Parsing HTML using Java

Hi,

I have a requirement of parsing an HTML page and pulling out a text from a specific HTML tag. This is the first time I am working on this. I am able to read the Tags and their Id's and also the complete text on the page but have no idea how to read the text enclosed in a specific tag. I have written my code below. I want to grab the text within <td id="dept1">Sales</td> only i.e., "Sales" in this case. Please help me.

[B]Java File:[/B]
 
import javax.swing.text.html.parser.*;
import javax.swing.text.html.*;
import javax.swing.text.*;
import java.io.*;
 
public class ParseTest extends HTMLEditorKit.ParserCallback {
  public void handleText(char[] data, int pos){
 
    System.out.println(new String(data));
  }
  public void handleStartTag(HTML.Tag t, MutableAttributeSet a, int pos){
if (t == HTML.Tag.TD){
      String name1=(String)a.getAttribute(HTML.Attribute.ID);
   if (name1 != null){     
        System.out.println("ID: " + name1);
      }    
    }
  }
  public void handleEndTag(HTML.Tag t, int pos){
    //System.out.println("end: " + t);
  }
  public void handleSimpleTag(HTML.Tag t, MutableAttributeSet a, int pos){
   //System.out.println("Called");
  }
  public static void main(String argv[]){
    try {
      Reader r = new FileReader("demo.html");
      ParserDelegator parser = new ParserDelegator();
      HTMLEditorKit.ParserCallback callback = new ParseTest();
      parser.parse(r, callback, false);
    } catch (IOException e){
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

--
Mazhar

[ October 09, 2008: Message edited by: Mazhar Ismail ]

[ October 09, 2008: Message edited by: Mazhar Ismail ]

[ October 09, 2008: Message edited by: Mazhar Ismail ]
[ October 09, 2008: Message edited by: Mazhar Ismail ]

I would guess that you need to override the "handleText" method.

tried overriding.i guess i am doing it wrong.any example how to do it.

Thanks,
Mazhar

How did you try (post the relevant code excerpt)? Was the method called? If so, what values did the parameters have?

A HTML page is basically a XML document - you could try parse the HTML page using a DOM or SAX parser.

Java API for XML Code Samples

Just remember that handleText is not required to handle all the text in a node in one go. Use StringBuilder to combine it; you can finish it in the handleEndTag method.

Originally posted by Rene Larsen:
A HTML page is basically a XML document

If you're lucky. HTML allows nesting of tags, missing end tags, missing quotes around attributes, and much more that is not allowed in XML.ent.

That's why XHTML is invented. It's basically HTML that truely is XML. For instance, it requires <br> to be ended: <br />.
[ October 10, 2008: Message edited by: Rob Prime ]