# Getting started

HTML: [altophp.com/markdown/getting-started](https://altophp.com/markdown/getting-started/)

Render a GitHub-style Markdown document, inspect its title, and count its links
without parsing the source twice.

## Create a document

Start from a Composer application with `alto/markdown` installed. Save this
as `render.php` beside `vendor/` and run `php render.php`:

```php
<?php

require __DIR__.'/vendor/autoload.php';

use Alto\Markdown\Markdown;

$source = <<<'MD'
# Project

Read the [guide](https://example.com/guide).
MD;

$document = Markdown::github()->fromString($source);

echo $document->title()?->text()."\n";
echo $document->links()->count()."\n";
echo $document->toHtml();
```

The complete output is:

```text
Project
1
<h1>Project</h1>
<p>Read the <a href="https://example.com/guide">guide</a>.</p>
```

`github()` enables CommonMark, GitHub Flavored Markdown, GitHub alerts, and
front matter. The returned document retains the parsed structure and original
source bytes, so queries and edits share one workspace.

Use [HTML](https://altophp.com/markdown/conversion/html.md) when rendering is the only operation. Continue
with [Queries](https://altophp.com/markdown/documents/queries.md) when the application needs structural
answers.

---

Previous: [Installation](https://altophp.com/markdown/installation.md)
Next: [Conversion](https://altophp.com/markdown/conversion.md)

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ALTO\MARKDOWN: [altophp.com/markdown](https://altophp.com/markdown/)
ALTO(PHP): [altophp.com](https://altophp.com/)