Parse multiple values using HtmlAgilityPack

Question

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Hi Everyone,

I am going to post this question again as the response for using xml will not work when dealing with html files. I just started messing with HAP and I am having some difficulties in figuring out how to get some of my values.

I am using this file as an example and I am storing the returned values into a listview, problem is I don't know how to go about in getting each value on the section.

HTML

<bookstore>
<book>
   <title lang="en">Harry Potter</title>
   <price>29.99</price>
   <available>In Stock</available>
</book>

<book>
   <title lang="en">Learning XML</title>
   <price>39.95</price>
   <available>In Stock</available>
</book>

<book>
   <title lang="en">Learning C#</title>
   <price>59.95</price>
   <available>Backorder</available>
</book>

<book>
   <title lang="en">Learning Java</title>
   <price>39.95</price>
   <available>In Stock</available>
</book>
</bookstore>

Can someone show me an example on how to traverse the tree and getting each value for each of the books one at a time?

This is all I know how to do right now.

C#

HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlDocument doc = new HtmlAgilityPack.HtmlDocument();
doc.Load("sample.txt");

foreach (HtmlNode node in doc.DocumentNode.SelectNodes("//title"))
{
    ListViewItem lView = new ListViewItem();
    lView.Text = node.InnerText;
    lView.SubItems.Add("");
    lView.SubItems.Add("");
    listView1.Items.Add(lView);
}

Appreciate any help.

Posted 14-May-15 6:14am

theadmin

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2 solutions

Solution 1

Hi theadmin,

From the question I understand your requirement is to get the title,price and available for each book under bookstore. Code below does exactly that.

C#

string input =
                "<bookstore><book><title>Harry Potter</title><price>29.99</price><available>In Stock</available></book><book>" +
                "<title>Learning XML</title><price>39.95</price><available>In Stock</available></book><book><title>Learning C#</title>" +
                "<price>59.95</price><available>Backorder</available></book><book><title>Learning Java</title><price>39.95</price>" +
                "<available>In Stock</available></book></bookstore>"

            HtmlDocument html = new HtmlDocument();
            html.LoadHtml(input);

            HtmlNodeCollection bookStore = html.DocumentNode.SelectNodes("//bookstore");
            HtmlNodeCollection books = bookStore[0].SelectNodes("//book");
            foreach (HtmlNode book in books)
            {
                var bookDetail = from child in book.ChildNodes
                    select child.InnerText;
            }

Happy coding.:)

Posted 14-May-15 7:09am

Mathi Mani

Updated 14-May-15 7:17am

v3

Comments

theadmin 14-May-15 16:27pm

Hi Mathi,

I am just using that file as an example since its simple, once I grab a webpage its going to be 1000 times more complex. I chose to use this bit of code as a test in order for me to really understand how it's done.

The code you pasted will return all values under each child, I am trying to figure out how to retrieve each value individually in order to add to a listview.

Listview.Text = Title;
Listview.Subitems.Add(Price);
Listview.Subitems.Add(Availability);

It seems like Agility is my best bet when it comes to parsing html code, I am just trying to learn the program in order to understand what I am doing. I don't know if all of this can be achieved by using what you posted, but I really want to use the agility pack and get a good grip on it..

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Mathi Mani · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-14T08:37:00

Solution 3

Hi theadmin,

The webpage can be complex. But I am assuming, you are interested in getting the details of all the <book></book> nodes under <bookstore></bookstore> node from the complex web page. You can achieve what you need with little customization of the code I already shared. Here is how you can do it (assuming you have the Listview).

HtmlNodeCollection bookStore = html.DocumentNode.SelectNodes("//bookstore");
HtmlNodeCollection books = bookStore[0].SelectNodes("//book");
foreach (HtmlNode book in books)
{
    Listview.Text = book.ChildNodes["title"].InnerText;
    Listview.Subitems.Add(book.ChildNodes["price"].InnerText);
    Listview.Subitems.Add(book.ChildNodes["available"].InnerText);
}

Hope this helps.

Posted 14-May-15 8:37am

Mathi Mani

Comments

theadmin 14-May-15 16:26pm

Are you serious? That's it???? Let me give it a shot, if that works then I am set.

theadmin 14-May-15 18:14pm

Is there another namespace that I need to add besides using System.Windows.Forms;? Somehow I cant even add this first line without the compiler warning me about not knowing what it is.

HtmlDocument html = new HtmlDocument();

Mathi Mani 14-May-15 18:38pm

Hi, you have to install HtmlAgilityPack from NuGet. Run this command from Package Manager Console to install package.

Install-Package HtmlAgilityPack

Add "using HtmlAgilityPack;" to your class once the installation is completed.

theadmin 14-May-15 22:29pm

Thanks, I just got it working. As I moved to my more complex html file none of this worked for me anymore since the file was so different. I appreciate all your help.