BBCode
BBCode ("Bulletin Board Code") is a lightweight markup language used to format messages in many Internet forum software. It was first introduced in 1998. The available "tags" of BBCode are usually indicated by square brackets ([
and ]
) surrounding a keyword, and are parsed before being translated into HTML.[1]
Tags
Example in HTML/CSS | BBCode | Output | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
<b>bolded text</b> [2],<strong>bolded text</strong> [1] or<span style="font-weight: bold;">bolded text</span> |
[b]bolded text[/b] |
bolded text | ||||
<i>italicized text</i> ,<em>italicized text</em> or<span style="font-style: italic;">italicized text</span> |
[i]italicized text[/i] |
italicized text | ||||
<ins>underlined text</ins> or<span style="text-decoration: underline;">underlined text</span> |
[u]underlined text[/u] |
underlined text | ||||
<del>strikethrough text</del> or<span style="text-decoration: line-through;">strikethrough text</span> |
[s]strikethrough text[/s] |
|||||
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org">https://en.wikipedia.org</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org">English Wikipedia</a> |
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org[/url] [url=https://en.wikipedia.org]English Wikipedia[/url] |
https://en.wikipedia.org English Wikipedia | ||||
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Example.png" alt="Example.png" /> |
[img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Example.png[/img] |
|||||
<img src="Smileys/Face-smile.svg" alt=":-)"> |
:) or [:-)] This would be another way to use the [img]url_img[/img] and must be pre-configured by the forum administrator.(This and other emoticons, depending on the variant. Most BBCodes do not enclose emoticons in square brackets, leading to frequent accidental usage.) |
(Specific image and size vary.) | ||||
<blockquote><p>quoted text</p></blockquote> (Usually implemented in more advanced ways.) |
[quote]quoted text[/quote] [quote="author"]quoted text[/quote] (including optional author ) |
Using a Wikipedia template:
| ||||
<pre>monospaced text</pre> |
[code]monospaced text[/code] |
monospaced text | ||||
<span style="font-size:30px">Large Text</span> or<span style="font-size:85%">Smaller Text</span> |
[style size="30px"]Large Text[/style] [style size="85"]Smaller Text[/style] (The unit of measurement varies with each BBCode variant and could represent pixels, points, or relative HTML sizes.) |
Large Text Smaller Text | ||||
<span style="color:fuchsia;">Text in fuchsia</span> or<span style="color:#FF00FF;">Text in fuchsia</span> |
[style color="fuchsia"]Text in fuchsia[/style] or[style color=#FF00FF]Text in fuchsia[/style] or[color=#FF00FF]Text in fuchsia[/color] (Both HTML color names and hexadecimal color values are generally supported, although on some boards, you must omit the # from selecting a hexadecimal color.) |
Text in fuchsia | ||||
<ul>
<li>Entry A</li>
<li>Entry B</li>
</ul>
<ol>
<li>Entry 1</li>
<li>Entry 2</li>
</ol>
|
[list]
[*]Entry A
[*]Entry B
[/list]
[list=1]
[*]Entry 1
[*]Entry 2
[/list]
Some message boards do not need the square brackets around the markers.[3] (Many variants for |
| ||||
<table>
<tr>
<td>table cell 1</td>
<td>table cell 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>table cell 3</td>
<td>table cell 4</td>
</tr>
</table>
|
[table]
[tr]
[td]table cell 1[/td]
[td]table cell 2[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]table cell 3[/td]
[td]table cell 4[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
(Some variants for |
|
Implementation
BBCode is typically implemented by applying a series of regular expression string-replace operations upon the input. Because regular expressions are limited in analyzing the structure of text input, this has the artifact that any non-hierarchical BBCode input will be transformed into invalid non-hierarchical HTML without error.
Applying traditional parsing techniques is made difficult by ambiguities in the markup, such as in [quote=[b]text[/b][/quote]
, where the input can either be interpreted as "text" quoted from someone called [b
, or the bolded text "text" surrounded by [quote=
and [/quote]
, i.e. [quote=text[/quote]
.
See also
References
- "Why modern forums are switching from HTML to BBCode". LovelyReality.com. Archived from the original on 2018-09-01. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
- "HTML Text Formatting". www.w3schools.com. Retrieved 2021-05-01.
- e.g. BOINC Project Forums et al.
- "BBCode tags reference". www.bbcode.org. Retrieved 12 January 2022.