NAME
    HTML::Query - jQuery-like selection queries for HTML::Element

SYNOPSIS
    Creating an "HTML::Query" object using the Query() constructor
    subroutine:

        use HTML::Query 'Query';

        # using named parameters
        $q = Query( text  => $text  );          # HTML text
        $q = Query( file  => $file  );          # HTML file
        $q = Query( tree  => $tree  );          # HTML::Element object
        $q = Query( query => $query );          # HTML::Query object
        $q = Query(
            text  => $text1,                    # or any combination
            text  => $text2,                    # of the above
            file  => $file1,
            file  => $file2,
            tree  => $tree,
            query => $query,
        );

        # passing elements as positional arguments
        $q = Query( $tree );                    # HTML::Element object(s)
        $q = Query( $tree1, $tree2, $tree3, ... );

        # or from one or more existing queries
        $q = Query( $query1 );                  # HTML::Query object(s)
        $q = Query( $query1, $query2, $query3, ... );

        # or a mixture
        $q = Query( $tree1, $query1, $tree2, $query2 );

        # the final argument (in all cases) can be a selector
        my $spec = 'ul.menu li a';              # <ul class="menu">..<li>..<a>

        $q = Query( $tree, $spec );
        $q = Query( $query, $spec );
        $q = Query( $tree1, $tree2, $query1, $query2, $spec );
        $q = Query( text  => $text,  $spec );
        $q = Query( file  => $file,  $spec );
        $q = Query( tree  => $tree,  $spec );
        $q = Query( query => $query, $spec );
        $q = Query(
            text => $text,
            file => $file,
            # ...etc...
            $spec
        );

    Or using the OO new() constructor method (which the Query() subroutine
    maps onto):

        use HTML::Query;

        $q = HTML::Query->new(
            # accepts the same arguments as Query()
        )

    Or by monkey-patching a query() method into HTML::Element.

        use HTML::Query 'query';                # note lower case 'q'
        use HTML::TreeBuilder;

        # build a tree
        my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new;
        $tree->parse_file($filename);

        # call the query() method on any element
        my $query = $tree->query($spec);

    Once you have a query, you can start selecting elements:

        @r = $q->query('a')->get_elements();            # all <a>...</a> elements
        @r = $q->query('a#menu')->get_elements();       # all <a> with "menu" id
        @r = $q->query('#menu')->get_elements();        # all elements with "menu" id
        @r = $q->query('a.menu')->get_elements();       # all <a> with "menu" class
        @r = $q->query('.menu')->get_elements();        # all elements with "menu" class
        @r = $q->query('a[href]')->get_elements();      # all <a> with 'href' attr
        @r = $q->query('a[href=foo]')->get_elements();  # all <a> with 'href="foo"' attr

        # you can specify elements within elements...
        @r = $q->query('ul.menu li a')->get_elements(); # <ul class="menu">...<li>...<a>

        # and use commas to delimit multiple path specs for different elements
        @r = $q->query('table tr td a, form input[type=submit]')->get_elements();

        # query() in scalar context returns a new query
        $r = $q->query('table')->get_elements();;       # find all tables
        $s = $r->query('tr')->get_elements();           # find all rows in all those tables
        $t = $s->query('td')->get_elements();           # and all cells in those rows...

    Inspecting query elements:

        # get number of elements in query
        my $size  = $q->size

        # get first/last element in query
        my $first = $q->first;
        my $last  = $q->last;

        # convert query to list or list ref of HTML::Element objects
        my $list = $q->list;            # list ref in scalar context
        my @list = $q->list;            # list in list context

    All other methods are mapped onto the HTML::Element objects in the
    query:

        print $query->as_trimmed_text;  # print trimmed text for each element
        print $query->as_HTML;          # print each element as HTML
        $query->delete;                 # call delete() on each element

DESCRIPTION
    The "HTML::Query" module is an add-on for the HTML::Tree module set. It
    provides a simple way to select one or more elements from a tree using a
    query syntax inspired by jQuery. This selector syntax will be
    reassuringly familiar to anyone who has ever written a CSS selector.

    "HTML::Query" is not an attempt to provide a complete (or even
    near-complete) implementation of jQuery in Perl (see Ingy's pQuery
    module for a more ambitious attempt at that). Rather, it borrows some of
    the tried and tested selector syntax from jQuery (and CSS) that can
    easily be mapped onto the "look_down()" method provided by the
    HTML::Element module.

