Do you know all the cool stuff you can do on SSW Rules?

SSW Rules are technical documentation presented as practical guidelines that help teams build better software and work more effectively. They capture best practices across coding, architecture, communication, design and project management, making them a living knowledge base that supports consistency, clarity and quality in every project.

This is an example rule + Markdown cheatsheet to give you some guidance around how to write rules and show you the things you can use to format an SSW Rule. For more info see our GitHub Wiki page.

Concepts to write rules

There are a few concepts that are applied to structure most SSW Rules:

1. Show the pain - Usually in the intro, explain the problem and context around why that rule exists
2. Give good and bad examples - Include practical examples for people to better understand the concepts. Using images is usually the best way to go
3. Explain the why, not the how - A rule isn't a place to document how to use a 3rd party product. You should focus on the reasons why we do something, and then link to external documentation on how to do something

See a few examples of SSW Rules that follow the structure of good and bad examples, then link off to external documentation for more information:

• GitHub Issues - Do you use Issue Templates?
• Bicep - Do you use User-defined Data Types?
• Do you know how to backup data on SQL Azure?

1. Headings, paragraphs, and blockquotes

## This is a heading 2

### This is a heading 3

#### This is a heading 4

##### This is a heading 5

###### This is a heading 6 and below is a blockquote

> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer posuere erat a ante.
> -Someone famous

Figure: Markdown to generate headings and blockquotes

This is a heading 2

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation. qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laboru.

This is a heading 2 with some emphasized text by making it bold

Tip: See text decoration section for more details on making the text bold.

This is a heading 3

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation. qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laboru.

This is a heading 4

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation. qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laboru.

This is a heading 5

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation. qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laboru.

This is a heading 6

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation. qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laboru.

...and this is a blockquote:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Integer posuere erat a ante.- Someone famous

2. Text decorations

_This text will be italic._

**And this text will be bold.**

~~strikethrough.~~

_You **can** combine them_.

==These words== will be highlighted.

Figure: Markdown to generate different text styles

This text will be italic.

And this text will be bold.

strikethrough.

You can combine them.

These words will be highlighted.

3. Lists

#### Unordered lists

- This is the first item of an unordered list
- This is the second item of an unordered list
  1.  This is the first item of an ordered list inside an unordered list
  2.  This is the second item of an ordered list inside an unordered list
- This is the third item of an unordered list
  - This is the first item of an unordered list inside another
  - This is the second item of an unordered list inside another
    1. This is the first item of an ordered list inside a nested unordered list
    2. This is the second item of an ordered list inside a nested unordered list

#### Ordered lists

1. This is the first item of an ordered list
2. This is the second item of an ordered list
3. This is the third item of an ordered list
   - This is the first item of an unordered list inside an ordered list
   - This is the second item of an unordered list inside an ordered list
     1. This is the first item of an ordered list inside another
     2. This is the second item of an ordered list inside another

Figure: Markdown to generate lists

Unordered lists

• This is the first item of an unordered list
• This is the second item of an unordered list
  1. This is the first item of an ordered list inside an unordered list
  2. This is the second item of an ordered list inside an unordered list
• This is the third item of an unordered list
  • This is the first item of an unordered list inside another
  • This is the second item of an unordered list inside another
    1. This is the first item of an ordered list inside a nested unordered list
    2. This is the second item of an ordered list inside a nested unordered list

Ordered lists

1. This is the first item of an ordered list
2. This is the second item of an ordered list
3. This is the third item of an ordered list
   • This is the first item of an unordered list inside an ordered list
   • This is the second item of an unordered list inside an ordered list
     1. This is the first item of an ordered list inside another
     2. This is the second item of an ordered list inside another

4. Links

[link text](https://www.url.com "link title")

Figure: Markdown to generate links

This is an internal link.

This is an internal link with title (hover me).

This is an external link.

5. Boxes

<boxEmbed
  style="greybox"
  body={<>
    This is a box using the class "greybox".
  </>}
  figurePrefix="none"
  figure="Figure Text"
/>

Figure: Markdown to generate boxes

6. Images

<imageEmbed
  alt="Image"
  size="large"
  showBorder={true}
  figurePrefix="none"
  figure="Caption text"
  src="/uploads/rules/rule/image-file.jpg"
/>

Classes for images

Figure: Image with size set to "small"

Figure: Image with size set to "medium"

Figure: Image with size set to "large"

Figure: Image with showBorder set to "false"

Extra examples

Figure: How a smaller image (400px) works with long caption. Full screen on mobile, real width on larger screens...

