# AQL and ADL syntax highlighting in Discourse

**Category:** [AQL](https://discourse.openehr.org/c/aql/43)
**Created:** 2023-02-03 14:04 UTC
**Views:** 554
**Replies:** 0
**URL:** https://discourse.openehr.org/t/aql-and-adl-syntax-highlighting-in-discourse/3526

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## Post #1 by @marcusbaw

Continuing the discussion from [Formatting AQL in new topics](https://discourse.openehr.org/t/formatting-aql-in-new-topics/3464):

[quote="siljelb, post:1, topic:3464"]
(Also, is it possible to add ADL and AQL syntax highlighting to Discourse?)
[/quote]

@ian.mcnicoll @thomas.beale  Please feel free to move this topic if #specifications:aql isn't the right place. @siljelb asked if this is possible - as far as I am aware **yes** it is, but **we would need a HLJS-compliant syntax highlighter to be written for AQL/ADL.** This isn't an area of my expertise really, but perhaps someone within the OpenEHR community would be able to do it.

Discourse uses [Highlight.js (HLJS)](https://highlightjs.org/) in the frontend JS code to highlight code snippets. From my enquiries with the Discourse team over on Meta, it is possible to extend the default/built-in syntax highlighters with additional languages via a Theme Component in Discourse.

### Relevant reading on Discourse Meta about this

Once we have a HLJS highlighter for AQL/ADL I suspect it is not going to be too hard to do. I'm happy to help once the AQL/ADL highlighter is done.

 https://meta.discourse.org/t/install-a-new-language-for-highlight-js-on-a-hosted-discourse/55818/14

 https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-highlight-js-styles/44671

 https://meta.discourse.org/t/configure-which-programming-languages-are-available-for-syntax-highlighting/239717/4

Here is a repository in which both the HLJS and Discourse plugin have been done for another language Jai https://github.com/Jai-Community/discourse-highlightjs-jai

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**Canonical:** https://discourse.openehr.org/t/aql-and-adl-syntax-highlighting-in-discourse/3526
**Original content:** https://discourse.openehr.org/t/aql-and-adl-syntax-highlighting-in-discourse/3526