HtmlScraper is a ruby gem that allows parsing an html document to a json structure following a template
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem 'html_scraper'And then execute:
$ bundle
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install html_scraper
Define an html template matching the html document that will be parsed. On the blocks wehre data needs to be extracted define the json attribute sourrounded by {{ }} and the data for that block will be assigned in that json attribute:
template = '
<div id="people-list">
<div class="person" hs-repeat="people">
<a href="{{ link }}">{{ surname }}</a>
<p>{{ name }}</p>
</div>
</div>
'
html = '
<html>
<body>
<div id="people-list">
<div class="person">
<a href="/clint-eastwood">Eastwood</a>
<p>Clint</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
'
json = HtmlScraper::Scraper.new(template: template).parse(html)The json result:
{:surname=>"Eastwood", :name=>"Clint", :link=>"/clint-eastwood"}
To parse iterative structures define the attribute hs-repeat to the html node containing the iteration. The value of hs-repeat will be the name of the json attribute containing an array of the parsed subelements:
template = '
<div id="people-list">
<div class="person" hs-repeat="people">
<h5>{{ surname }}</h5>
<p>{{ name }}</p>
</div>
</div>
'
html = '
<html>
<body>
<div id="people-list">
<div class="person">
<h5>Eastwood</h5>
<p>Clint</p>
</div>
<div class="person">
<h5>Woods</h5>
<p>James</p>
</div>
<div class="person">
<h5>Kinski</h5>
<p>Klaus</p>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
'
json = HtmlScraper::Scraper.new(template: template).parse(html)The json result:
{:people=>
[{:surname=>"Eastwood", :name=>"Clint"},
{:surname=>"Woods", :name=>"James"},
{:surname=>"Kinski", :name=>"Klaus"}]}Regular expressions can be used next to the attribute name (surrounded by //) to filter the parsed string that will be assigned to the attribute. The attribute value will be the first string matching the regular expression:
template = '<div id="people-list">
<div class="person">
<h5>{{ surname }}</h5>
<p>{{ name }}</p>
<span>{{ birthday/\d+\.\d+\.\d+/ }}</span>
</div>
</div>
'
html = '
<html>
<body>
<div id="people-list">
<div class="person">
<h5>Eastwood</h5>
<p>Clint</p>
<span>Born on 31.05.1930</span>
</div>
</body>
</html>
'
json = HtmlScraper::Scraper.new(template: template).parse(html)will result in:
{:surname=>"Eastwood", :name=>"Clint", :birthday=>"31.05.1930"}
For more complex attribute evaluations, ruby code can be used to manipulate the parsed expression. After the attribute name and = a ruby block can follow and the result will be assigned to the corresponding json attriibute. Use the symbol $ to reference the evaluated expression within the ruby block:
template = '
<div id="people-list">
<div class="person">
<h5>{{ surname = $.upcase }}</h5>
</div>
'
html = '
<html>
<body>
<div id="people-list">
<div class="person">
<h5>Eastwood</h5>
<p>Clint</p>
<span>Born on 31.05.1930</span>
</div>
</body>
</html>
'
json = HtmlScraper::Scraper.new(template: template).parse(html)will result in:
{:surname=>"EASTWOOD" }
Regular expressions and ruby code can be both combined:
template = '<div id="people-list">
<div class="person">
<h5>{{ surname/\w{4}/ = $.upcase }}</h5>
</div>
'
html = '
<html>
<body>
<div id="people-list">
<div class="person">
<h5>Eastwood</h5>
<p>Clint</p>
<span>Born on 31.05.1930</span>
</div>
</body>
</html>
'
json = HtmlScraper::Scraper.new(template: template).parse(html)will result in:
{:surname=>"EAST" }
After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake test to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.
To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/bduran82/html_scraper.
The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.