  Creating a Query
    The easiest way to create a query is using the exportable Query()
    subroutine.

        use HTML::Query 'Query';        # note capital 'Q'

    It accepts a "text" or "file" named parameter and will create an
    "HTML::Query" object from the HTML source text or file, respectively.

        my $query = Query( text => $text );
        my $query = Query( file => $file );

    This delegates to HTML::TreeBuilder to parse the HTML into a tree of
    HTML::Element objects. The root element returned is then wrapped in an
    "HTML::Query" object.

    If you already have one or more HTML::Element objects that you want to
    query then you can pass them to the Query() subroutine as arguments. For
    example, you can explicitly use HTML::TreeBuilder to parse an HTML
    document into a tree:

        use HTML::TreeBuilder;
        my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new;
        $tree->parse_file($filename);

    And then create an "HTML::Query" object for the tree either using an
    explicit "tree" named parameter:

        my $query = Query( tree => $tree );

    Or implicitly using positional arguments.

        my $query = Query( $tree );

    If you want to query across multiple elements, then pass each one as a
    positional argument.

        my $query = Query( $tree1, $tree2, $tree3 );

    You can also create a new query from one or more existing queries,

        my $query = Query( query => $query );   # named parameter
        my $query = Query( $query1, $query2 );  # positional arguments.

    You can mix and match these different parameters and positional
    arguments to create a query across several different sources.

        $q = Query(
            text  => $text1,
            text  => $text2,
            file  => $file1,
            file  => $file2,
            tree  => $tree,
            query => $query,
        );

    The Query() subroutine is a simple wrapper around the new() constructor
    method. You can instantiate your objects manually if you prefer. The
    new() method accepts the same arguments as for the Query() subroutine
    (in fact, the Query() subroutine simply forwards all arguments to the
    new() method).

        use HTML::Query;

        my $query = HTML::Query->new(
            # same argument format as for Query()
        );

    A final way to use "HTML::Query" is to have it add a query() method to
    HTML::Element. The "query" import hook (all lower case) can be specified
    to make this so.

        use HTML::Query 'query';                # note lower case 'q'
        use HTML::TreeBuilder;

        my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new;
        $tree->parse_file($filename);

        # now all HTML::Elements have a query() method
        my @items = $tree->query('ul li')->get_elements();  # find all list items

    This approach, often referred to as *monkey-patching*, should be used
    carefully and sparingly. It involves a violation of HTML::Element's
    namespace that could have unpredictable results with a future version of
    the module (e.g. one which defines its own "query()" method that does
    something different). Treat it as something that is great to get a quick
    job done right now, but probably not something to be used in production
    code without careful consideration of the implications.

  Selecting Elements
    Having created an "HTML::Query" object by one of the methods outlined
    above, you can now fetch descendant elements in the tree using a simple
    query syntax. For example, to fetch all the "<a>" elements in the tree,
    you can write:

        @links = $query->query('a')->get_elements();

    Or, if you want the elements that have a specific "class" attribute
    defined with a value of, say "menu", you can write:

        @links = $query->query('a.menu')->get_elements();

    More generally, you can look for the existence of any attribute and
    optionally provide a specific value for it.

        @links = $query->query('a[href]')->get_elements();            # any href attribute
        @links = $query->query('a[href=index.html]')->get_elements(); # specific value

    You can also find an element (or elements) by specifying an id.

        @links = $query->query('#menu')->get_elements();         # any element with id="menu"
        @links = $query->query('ul#menu')->get_elements();       # ul element with id="menu"

    You can provide multiple selection criteria to find elements within
    elements within elements, and so on. For example, to find all links in a
    menu, you can write:

        # matches: <ul class="menu"> <li> <a>
        @links = $query->query('ul.menu li a')->get_elements();

    You can separate different criteria using commas. For example, to fetch
    all table rows and "span" elements with a "foo" class:

        @elems = $query->('table tr, span.foo')->get_elements();

  Query Results
    When called in list context, as shown in the examples above, the query()
    method returns a list of HTML::Element objects matching the search
    criteria. In scalar context, the query() method returns a new
    "HTML::Query" object containing the HTML::Element objects found. You can
    then call the query() method against that object to further refine the
    query. The query() method applies the selection to all elements stored
    in the query.

        my $tables = $query->query('table');             # query for tables
        my $rows   = $tables->query('tr');               # requery for all rows in those tables
        my $cells  = $rows->query('td')->get_elements(); # return back all the cells in those rows

  Inspection Methods
    The size() method returns the number of elements in the query. The
    first() and last() methods return the first and last items in the query,
    respectively.

        if ($query->size) {
            print "from ", $query->first->as_trimmed_text, " to ", $query->last->as_trimmed_text;
        }

    If you want to extract the HTML::Element objects from the query you can
    call the list() method. This returns a list of HTML::Element objects in
    list context, or a reference to a list in scalar context.

