🌐 Markon Browser

Markon Browser is a modern, JavaFX-based desktop application designed to connect to and render Markdown content from MCTP (Markdown Content Transfer Protocol) servers. It functions as a minimalistic Markdown browser, providing tabbed browsing, real-time rendering, and smooth user experience without the weight of a traditional web browser.

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🚀 Features

• 🧭 Tabbed Interface — Open multiple markdown pages in separate tabs, with a dynamic + button for new tabs.
• 🔗 MCTP Protocol Support — Connect directly to Markdown servers using the mctp:// protocol.
• 📝 Markdown Rendering — Uses flexmark-java to parse and render markdown to clean HTML.
• ⚙️ Smart URL Handling — Automatically normalizes URLs and ports (default: 9196).
• 🧩 Offline Welcome Page — Displays a built-in welcome message describing MCTP and usage.
• 🧱 JavaFX UI — Clean, responsive, and modern interface with CSS styling.

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🧰 Requirements

• Java 17+
• JavaFX SDK
• Flexmark-Java library for Markdown rendering

Ensure you have JavaFX properly linked to your classpath when running or building the project.

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🗂️ Project Structure

MarkonBrowser/
├── src/
│   └── MarkonBrowser.java     # Main application
├── resources/
│   ├── fonts.css              # Custom font styles
│   └── (other optional assets)
└── README.md                  # Project documentation

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⚙️ How It Works

1. Launches a JavaFX Application window.

2. Displays a Welcome Tab with formatted HTML explaining how to use the browser.

3. Allows users to enter an address in the format:

   mctp://<host>[:port]/<path>
   

   or simply:

   localhost/index.md
   

4. Fetches Markdown content from the given MCTP server via TCP Socket.

5. Parses the Markdown using Flexmark and displays it as HTML within a WebView.

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🧩 Example Usage

1️⃣ Start an MCTP Server

If you already have an MCTP Server running (e.g., from the Node.js version):

node MCTPServer.js

2️⃣ Launch the Markon Browser

Compile and run the application:

javac --module-path /path/to/javafx/lib --add-modules javafx.controls,javafx.web -cp .:flexmark-all.jar MarkonBrowser.java
java --module-path /path/to/javafx/lib --add-modules javafx.controls,javafx.web -cp .:flexmark-all.jar MarkonBrowser

🧭 Example input:

localhost:9090/hello

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🖥️ User Interface Overview

Component	Description
URL Field	Accepts an MCTP address in format host[:port]/path.
Go Button	Fetches and displays the markdown content. Disabled if field is empty.
Tab Pane	Supports multiple open markdown documents and dynamic tab creation.
WebView	Renders markdown content as HTML using Flexmark.

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🧠 Core Classes and Logic

fetchMarkdownFromMctpServer()

Establishes a TCP connection to an MCTP server, sends a request like:

MCTP/1.0
Host: localhost
Request: GET /hello.md

Then reads the response body (Markdown) from the server.

convertMarkdownToHtml()

Uses Flexmark’s Parser and HtmlRenderer to transform raw markdown into HTML for the WebView.

loadUrlInTab()

Parses user input, validates MCTP URLs, normalizes missing protocol/port, fetches data, and updates tab content.

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🎨 Customization

You can modify the appearance of the browser through resources/fonts.css or by editing WebView’s internal styles.

Example CSS snippet:

#root {
  -fx-background-color: #f9f9f9;
}
#controls {
  -fx-background-color: #eaeaea;
}

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🧭 Protocol Support

Markon Browser only supports the MCTP protocol, not http:// or https://.

Example supported URLs:

localhost/index.md
mctp://127.0.0.1:9196/docs/readme.md

Unsupported URLs:

http://example.com
https://github.com

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Resources

flexmark jar library

javafx sdk

json

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🧩 Future Enhancements

• Bookmark support for frequently accessed pages.
• Dark mode and theme customization.
• Markdown-to-HTML caching for faster reloads.
• Configurable default MCTP server and ports.
• Integrated connection log viewer.

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👨‍💻 Author

Developed by [Mark Wayne B. Menorca] 📧 innovations@marcuwynu.space 🌐 https://github.com/marcuwynu23

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📜 License

MIT License © 2025 — Free to use, modify, and distribute.

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💡 Markon Browser bridges MCTP servers and markdown lovers — browse text, beautifully.