Figure: ...and with a short caption

7. Captions

Captions on images

❌ Figure: Caption for bad images

Figure: Caption for regular images

🙂 Figure: Caption for OK images

✅ Figure: Caption for good images

Captions on boxes

❌ Figure: Caption for bad examples

Figure: Caption for normal examples

🙂 Figure: Caption for ok examples

✅ Figure: Caption for good examples

8. Videos

Code for videos

<youtubeEmbed url="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0ugMkda9IBw" description={"Video: Top 5 Reasons Why ASP.NET MVC is Great (3 min)"} />

Figure: MDX to add videos and video captions

Example

Check out this video - it's responsive!

9. Code

To include code block in Markdown, start with 3 backticks ``` on a new line, write or paste your code, and then end with 3 backticks on a new line.

For syntax highlighting in code blocks, add the language name right after the opening backticks. Learn more on Markdown – Do you set the language on code blocks?

To add inline code in Markdown, wrap the code snippet with single backticks. See this text as inline code for example.

This is a piece of code in a code block

❌ Figure: Bad example - Because this code doesn't include the language used

See this json file for all supported languages and their aliases we can use in SSW Rules. See some examples:

let iceCream = "chocolate";
if (iceCream === "chocolate") {
  alert("Yay, I love chocolate ice cream!");
} else {
  alert("Awwww, but chocolate is my favorite...");
}

Figure: Javascript code block

IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM
               INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
           WHERE
               TABLE_TYPE='BASE TABLE' AND
               TABLE_NAME='Employees'
           )
    ALTER TABLE [dbo].[Employees]( …… ) ON [PRIMARY]
ELSE
    CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Employees]( …… ) ON [PRIMARY]

Figure: SQL code block

public class MyClass
{
    public string  myField = string.Empty;

    public MyClass()
    {
    }

    public void MyMethod(int parameter1, string parameter2)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("First Parameter {0}, second parameter {1}",
                                                    parameter1, parameter2);
    }

    public int MyAutoImplementedProperty { get; set; }

    private int myPropertyVar;

    public int MyProperty
    {
        get { return myPropertyVar; }
        set { myPropertyVar = value; }
    }
}

Figure: C Sharp code block

{
  "glossary": {
    "title": "example glossary",
    "GlossDiv": {
      "title": "S",
      "GlossList": {
        "GlossEntry": {
          "ID": "SGML",
          "SortAs": "SGML",
          "GlossTerm": "Standard Generalized Markup Language",
          "Acronym": "SGML",
          "Abbrev": "ISO 8879:1986",
          "GlossDef": {
            "para": "A meta-markup language, used to create markup languages such as DocBook.",
            "GlossSeeAlso": ["GML", "XML"]
          },
          "GlossSee": "markup"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Figure: JSON code block

10. Email Templates

Code for email template

<emailEmbed
  from=""
  to="XXX"
  cc="YYY"
  bcc="ZZZ"
  subject="{{ EMAIL SUBJECT }}"
  shouldDisplayBody={true}
  body={<>
    ## Hi XXX,

    {{ EMAIL CONTENT }}
  </>}
  figurePrefix="good"
  figure="Good example - Nice email template"
/>

Figure: Markdown for email templates

✅ Figure: Good example - Nice email template

11. Tables

Code for tables

 | Tables        |      Are      |   Cool |
 | ------------- | :-----------: | -----: |
 | col 3 is      | right-aligned | \$1600 |
 | col 2 is      |   centered    |   \$12 |
 | zebra stripes |   are neat    |    \$1 |

Figure: Markdown to generate tables

Examples

12. Thematic breaks (horizontal rules)

Code for hr

---

Example output

Here’s what the --- version looks like in rendered Markdown

Conclusion

Markdown and SSW Rule conventions make your content clear, consistent, and easy to read. Use headings, lists, boxes, images, code, and thematic breaks to structure your rules effectively. This guide is your reference to create professional, maintainable documentation every time.