Confused by rendering a summary

[whit0694]

I have a simple bit of code on my front page that shows the summary for the most recent reviews

<% collections.reviews.first(5).each do |review| %>
<div>
<h3><a href="<%= review.relative_url %>"><%= review.data.title %></a></h3>
<%== review.summary %>
<a href="<%= review.relative_url %>">more...</a>
</div>
<% end %>

But regardless of what I've tried, the built site shows the summary in raw markdown rather than html.

Weirdly, when I first start up a local server the local version of the page also shows it in raw markdown. But if I then save my src/index.md file without changing anything, the page then renders the summary correctly. If I stop the server and restart it, it goes back to raw markdown.

I'm clearly hitting some weirdness around SafeBuffer, but I'm not sure what.

[pradipNP]

<%== review.summary %> is doing what Rails SafeBuffer is supposed to do: it skips escaping. It does not run Markdown.

Resource#summary defaults to the first line of the resource body. On a .md review that line is still Markdown (This is a **great** record.), not HTML. <%== %> then prints that string unchanged. You get raw ** in the built site because nothing converted it.

The helper you want is markdownify, which runs the site Markdown converter and marks the result html_safe:

<% collections.reviews.first(5).each do |review| %>
<div>
  <h3><a href="<%= review.relative_url %>"><%= review.data.title %></a></h3>
  <%= markdownify(review.summary) %>
  <a href="<%= review.relative_url %>">more...</a>
</div>
<% end %>

<%= markdownify(...) %> is enough — markdownify already calls safe / html_safe internally. <%== markdownify(...) %> is redundant.

Why a no-op save "fixes" it locally

First request after bin/bridgetown start builds the collection resources before src/index.md has been through the same render pass as a later incremental rebuild. summary is taken from content that has not been converted yet, so you see Markdown.

Saving index.md (even unchanged) queues a rebuild of that template after the review resources exist in a converted form, so summary can already be HTML and <%== %> looks correct. Stop/start clears that ordering and you are back to raw Markdown. A production bridgetown build follows the cold-start path, which is why the deployed site always shows Markdown.

If markdownify(review.summary) still looks off (double-wrapped <p>, or HTML escaped as text), inspect:

<pre><%= review.summary.inspect %></pre>

• Starts with <p> → summary is already HTML; use <%= review.summary %> (single =).
• Starts with Markdown → markdownify as above.

A summary in front matter (summary: "...") is never passed through the Markdown converter unless you markdownify it, same as the first-line default.

[IanWhitney]

Thanks! Appreciate the help.