How to customize XML (FB2) generation?

[OnkelTem]

Hi!

I'm very new to pandoc. I generate FB2 from Markdown.

I don't find templates for FB2 format. Can I somehow affect the generation?

For example, FB2 can have version at the /description/document-info/version path. But current generator doesn't set version (I tried passing version in the Front Matter block). Is there a way to customize that?

[jgm]

Currently not. We could modify the writer to include the version. We could, more radically, modify it to use a template. I'm not familiar with the FB2 format and the person who wrote the writer has long been inactive.

[OnkelTem]

Thanks, John!

We could, more radically, modify it to use a template

So templates is a new thing, right? And one can create a template for FB2 and it will be more flexible then?

As for that person who made it - well, they did a good job! For instance, pandoc FB2 writer is better than the one in Calibre, which cannot preserve footnotes :-/

[jgm]

Templates are not new, but perhaps the author of the FB2 template didn't see a need for one.

[OnkelTem]

of the FB2 template

I'm a little confused, as I understood you said it exists as a writer, not a template. Or you meant some internal one?

Would it be a difficult task to expose it as an external template, that can be customized?

Can I do this? :)

[OnkelTem]

Wait a second, this is haskell! I withdraw my last question about me making anything! =)

[badumont]

I'm a little confused, you said it's only write, no templates. Or you meant some internal one? Would it be a difficult task to expose it as external templates, that can be customized?

The pieces of the program that generate the output files are called writers. Most writers use templates (https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#templates). The FB2 writer does not (you can check with `pandoc -D fb2`), so the best solution for now would be to modify the output file directly.