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how to parse the source of html file in Java

Hi,
I have a html file and I would like to parse the source of this html.

Let's assume report.html is my html and I know the exact path to this file on my machine.

The pattern that I am parsing in the source looks like this:

<tr>
<td><a href="http://www-SOMEPATH/page1.html#check_ABCD">ABCD</a>
<td><a href="SOMEPATH.html#ABCD"><font color=green>pass</font></a>
<tr>
<td><a href="http://www-SOMEPATH/sbcheck.html#check_EFGHJKLM">EFGHJKLM</a>
<td><a href="SOMEPATH.html#EFGHJKLM"><font color=red>fail</font></a>

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And this pattern continues.

Now I would like to parse, extract and construct a plain view of this report in a plain separate text file as the following:

Tiltle Status
ABCD: pass
EFGHJKLM: fail

How can I make it in Java?

Thanks,

for_yan

You can use SAX parser to do it and retrieve "a" elements content
alternating values will give you TITLE and STATUS

for_yan

This is a simple example of using SAX:

http://www.rgagnon.com/javadetails/java-0408.html

for_yan

No, it was probably not a good suggestion to use SAX - the order is not something simple there

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

CEHJ

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Tolgar

ASKER

Hi CEHJ,
Thanks for your prompt response. Can you please explain me the for loops with some comments? I had difficulty in understanding it.

Also, if I want to pass the whole output to a string how should I change this part?

for(String[] row : cells) {
        			for(String cell : row) {
        			    java.lang.String QualActv += cell;
        			}
        			System.out.println();	
        		    }

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Thanks,

CEHJ

You've got the idea about the loops. If you want to collect all cells, you need to define the collecting String first:

String QualActv = "";
	for(String[] row : cells) {
	    for(String cell : row) {
		QualActv += cell;
	    }
	}

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CEHJ

Tolgar

ASKER

An additonal question.

Why do we make this false? and What does it mean?

HttpUnitOptions.setScriptingEnabled(false);

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Thanks,

Mick Barry

> HttpUnitOptions.setScriptingEnabled(false);

says to not run any javascript on the page.
typically you shouldn't make it false

Tolgar

ASKER

So if there is javascript running on the page, then what is gonna happen?

Thanks,

Mick Barry

if its false it will just get ignored

Tolgar

ASKER

So then why do we make it false in this case? Because I want it to happen regardless of there is javascript or not.

Thanks,

CEHJ

>>Because I want it to happen

You want what to happen?

Tolgar

ASKER

I want to read the table as text which is what we do in the solution. But I don't really understand why we say:

HttpUnitOptions.setScriptingEnabled(false);

Thanks,

CEHJ

That was just something left over from a previous bit of code. Do you have javascript in the html

Mick Barry

what code are you referring to?

Tolgar

ASKER

Well, for now we don't have. But this page is not under my control. So there may be in some time. Then what should I do?

Thanks,

Mick Barry

what code exactly are you referring to?

Tolgar

ASKER

Here it is:

import com.meterware.httpunit.WebConversation;
import com.meterware.httpunit.WebResponse;
import com.meterware.httpunit.WebTable;
import com.meterware.httpunit.HttpUnitOptions;


public class TableCollector {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
	try {
	    HttpUnitOptions.setScriptingEnabled(false);
	    WebConversation wc = new WebConversation();
	    WebResponse wr = wc.getResponse(args[0]);
	    WebTable table = wr.getTables()[0];
	    String[][] cells = table.asText();
	    for(String[] row : cells) {
		for(String cell : row) {
		    System.out.printf("%s ", cell);
		}
		System.out.println();	
	    }
	}
	catch(Exception e) {
	    e.printStackTrace();	
	}
    }
}

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Mick Barry

not sure why thats been added. Generally you'd want to enable it so javascript is executed
open a new question if you need anymore help with it

CEHJ

Just remove that line - simple as that