the group to see as a quote). One thing I now noticed, it seems to work when the message consists of multiple elements (like a blockquote and normal text) - when it is only a single blockquote, it seems to break

[jooize]

This issue drives me crazy as I frequently send messages only consisting of quotes.

Element Version 1.7.4

[ZanderBrown]

Hate to be that guy but this is still happening and it's driving me loopy

Once or twice I've somehow got it to work by accident but the vast majority of the time newlines (and any associated whitespace) just get stripped out

Attempting to fix the resultant message often hits #12535 so now my multipara quote isn't a quote at all…

[ghost]

I've run into the same issue and done a bit of experimenting to feel around its edges. What I've found:

For the formatting to fail, the blockquote must be the only thing in the message.

Text both before it and after it gets rid of this problem.

The problem does not occur when two lines are immediately consecutive.

This:

> multi-line
> blockquote

puts two lines, as expected:

multi-line
blockquote

though the source (or whatever I saw when I hit Edit) is a little weird:

>
multi-line
> blockquote

The problem does occur when there is an empty line between them.

This:

> multi-line
> 
> blockquote

renders without a break at all:

multi-lineblockquote

with the source text:

>
multi-lineblockquote

Mixing the two rules in one message does not affect their behavior.

> multi-line blockquote
> both without spaces
> 
> and with them
> and then not again

renders as

multi-line blockquote
both without spacesand with them
and then not again

and editing it shows this source:

> 
multi-line blockquote
> both without spacesand with them
> and then not again

Hopefully this information is useful to someone or another.

---

Edit: added resulting message sources
Edit 2: fix a couple Markdown mistakes

[williamkray]

wow, i'm sad to see how long this has been open. i run into this almost every day.

[brendanzab]

To workaround this issue, you can precede a multi-paragraph quote (that is to say, a quote containing quoted blank lines) with something else, either "foo" or a separate empty quote:

>

> like
>
> this

foo
> or
>
> this

Nested quotes can be done by applying this rule again:

>

> >
>
> > like
> >
> > this

Just noting this down here for next time I encounter this and end up in an infuriating edit-fix loop with #12535. It would be great to see this fixed, it is extremely frustrating to encounter this!

I'm also not sure how these bodges render in other services connected via matrix, or other matrix clients, so use this with care. 😬