5.9 KiB
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 5.1-5.4 or LuaJIT, which provides 5.1-compatible API/ABI. To be able to run the tests, lunitx also comes along as a LuaRock
Usage
Start off with
local htmlparser = require("htmlparser")
Then, parse some html:
local root = htmlparser.parse(htmlstring)
Optionally, you can pass loop-limit value (integer). This value means the deepness of the tree, after which parser will give up. Default value is 1000.
Also, global variable htmlparser_looplimit
is supported (while this optional argument takes priority over global value)
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 thedescendant
selector string, that are a descendant of any element selected by theancestor
selector string"parent > child"
elements selected by thechild
selector string, that are a child element of any element selected by theparent
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
isnil
Other
.index
sequence number of elements in order of appearance; root index is0
:gettext()
the complete element text, starting with"<tagname"
and ending with"/>"
or"</tagname>"
.level
how deep the element is in the tree; root level is0
.root
the root element of the tree;root.root
isroot
.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
- The spaces before and after the
>
in aparent > 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"
, whileroot.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