HtmlToXml DataFlex Reference Documentation

HtmlToXml

Current Version: 10.1.2

Class for converting HTML to well-formed XML for the purpose of programmatically extracting (scraping) information from any HTML page.

Object Creation

// (Dataflex programs use the 32-bit Chilkat ActiveX)
Handle hoHtmlToXml
Get Create(RefClass(cComHtmlToXml)) to hoHtmlToXml

Properties

DebugLogFilePath
Function ComDebugLogFilePath Returns String
Procedure Set ComDebugLogFilePath String value

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

  • A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
  • A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
  • An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

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DropCustomTags
Function ComDropCustomTags Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComDropCustomTags Boolean value

If set to true, then any non-standard HTML tags will be dropped when converting to XML.

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Html
Function ComHtml Returns String
Procedure Set ComHtml String value

The HTML to be converted by the ToXml method. To convert HTML to XML, first set this property to the HTML string and then call ToXml. The ConvertFile method can do file-to-file conversions.

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LastBinaryResult
Function ComLastBinaryResult Returns Variant

This property is mainly used in SQL Server stored procedures to retrieve binary data from the last method call that returned binary data. It is only accessible if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to True. This feature allows for the retrieval of large varbinary results in an SQL Server environment, which has restrictions on returning large data via method calls, though temp tables can handle binary properties.

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LastErrorHtml
Function ComLastErrorHtml Returns String

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorText
Function ComLastErrorText Returns String

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorXml
Function ComLastErrorXml Returns String

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastMethodSuccess
Function ComLastMethodSuccess Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComLastMethodSuccess Boolean value

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: True means success, False means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages.

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LastStringResult
Function ComLastStringResult Returns String

In SQL Server stored procedures, this property holds the string return value of the most recent method call that returns a string. It is accessible only when Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to TRUE. SQL Server has limitations on string lengths returned from methods and properties, but temp tables can be used to access large strings.

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LastStringResultLen
Function ComLastStringResultLen Returns Integer

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

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Nbsp
Function ComNbsp Returns Integer
Procedure Set ComNbsp Integer value

Determines how to handle   HTML entities. The default value, 0 will cause   entites to be convert to normal space characters (ASCII value 32). If this property is set to 1, then  's will be converted to &#160. If set to 2, then &nbps;'s are dropped. If set to 3, then &nbsp's are left unmodified.

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VerboseLogging
Function ComVerboseLogging Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComVerboseLogging Boolean value

If set to True, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is False. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
Function ComVersion Returns String

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

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XmlCharset
Function ComXmlCharset Returns String
Procedure Set ComXmlCharset String value

The charset, such as "utf-8" or "iso-8859-1" of the XML to be created. If XmlCharset is empty, the XML is created in the same character encoding as the HTML. Otherwise the HTML is converted XML and converted to this charset.

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Methods

ConvertFile
Function ComConvertFile String inHtmlPath String destXmlPath Returns Boolean

Converts an HTML file to a well-formed XML file that can be parsed for the purpose of programmatically extracting information.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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DropTagType
Procedure ComDropTagType String tagName

Allows for any specified tag to be dropped from the output XML. To drop more than one tag, call this method once for each tag type to be dropped.

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DropTextFormattingTags
Procedure ComDropTextFormattingTags

Causes text formatting tags to be dropped from the XML output. Text formatting tags are: b, font, i, u, br, center, em, strong, big, tt, s, small, strike, sub, and sup.

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ReadFile
Function ComReadFile String path Returns Variant

Convenience method for reading a complete file into a byte array.

Returns null on failure

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ReadFileToString
Function ComReadFileToString String filename String srcCharset Returns String

Convenience method for reading a text file into a string. The character encoding of the text file is specified by srcCharset. Valid values, such as "iso-8895-1" or "utf-8" are listed at: List of Charsets.

Returns null on failure

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SetHtmlBd
Function ComSetHtmlBd cComChilkatBinData bd Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Sets the Html property from the contents of bd.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SetHtmlBytes
Procedure ComSetHtmlBytes Variant inData

Sets the Html property from a byte array.

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SetHtmlFromFile
Function ComSetHtmlFromFile String filename Returns Boolean

Sets the Html property by loading the HTML from a file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SetHtmlSb
Function ComSetHtmlSb cComChilkatStringBuilder sb Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.97

Sets the Html property from the contents of sb.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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ToXml
Function ComToXml Returns String

Converts the HTML in the "Html" property to XML and returns the XML string.

Returns null on failure

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ToXmlSb
Function ComToXmlSb cComChilkatStringBuilder sb Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.77

Converts the HTML in the "Html" property to XML and appends the XML to sb.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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UndropTagType
Procedure ComUndropTagType String tagName

Causes a specified type of tag to NOT be dropped in the output XML.

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UndropTextFormattingTags
Procedure ComUndropTextFormattingTags

Causes text formatting tags to NOT be dropped from the XML output. Text formatting tags are: b, font, i, u, br, center, em, strong, big, tt, s, small, strike, sub, and sup.

Important: Text formatting tags are dropped by default. Call this method to prevent text formatting tags from being dropped.

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WriteFile
Function ComWriteFile String path Variant fileData Returns Boolean

Convenience method for saving a byte array to a file.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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WriteStringToFile
Function ComWriteStringToFile String stringToWrite String filename String charset Returns Boolean

Convenience method for saving a string to a file. The character encoding of the output text file is specified by charset (the string is converted to this charset when writing). Valid values, such as "iso-8895-1" or "utf-8" are listed at: List of Charsets.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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