        @elems = $query->list;
        $elems = $query->list;

  Element Methods
    Any other methods are automatically applied to each element in the list.
    For example, to call the "as_trimmed_text()" method on all the
    HTML::Element objects in the query, you can write:

        print $query->as_trimmed_text;

    In list context, this method returns a list of the return values from
    calling the method on each element. In scalar context it returns a
    reference to a list of return values.

        @text_blocks = $query->as_trimmed_text;
        $text_blocks = $query->as_trimmed_text;

    See HTML::Element for further information on the methods it provides.

QUERY SYNTAX
  Basic Selectors
   element
    Matches all elements of a particular type.

        @elems = $query->query('table')->get_elements();     # <table>

   #id
    Matches all elements with a specific id attribute.

        @elems = $query->query('#menu')->get_elements()     # <ANY id="menu">

    This can be combined with an element type:

        @elems = $query->query('ul#menu')->get_elements();  # <ul id="menu">

   .class
    Matches all elements with a specific class attribute.

        @elems = $query->query('.info')->get_elements();     # <ANY class="info">

    This can be combined with an element type and/or element id:

        @elems = $query->query('p.info')->get_elements();     # <p class="info">
        @elems = $query->query('p#foo.info')->get_elements(); # <p id="foo" class="info">
        @elems = $query->query('#foo.info')->get_elements();  # <ANY id="foo" class="info">

    The selectors listed above can be combined in a whitespace delimited
    sequence to select down through a hierarchy of elements. Consider the
    following table:

        <table class="search">
          <tr class="result">
            <td class="value">WE WANT THIS ELEMENT</td>
          </tr>
          <tr class="result">
            <td class="value">AND THIS ONE</td>
          </tr>
          ...etc..
        </table>

    To locate the cells that we're interested in, we can write:

        @elems = $query->query('table.search tr.result td.value')->get_elements();

  Attribute Selectors
    W3C CSS 2 specification defines new constructs through which to select
    based on specific attributes within elements. See the following link for
    the spec: <http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/#attribute-selectors>

   [attr]
    Matches elements that have the specified attribute, including any where
    the attribute has no value.

        @elems = $query->query('[href]')->get_elements();        # <ANY href="...">

    This can be combined with any of the above selectors. For example:

        @elems = $query->query('a[href]')->get_elements();       # <a href="...">
        @elems = $query->query('a.menu[href]')->get_elements();  # <a class="menu" href="...">

    You can specify multiple attribute selectors. Only those elements that
    match *all* of them will be selected.

        @elems = $query->query('a[href][rel]')->get_elements();  # <a href="..." rel="...">

   [attr=value]
    Matches elements that have an attribute set to a specific value. The
    value can be quoted in either single or double quotes, or left unquoted.

        @elems = $query->query('[href=index.html]')->get_elements();
        @elems = $query->query('[href="index.html"]')->get_elements();
        @elems = $query->query("[href='index.html']")->get_elements();

    You can specify multiple attribute selectors. Only those elements that
    match *all* of them will be selected.

        @elems = $query->query('a[href=index.html][rel=home]')->get_elements();

   [attr|=value]
    Matches any element X whose foo attribute has a hyphen-separated list of
    values beginning (from the left) with bar. The value can be quoted in
    either single or double quotes, or left unquoted.

        @elems = $query->query('[lang|=en]')->get_elements();
        @elems = $query->query('p[class|="example"]')->get_elements();
        @elems = $query->query("img[alt|='fig']")->get_elements();

    You can specify multiple attribute selectors. Only those elements that
    match *all* of them will be selected.

        @elems = $query->query('p[class|="external"][lang|="en"]')->get_elements();

   [attr~=value]
    Matches any element X whose foo attribute value is a list of
    space-separated values, one of which is exactly equal to bar. The value
    can be quoted in either single or double quotes, or left unquoted.

        @elems = $query->query('[lang~=en]')->get_elements();
        @elems = $query->query('p[class~="example"]')->get_elements();
        @elems = $query->query("img[alt~='fig']")->get_elements();

    You can specify multiple attribute selectors. Only those elements that
    match *all* of them will be selected.

        @elems = $query->query('p[class~="external"][lang~="en"]')->get_elements();

    KNOWN BUG: you can't have a "]" character in the attribute value because
    it confuses the query parser. Fixing this is TODO.

