160 lines
6.4 KiB
TeX
160 lines
6.4 KiB
TeX
\section{\module{htmllib} ---
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A parser for HTML documents}
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\declaremodule{standard}{htmllib}
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\modulesynopsis{A parser for HTML documents.}
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\index{HTML}
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\index{hypertext}
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This module defines a class which can serve as a base for parsing text
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files formatted in the HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML). The class
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is not directly concerned with I/O --- it must be provided with input
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in string form via a method, and makes calls to methods of a
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``formatter'' object in order to produce output. The
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\class{HTMLParser} class is designed to be used as a base class for
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other classes in order to add functionality, and allows most of its
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methods to be extended or overridden. In turn, this class is derived
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from and extends the \class{SGMLParser} class defined in module
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\refmodule{sgmllib}\refstmodindex{sgmllib}. The \class{HTMLParser}
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implementation supports the HTML 2.0 language as described in
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\rfc{1866}. Two implementations of formatter objects are provided in
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the \refmodule{formatter}\refstmodindex{formatter} module; refer to the
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documentation for that module for information on the formatter
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interface.
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\withsubitem{(in module sgmllib)}{\ttindex{SGMLParser}}
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The following is a summary of the interface defined by
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\class{sgmllib.SGMLParser}:
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\begin{itemize}
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\item
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The interface to feed data to an instance is through the \method{feed()}
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method, which takes a string argument. This can be called with as
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little or as much text at a time as desired; \samp{p.feed(a);
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p.feed(b)} has the same effect as \samp{p.feed(a+b)}. When the data
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contains complete HTML tags, these are processed immediately;
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incomplete elements are saved in a buffer. To force processing of all
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unprocessed data, call the \method{close()} method.
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For example, to parse the entire contents of a file, use:
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\begin{verbatim}
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parser.feed(open('myfile.html').read())
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parser.close()
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\end{verbatim}
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\item
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The interface to define semantics for HTML tags is very simple: derive
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a class and define methods called \method{start_\var{tag}()},
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\method{end_\var{tag}()}, or \method{do_\var{tag}()}. The parser will
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call these at appropriate moments: \method{start_\var{tag}} or
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\method{do_\var{tag}()} is called when an opening tag of the form
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\code{<\var{tag} ...>} is encountered; \method{end_\var{tag}()} is called
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when a closing tag of the form \code{<\var{tag}>} is encountered. If
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an opening tag requires a corresponding closing tag, like \code{<H1>}
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... \code{</H1>}, the class should define the \method{start_\var{tag}()}
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method; if a tag requires no closing tag, like \code{<P>}, the class
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should define the \method{do_\var{tag}()} method.
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\end{itemize}
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The module defines a single class:
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\begin{classdesc}{HTMLParser}{formatter}
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This is the basic HTML parser class. It supports all entity names
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required by the HTML 2.0 specification (\rfc{1866}). It also defines
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handlers for all HTML 2.0 and many HTML 3.0 and 3.2 elements.
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\end{classdesc}
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\begin{seealso}
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\seemodule{HTMLParser}{Alternate HTML parser that offers a slightly
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lower-level view of the input, but is
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designed to work with XHTML, and does not
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implement some of the SGML syntax not used in
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``HTML as deployed'' and which isn't legal
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for XHTML.}
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\seemodule{htmlentitydefs}{Definition of replacement text for HTML
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2.0 entities.}
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\seemodule{sgmllib}{Base class for \class{HTMLParser}.}
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\end{seealso}
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\subsection{HTMLParser Objects \label{html-parser-objects}}
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In addition to tag methods, the \class{HTMLParser} class provides some
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additional methods and instance variables for use within tag methods.
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\begin{memberdesc}{formatter}
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This is the formatter instance associated with the parser.
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\end{memberdesc}
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\begin{memberdesc}{nofill}
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Boolean flag which should be true when whitespace should not be
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collapsed, or false when it should be. In general, this should only
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be true when character data is to be treated as ``preformatted'' text,
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as within a \code{<PRE>} element. The default value is false. This
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affects the operation of \method{handle_data()} and \method{save_end()}.
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\end{memberdesc}
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\begin{methoddesc}{anchor_bgn}{href, name, type}
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This method is called at the start of an anchor region. The arguments
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correspond to the attributes of the \code{<A>} tag with the same
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names. The default implementation maintains a list of hyperlinks
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(defined by the \code{HREF} attribute for \code{<A>} tags) within the
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document. The list of hyperlinks is available as the data attribute
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\member{anchorlist}.
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\end{methoddesc}
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\begin{methoddesc}{anchor_end}{}
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This method is called at the end of an anchor region. The default
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implementation adds a textual footnote marker using an index into the
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list of hyperlinks created by \method{anchor_bgn()}.
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\end{methoddesc}
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\begin{methoddesc}{handle_image}{source, alt\optional{, ismap\optional{, align\optional{, width\optional{, height}}}}}
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This method is called to handle images. The default implementation
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simply passes the \var{alt} value to the \method{handle_data()}
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method.
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\end{methoddesc}
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\begin{methoddesc}{save_bgn}{}
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Begins saving character data in a buffer instead of sending it to the
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formatter object. Retrieve the stored data via \method{save_end()}.
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Use of the \method{save_bgn()} / \method{save_end()} pair may not be
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nested.
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\end{methoddesc}
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\begin{methoddesc}{save_end}{}
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Ends buffering character data and returns all data saved since the
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preceding call to \method{save_bgn()}. If the \member{nofill} flag is
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false, whitespace is collapsed to single spaces. A call to this
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method without a preceding call to \method{save_bgn()} will raise a
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\exception{TypeError} exception.
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\end{methoddesc}
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\section{\module{htmlentitydefs} ---
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Definitions of HTML general entities}
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\declaremodule{standard}{htmlentitydefs}
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\modulesynopsis{Definitions of HTML general entities.}
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\sectionauthor{Fred L. Drake, Jr.}{fdrake@acm.org}
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This module defines a single dictionary, \code{entitydefs}, which is
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used by the \refmodule{htmllib} module to provide the
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\member{entitydefs} member of the \class{HTMLParser} class. The
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definition provided here contains all the entities defined by HTML 2.0
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that can be handled using simple textual substitution in the Latin-1
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character set (ISO-8859-1).
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\begin{datadesc}{entitydefs}
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A dictionary mapping HTML 2.0 entity definitions to their
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replacement text in ISO Latin-1.
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\end{datadesc}
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