PHP Parsing HTML class library Simple_html_dom

Source: Internet
Author: User
Tags php class

: Https://github.com/samacs/simple_html_dom

Parsing HTML document trees using PHP has always been a challenge. Simple HTML DOM parser helps us to solve this problem well. The PHP class can be used to parse the HTML document and manipulate the HTML elements (php5+ or later).

Parsers are more than just helping us validate HTML documents, but we can also parse non-compliant HTML documents. It uses a jquery-like element selector, id,class,tag the elements and so on to find the location, and also provides the ability to add, delete, and modify the document tree. Of course, such a powerful HTML DOM parser is not perfect, and you need to be very careful with memory consumption in the process. However, don't worry; In this article, I'll show you how to avoid consuming too much memory in the end.

Start using

After uploading the class file, there are three ways to call this class:

Loading an HTML document from a URL

Loading an HTML document from a string

Loading an HTML document from a file

<?php//Create a new dom instance $html = new Simple_html_dom (); Load $html->load_file (' http://www.cnphp.info/php-simple-html-dom-parser-intro.html ') from the URL; Load $html->load from string (' 

If you load an HTML document from a string, you need to download it from the network first. It is recommended that you use Curl to crawl an HTML document and load the DOM.

Finding HTML elements

You can use the Find function to find elements in an HTML document. The returned result is an array containing the object. We use the HTML DOM to parse the functions in the class to access these objects, and here are a few examples:

<?php//Find the hyperlink element in an HTML document $ A = $html->find (' a '); Finds the first (N) hyperlink in the document and returns an empty array if it is not found. $a = $html->find (' A ', 0); Find the DIV element with ID main $main = $html->find (' div[id=main] ', 0); Find all DIV elements containing the id attribute $divs = $html->find (' div[id] '); Find all elements containing the id attribute $divs = $html->find (' [id] ');? >

You can also use a jquery-like selector to find positioned elements:

<?php//find elements of id= ' #container ' $ret = $html->find (' #container '); Find all class=foo elements $ret = $html->find ('. Foo '); Find multiple HTML tags $ret = $html->find (' A, img '); can also use $ret = $html->find (' a[title], img[title] '); >

Parser supports lookup of child elements

<?php//Find all the Li items in the ul list $ret = $html->find (' ul Li '); Find UL list specify Class=selected's Li entry $ret = $html->find (' ul li.selected ');?>

If you find this troublesome, use built-in functions to easily locate the parent, child, and neighboring elements of an element

<?php//returns the parent element $e->parent; Returns an array of child elements $e->children; Returns the specified child element $e->children (0) by index number; Returns the first resource speed $e->first_child (); Returns the last child element $e->last _child (); Returns the previous adjacent element $e->prev_sibling (); Returns the next adjacent element $e->next_sibling ();? >
Element Property Manipulation

Use a simple regular expression to manipulate the property selector.

[attribute]– Select an HTML element that contains a property

[attribute=value]– selects all HTML elements of the specified value property

[attribute!=value]-selects all HTML elements for all non-specified value properties

[Attribute^=value]-Select the HTML element for all specified values at the beginning of the property

[Attribute$=value] Selects all HTML elements that specify end-of-value properties

[Attribute*=value]-selects all HTML elements that contain the specified value attribute

Invoking element properties in the parser

Element attributes are also objects in the DOM:

<?php//This example assigns a $ A anchor value to the $link variable $link = $a->href;? >

Or:

<?php$link = $html->find (' A ', 0)->href;?

Each object has 4 base object properties:

tag– return HTML Label signature

innertext– return innerHTML

outertext– return outerhtml

plaintext– returning text in an HTML tag

Editing elements in the parser

Editing the use of element properties is similar to calling them:

<?php//to a $ A anchor chain to assign a new value $a->href = ' http://www.cnphp.info '; Remove anchor connection $a->href = null; Detects if there is a chain connection if (Isset ($a->href)) {//code}?>

There is no specific way to add or remove elements in the parser, but you can work around using:

<?php//Package element $e->outertext = ' <div class= ' wrap ' > '. $e->outertext. ' <div> '; Delete element $e->outertext = '; add element $e->outertext = $e->outertext. ' <div>foo<div> '; Insert element $e->outertext = ' <div>foo<div> '. $e->outertext;?

Saving the modified HTML DOM document is also very simple:

<?php$doc = $html; Output echo $doc;? >
How to avoid the parser consuming too much memory

At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that the simple HTML DOM parser consumes too much memory. If the PHP script takes up too much memory, it can cause a series of serious problems such as the website stops responding. The workaround is also simple, after the parser loads the HTML document and uses it, remember to clean up the object. Of course, don't look at the problem too seriously. If you just load 2, 3 documents, cleaning or not cleaning up is not much of a difference. When you load 5 or more 10 or more documents, clean up the memory by using one and you're absolutely responsible for yourself. ^_^

<?php$html->clear ();? >

Original reference: Http://www.cnphp.info/php-simple-html-dom-parser-intro.html

PHP Parsing HTML class library Simple_html_dom

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