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lua-htmlparser/README.md
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#LuaRock "htmlparser"

Parse HTML text into a tree of elements with selectors

##Install Htmlparser is a listed LuaRock. Install using LuaRocks: luarocks install htmlparser

###Dependencies Htmlparser depends on Lua 5.2, and on the "set" LuaRock, which is installed along automatically. To be able to run the tests, lunitx also comes along as a LuaRock

##Usage Start off with

require("luarocks.loader")
local htmlparser = require("htmlparser")

Then, parse some html:

local root = htmlparser.parse(htmlstring)

The input to parse may be the contents of a complete html document, or any valid html snippet, as long as all tags are correctly opened and closed. Now, find specific contained elements by selecting:

local elements = root:select(selectorstring)

Or in shorthand:

local elements = root(selectorstring)

This wil return a list of elements, all of which are of the same type as the root element, and thus support selecting as well, if ever needed:

for _,e in ipairs(elements) do
	print(e.name)
	local subs = e(subselectorstring)
	for _,sub in ipairs(subs) do
		print("", sub.name)
	end
end

The root element is a container for the top level elements in the parsed text, i.e. the <html> element in a parsed html document would be a child of the returned root element.

##Selectors Supported selectors are a subset of jQuery's selectors:

  • "*" all contained elements
  • "element" elements with the given tagname
  • "#id" elements with the given id attribute value
  • ".class" elements with the given classname in the class attribute
  • "[attribute]" elements with an attribute of the given name
  • "[attribute='value']" equals: elements with the given value for the given attribute
  • "[attribute!='value']" not equals: elements without the given attribute, or having the attribute, but with a different value
  • "[attribute|='value']" prefix: attribute's value is given value, or starts with given value, followed by a hyphen (-)
  • "[attribute*='value']" contains: attribute's value contains given value
  • "[attribute~='value']" word: attribute's value is a space-separated token, where one of the tokens is the given value
  • "[attribute^='value']" starts with: attribute's value starts with given value
  • "[attribute$='value']" ends with: attribute's value ends with given value
  • ":not(selectorstring)" elements not selected by given selector string
  • "ancestor descendant" elements selected by the descendant selector string, that are a descendant of any element selected by the ancestor selector string
  • "parent > child" elements selected by the child selector string, that are a child element of any element selected by the parent selector string

Selectors can be combined; e.g. ".class:not([attribute]) element.class"

##Element type All tree elements provide, apart from :select and (), the following accessors:

###Basic

  • .name the element's tagname
  • .attributes a table with keys and values for the element's attributes; {} if none
  • .id the value of the element's id attribute; nil if not present
  • .classes an array with the classes listed in element's class attribute; {} if none
  • :getcontent() the raw text between the opening and closing tags of the element; "" if none
  • .nodes an array with the element's child elements, {} if none
  • .parent the element that contains this element; root.parent is nil

###Other

  • .index sequence number of elements in order of appearance; root index is 0
  • :gettext() the complete element text, starting with "<tagname" and ending with "/>" or "</tagname>"
  • .level how deep the element is in the tree; root level is 0
  • .root the root element of the tree; root.root is root
  • .deepernodes a Set containing all elements in the tree beneath this element, including this element's .nodes; {} if none
  • .deeperelements a table with a key for each distinct tagname in .deepernodes, containing a Set of all deeper element nodes with that name; {} if none
  • .deeperattributes as .deeperelements, but keyed on attribute name
  • .deeperids as .deeperelements, but keyed on id value
  • .deeperclasses as .deeperelements, but keyed on class name

##Limitations

  • Attribute values in selector strings cannot contain any spaces, nor any of #, ., [, ], :, (, or )
  • The spaces before and after the > in a parent > child relation are mandatory
  • <! elements (including doctype, comments, and CDATA) are not parsed; markup within CDATA is not escaped
  • Textnodes are no separate tree elements; in local root = htmlparser.parse("<p>line1<br />line2</p>"), root.nodes[1]:getcontent() is "line1<br />line2", while root.nodes[1].nodes[1].name is "br"
  • No start or end tags are implied when omitted. Only the void elements should not have an end tag
  • No validation is done for tag or attribute names or nesting of element types. The list of void elements is in fact the only part specific to HTML

##Examples See ./doc/sample.lua

##Tests See ./tst/init.lua

##License LGPL+; see ./doc/LICENSE