  Universal Selector
    W3C CSS 2 specification defines a new construct through which to select
    any element within the document below a given hierarchy.

    http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/#universal-selector

      @elems = $query->query('*')->get_elements();

  Combinator Selectors
    W3C CSS 2 specification defines new constructs through which to select
    based on heirarchy with the DOM. See the following link for the spec:
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/#combinators>

   Immediate Descendents (children)
    When you combine selectors with whitespace elements are selected if they
    are descended from the parent in some way. But if you just want to
    select the children (and not the grandchildren, great-grandchildren,
    etc) then you can combine the selectors with the ">" character.

     @elems = $query->query('a > img')->get_elements();

   Non-Immediate Descendents
    If you just want any descendents that aren't children then you can
    combine selectors with the "*" character.

     @elems = $query->query('div * a')->get_elements();

   Immediate Siblings
    If you want to use a sibling relationship then you can can join
    selectors with the "+" character.

     @elems = $query->query('img + span')->get_elements();

  Pseudo-classes
    W3C CSS 2 and CSS 3 specifications define new concepts of pseudo-classes
    to permit formatting based on information that lies outside the document
    tree. See the following link for the most recent spec:
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/#pseudo-classes>

    HTML::Query currently has limited support for CSS 2, and no support for
    CSS 3.

    Patches are *highly* encouraged to help add support here.

   -child pseudo-classes
    If you want to return child elements within a certain position then
    -child pseudo-classes (:first-child, :last-child) are what you're
    looking for.

     @elems = $query->query('table td:first-child')->get_elements;

   Link pseudo-classes: :link and :visited
    Unsupported.

    The :link pseudo-class is to be implemented, currently unsupported.

    It is not possible to locate :visited outside of a browser context due
    to it's dynamic nature.

   Dynamic pseudo-classes
    Unsupported.

    It is not possible to locate these classes(:hover, :active, :focus)
    outside of a browser context due to their dynamic nature.

   Language pseudo-class
    Unsupported.

    Functionality for the :lang psuedo-class is largely replicated by using
    an attribute selector for lang combined with a universal selector query.

    If this is insufficient I'd love to see a patch adding support for it.

   Other pseudo-classes
    W3C CSS 3 added a number of new behaviors that need support. At this
    time there is no support for them, but we should work on adding support.

    Patches are very welcome.

  Pseudo-elements
    W3C CSS 2 and CSS 3 specification defines new concepts of
    pseudo-elements to permit formatting based on information that lies
    outside the document tree. See the following link for the most recent
    spec: <http://www.w3.org/TR/css3-selectors/#pseudo-elements>

    At this time there is no support for pseudo-elements, but we are working
    on adding support.

    Patches are very welcome.

  Combining Selectors
    You can combine basic and hierarchical selectors into a single query by
    separating each part with a comma. The query will select all matching
    elements for each of the comma-delimited selectors. For example, to find
    all "a", "b" and "i" elements in a tree:

        @elems = $query->query('a, b, i')->get_elements();

    Each of these selectors can be arbitrarily complex.

        @elems = $query->query(
            'table.search[width=100%] tr.result[valign=top] td.value,
             form.search input[type=submit],
             a[href=index.html]'
        )->get_elements();

EXPORT HOOKS
  Query
    The "Query()" constructor subroutine (note the capital letter) can be
    exported as a convenient way to create "HTML::Query" objects. It simply
    forwards all arguments to the new() constructor method.

        use HTML::Query 'Query';

        my $query = Query( file => $file, 'ul.menu li a' );

  query
    The "query()" export hook can be called to monkey-patch a query() method
    into the HTML::Element module.

    This is considered questionable behaviour in polite society which
    regards it as a violation of the inner sanctity of the HTML::Element.

    But if you're the kind of person that doesn't mind a bit of occasional
    namespace abuse for the sake of getting the job done, then go right
    ahead. Just don't blame me if it all blows up later.

        use HTML::Query 'query';                # note lower case 'q'
        use HTML::TreeBuilder;

        # build a tree
        my $tree = HTML::TreeBuilder->new;
        $tree->parse_file($filename);

        # call the query() method on any element
        my $query = $tree->query('ul li a');

METHODS
    The "HTML::Query" object is a subclass of Badger::Base and inherits all
    of its method.

  new(@elements,$selector)
    This constructor method is used to create a new "HTML::Query" object. It
    expects a list of any number (including zero) of HTML::Element or
    "HTML::Query" objects.

