HTML Miner

A powerful miner that will scrape html pages for you.

Install

# using npm
npm i --save html-miner

# using yarn
yarn add html-miner

Example

I decided to collect common use cases inside a dedicated EXAMPLE.md. Feel free to start from Usage section or jump directly to Example page.

If you want to experiment, an online playground is also available.

📗 Enjoy your reading

Usage

Arguments

html-miner accepts two arguments: html and selector.

const htmlMiner = require('html-miner');

// htmlMiner(html, selector);

HTML

html is a string and contains html code.

let html = '<div class="title">Hello <span>Marco</span>!</div>';

SELECTOR

selector could be:

STRING

htmlMiner(html, '.title');
//=> Hello Marco!

If the selector extracts more elements, the result is an array:

let htmlWithDivs = '<div>Element 1</div><div>Element 2</div>';
htmlMiner(htmlWithDivs, 'div');
//=> ['Element 1', 'Element 2']

FUNCTION

Read function in detail paragraph.

htmlMiner(html, () => 'Hello everyone!');
//=> Hello everyone!

htmlMiner(html, function () {
    return 'Hello everyone!'
});
//=> Hello everyone!

ARRAY

htmlMiner(html, ['.title', 'span']);
//=> ['Hello Marco!', 'Marco']

OBJECT

htmlMiner(html, {
    title: '.title',
    who: 'span'
});
//=> {
//     title: 'Hello Marco!',
//     who: 'Marco'
//   }

You can combine array and object with each other or with string and functions.

htmlMiner(html, {
    title: '.title',
    who: '.title span',
    upper: (arg) => { return arg.scopeData.who.toUpperCase(); }
});
//=> {
//     title: 'Hello Marco!',
//     who: 'Marco',
//     upper: 'MARCO'
//   }

Function in detail

A function accepts only one argument that is an object containing:

• $: is a jQuery-like function pointing to the document ( html argument ). You can use it to query and fetch elements from the html.

  htmlMiner(html, arg => arg.$('.title').text());
  //=> Hello Marco!
  

• $scope: useful when combined with _each_ or _container_ (read special keys paragraph).

  htmlMiner(html, {
      title: '.title',
      spanList: {
          _each_: 'span',
          value: (arg) => {
              // "arg.$scope.find('.title')" doesn't exist.
              return arg.$scope.text();
          }
      }
  });
  //=> {
  //     title: 'Hello Marco!',
  //     spanList: [{
  //         value: 'Marco'
  //     }]
  //   }
  

• globalData: is an object that contains all previously fetched datas.

  htmlMiner(html, {
      title: '.title',
      spanList: {
          _each_: '.title span',
          pageTitle: function(arg) {
              // "arg.globalData.who" is undefined because defined later.
              return arg.globalData.title;
          }
      },
      who: '.title span'
  });
  //=> {
  //     title: 'Hello Marco!',
  //     spanList: [{
  //         pageTitle: 'Hello Marco!'
  //     }],
  //     who: 'Marco'
  //   }
  

• scopeData: similar to globalData, but only contains scope data. Useful when combined with _each_ (read special keys paragraph).

  htmlMiner(html, {
      title: '.title',
      upper: (arg) => { return arg.scopeData.title.toUpperCase(); },
      sublist: {
          who: '.title span',
          upper: (arg) => {
              // "arg.scopeData.title" is undefined because "title" is out of scope.
              return arg.scopeData.who.toUpperCase();
          },
      }
  });
  //=> {
  //     title: 'Hello Marco!',
  //     upper: 'HELLO MARCO!',
  //     sublist: {
  //         who: 'Marco',
  //         upper: 'MARCO'
  //     }
  //   }
  

Special keys

When selector is an object, you can use special keys:

• _each_: creates a list of items. HTML Miner will iterate for the value and will parse siblings keys.

  {
      articles: {
          _each_: '.articles .article',
          title: 'h2',
          content: 'p',
      }
  }
  

• _eachId_: useful when combined with _each_. Instead of creating an Array, it creates an Object where keys are the result of _eachId_ function.

  {
      articles: {
          _each_: '.articles .article',
          _eachId_: function(arg) {
              return arg.$scope.data('id');
          }
          title: 'h2',
          content: 'p',
      }
  }
  

• _container_: uses the parsed value as container. HTML Miner will parse siblings keys, searching them inside the container.

  {
      footer: {
          _container_: 'footer',
          copyright: (arg) => { return arg.$scope.text().trim(); },
          company: 'span' // find only 'span' inside 'footer'.
      }
  }
  

For more details see the following example.

Let’s try this out

Consider the following html snippet: we will try and fetch some information.

<h1>Hello, <span>world</span>!</h1>
<div class="articles">
    <div class="article" data-id="a001">
        <h2>Heading 1</h2>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="article" data-id="a002">
        <h2>Heading 2</h2>
        <p>Donec maximus ipsum quis est tempor, sit amet laoreet libero bibendum.</p>
    </div>
    <div class="article" data-id="a003">
        <h2>Heading 3</h2>
        <p>Suspendisse viverra convallis risus, vitae molestie est tincidunt eget.</p>
    </div>
</div>
<footer>
    <p>&copy; <span>Company</span> 2017</p>
</footer>

const htmlMiner = require('html-miner');

let json = htmlMiner(html, {
    title: 'h1',
    who: 'h1 span',
    h2: 'h2',
    articlesArray: {
        _each_: '.articles .article',
        title: 'h2',
        content: 'p',
    },
    articlesObject: {
        _each_: '.articles .article',
        _eachId_: function(arg) {
            return arg.$scope.data('id');
        },
        title: 'h2',
        content: 'p',
    },
    footer: {
        _container_: 'footer',
        copyright: (arg) => { return arg.$scope.text().trim(); },
        company: 'span',
        year: (arg) => { return arg.scopeData.copyright.match(/[0-9]+/)[0]; },
    },
    greet: () => { return 'Hi!'; }
});

console.log( json );

//=> {
//     title: 'Hello, world!',
//     who: 'world',
//     h2: ['Heading 1', 'Heading 2', 'Heading 3'],
//     articlesArray: [
//         {
//             title: 'Heading 1',
//             content: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.',
//         },
//         {
//             title: 'Heading 2',
//             content: 'Donec maximus ipsum quis est tempor, sit amet laoreet libero bibendum.',
//         },
//         {
//             title: 'Heading 3',
//             content: 'Suspendisse viverra convallis risus, vitae molestie est tincidunt eget.',
//         }
//     ],
//     articlesObject: {
//         'a001': {
//             title: 'Heading 1',
//             content: 'Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.',
//         },
//         'a002': {
//             title: 'Heading 2',
//             content: 'Donec maximus ipsum quis est tempor, sit amet laoreet libero bibendum.',
//         },
//         'a003': {
//             title: 'Heading 3',
//             content: 'Suspendisse viverra convallis risus, vitae molestie est tincidunt eget.',
//         }
//     },
//     footer: {
//         copyright: '© Company 2017',
//         company: 'Company',
//         year: '2017'
//     },
//     greet: 'Hi!'
//   }

You can find other examples under the folder /examples

# you can test examples with nodejs
node examples/demo.js
node examples/site.js

Development

npm install
npm test

# start the playground locally
npm start