Using Unified to parse Markdown with HTML inside - parsing

Question

I'm trying to convert GitHub-flavored markdown (GFM) text to a Markdown AST Node. Because GFM allows for HTML tags like <img>, I also want those parsed as Markdown elements as well.
Right now, I'm using a combination of Unified + Turndown to do so. Essentially, I am parsing the Markdown, converting all of it to raw HTML using Unified and several plugins, then converting it to raw markdown using Turndown, then using Unified again to parse the new raw markdown into an AST node, and then finally parsing that node as I want.
This is what I have:
import unified from 'unified';
import markdown from 'remark-parse';
import gfm from 'remark-gfm';
import TurndownService from 'turndown';
import remark2rehype from 'remark-rehype';
import html from 'rehype-stringify';
import raw from 'rehype-raw';
import {parseBlocks} from './parser/internal';
import type {Root} from './markdown';
import type {ParsingOptions} from './types';
const {gfm: turndownGfm} = require('turndown-plugin-gfm');
export async function markdownToBlocks(body: string) {
const turndownService = new TurndownService().use(turndownGfm);
const rawHtml = await unified()
.use(markdown)
.use(gfm)
.use(remark2rehype, {allowDangerousHtml: true})
.use(raw)
.use(html)
.process(body);
const rawMarkdown = turndownService.turndown(String(rawHtml));
const root = unified().use(markdown).use(gfm).parse(rawMarkdown);
return parseBlocks(root as unknown as Root);
}
It does exactly what I want to and works perfectly, however I can't help but think there's a better solution that's more efficient than how I do it right now, since I'm parsing it several times over.
Any advice for how I can improve this with fewer parsing steps would be appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

I also want those parsed as Markdown elements as well.
HTML inside Markdown is allowed, there is no need to parse it as Markdown, just pass it along as-is.
Otherwise don't re-invent the wheel: Turn the Markdown into HTML and load it as DOMDocument if you need an object model you can traverse.