        # single HTML::Element object
        my $query = HTML::Query->new($elem);

        # multiple element object
        my $query = HTML::Query->new($elem1, $elem2, $elem3, ...);

        # copy elements from an existing query
        my $query = HTML::Query->new($another_query);

        # copy elements from several queries
        my $query = HTML::Query->new($query1, $query2, $query3);

        # or a mixture
        my $query = HTML::Query->new($elem1, $query1, $elem2, $query3);

    You can also use named parameters to specify an alternate source for a
    element.

        $query = HTML::Query->new( file => $file );
        $query = HTML::Query->new( text => $text );

    In this case, the HTML::TreeBuilder module is used to parse the source
    file or text into a tree of HTML::Element objects.

    For the sake of completeness, you can also specify element trees and
    queries using named parameters:

        $query = HTML::Query->new( tree  => $tree );
        $query = HTML::Query->new( query => $query );

    You can freely mix and match elements, queries and named sources. The
    query will be constructed as an aggregate across them all.

        $q = HTML::Query->new(
            text  => $text1,
            text  => $text2,
            file  => $file1,
            file  => $file2,
            tree  => $tree,
            query => $query1,
        );

    The final, optional argument can be a selector specification. This is
    immediately passed to the query() method which will return a new query
    with only those elements selected.

        my $spec = 'ul.menu li a';              # <ul class="menu">..<li>..<a>

        my $query = HTML::Query->new( $tree, $spec );
        my $query = HTML::Query->new( text => $text, $spec );
        my $query = HTML::Query->new(
            text => $text,
            file => $file,
            $spec
        );

    The list of arguments can also be passed by reference to a list.

        my $query = HTML::Query->new(\@args);

  query($spec)
    This method locates the descendant elements identified by the $spec
    argument for each element in the query. It then interally stores the
    results for requerying or return. See get_elements().

        my $query = HTML::Query->new(\@args);
        my $results = $query->query($spec);

    See "QUERY SYNTAX" for the permitted syntax of the $spec argument.

  get_elements()
    This method returns the stored results from a query. In list context it
    returns a list of matching HTML::Element objects. In scalar context it
    returns a reference to the results array.

        my $query = HTML::Query->new(\@args);
        my $results = $query->query($spec);

        my @elements  = $results->query($spec)->get_elements();
        my $elements  = $results->query($spec)->get_elements();

  specificity()
    Calculate the specificity for any given passed selector, a critical
    factor in determining how best to apply the cascade

    A selector's specificity is calculated as follows:

    * count the number of ID attributes in the selector (= a) * count the
    number of other attributes and pseudo-classes in the selector (= b) *
    count the number of element names in the selector (= c) * ignore
    pseudo-elements.

    The specificity is based only on the form of the selector. In
    particular, a selector of the form "[id=p33]" is counted as an attribute
    selector (a=0, b=0, c=1, d=0), even if the id attribute is defined as an
    "ID" in the source document's DTD.

    See the following spec for additional details:
    <http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS21/cascade.html#specificity>

  size()
    Returns the number of elements in the query.

  first()
    Returns the first element in the query.

        my $elem = $query->first;

    If the query is empty then an exception will be thrown. If you would
    rather have an undefined value returned then you can use the "try"
    method inherited from Badger::Base. This effectively wraps the call to
    "first()" in an "eval" block to catch any exceptions thrown.

        my $elem = $query->try('first') || warn "no first element\n";

  last()
    Similar to first(), but returning the last element in the query.

        my $elem = $query->last;

  list()
    Returns a list of the HTML::Element object in the query in list context,
    or a reference to a list in scalar context.

        my @elems = $query->list;
        my $elems = $query->list;

  AUTOLOAD
    The "AUTOLOAD" method maps any other method calls to the HTML::Element
    objects in the list. When called in list context it returns a list of
    the values returned from calling the method on each element. In scalar
    context it returns a reference to a list of return values.

        my @text_blocks = $query->as_trimmed_text;
        my $text_blocks = $query->as_trimmed_text;

KNOWN BUGS
  Attribute Values
    It is not possible to use "]" in an attribute value. This is due to a
    limitation in the parser which will be fixed RSN.

AUTHOR
    Andy Wardley <http://wardley.org>

MAINTAINER
    Kevin Kamel <kamelkev@mailermailer.com>

CONTRIBUTORS
    Vivek Khera <vivek@khera.org> Michael Peters <wonko@cpan.org> David Gray
    <cpan@doesntsuck.com>

COPYRIGHT
    Copyright (C) 2010 Andy Wardley. All Rights Reserved.

    This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO
    HTML::Tree, HTML::Element, HTML::TreeBuilder, pQuery,
    <http://jQuery.com/>