Alt Text is Dropped Within Code Spans

Example Markdown:

![`code` _em_ **strong** plain](path/to/image.png)

Expected behavior:

<p><img src="path/to/image.png" alt="code em strong plain" /></p>

Actual behavior:

<p><img src="path/to/image.png" alt=" em strong plain" /></p>

Example from commonmark.js

This is probably because AltTextVisitor doesn't implement visit(Code code), and since Code nodes don't have child Text nodes their text is never added.

Relevant Code

commonmark-java/commonmark/src/main/java/org/commonmark/renderer/html/CoreHtmlNodeRenderer.java

Lines 301 to 323 in 9926b76

    
           private static class AltTextVisitor extends AbstractVisitor { 
        
               private final StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); 
        
               String getAltText() { 
        
                   return sb.toString(); 
        
               } 
        
               @Override 
        
               public void visit(Text text) { 
        
                   sb.append(text.getLiteral()); 
        
               } 
        
               @Override 
        
               public void visit(SoftLineBreak softLineBreak) { 
        
                   sb.append('\n'); 
        
               } 
        
               @Override 
        
               public void visit(HardLineBreak hardLineBreak) { 
        
                   sb.append('\n'); 
        
               } 
        
           }

This is probably because AltTextVisitor doesn't implement visit(Code code), and since Code nodes don't have child Text nodes their text is never added.

Yep, that's it! Do you want to submit a PR for this?

Sure! #401

Thanks! Released in 0.26.0: https://github.com/commonmark/commonmark-java/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md#0260---2025-09-13

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Alt Text is Dropped Within Code Spans #398

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	private static class AltTextVisitor extends AbstractVisitor {

	private final StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

	String getAltText() {
	return sb.toString();
	}

	@Override
	public void visit(Text text) {
	sb.append(text.getLiteral());
	}

	@Override
	public void visit(SoftLineBreak softLineBreak) {
	sb.append('\n');
	}

	@Override
	public void visit(HardLineBreak hardLineBreak) {
	sb.append('\n');
	}
	}

Alt Text is Dropped Within Code Spans #398

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robinst commented on Sep 10, 2025

rdestefa commented on Sep 10, 2025

robinst commented on Sep 13, 2025

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