HtmlToXml Unicode C Reference Documentation
HtmlToXml
Current Version: 10.1.0
Class for converting HTML to well-formed XML for the purpose of programmatically extracting (scraping) information from any HTML page.
Create/Dispose
HCkHtmlToXmlW instance = CkHtmlToXmlW_Create(); // ... CkHtmlToXmlW_Dispose(instance);
Creates an instance of the HCkHtmlToXmlW object and returns a handle ("void *" pointer). The handle is passed in the 1st argument for the functions listed on this page.
Objects created by calling CkHtmlToXmlW_Create must be freed by calling this method. A memory leak occurs if a handle is not disposed by calling this function. Also, any handle returned by a Chilkat "C" function must also be freed by the application by calling the appropriate Dispose method, such as CkHtmlToXmlW_Dispose.
Properties
DebugLogFilePath
void CkHtmlToXmlW_putDebugLogFilePath(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle, const wchar_t *newVal);
const wchar_t *CkHtmlToXmlW_debugLogFilePath(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle);
If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.
This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:
- a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
- the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
- there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.
DropCustomTags
void CkHtmlToXmlW_putDropCustomTags(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle, BOOL newVal);
If set to true, then any non-standard HTML tags will be dropped when converting to XML.
topHtml
void CkHtmlToXmlW_putHtml(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle, const wchar_t *newVal);
const wchar_t *CkHtmlToXmlW_html(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle);
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.
topLastErrorHtml
const wchar_t *CkHtmlToXmlW_lastErrorHtml(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle);
Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.
topLastErrorText
const wchar_t *CkHtmlToXmlW_lastErrorText(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle);
Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.
LastErrorXml
const wchar_t *CkHtmlToXmlW_lastErrorXml(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle);
Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.
topLastMethodSuccess
void CkHtmlToXmlW_putLastMethodSuccess(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle, BOOL newVal);
Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of TRUE indicates success, a value of FALSE indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:
- Any method that returns a string.
- Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
- Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = TRUE and failure = FALSE.
- Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.
Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to TRUE. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.
topNbsp
void CkHtmlToXmlW_putNbsp(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle, int newVal);
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  . If set to 2, then &nbps;'s are dropped. If set to 3, then  's are left unmodified.
topVerboseLogging
void CkHtmlToXmlW_putVerboseLogging(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle, BOOL newVal);
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.
topVersion
const wchar_t *CkHtmlToXmlW_version(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle);
XmlCharset
void CkHtmlToXmlW_putXmlCharset(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle, const wchar_t *newVal);
const wchar_t *CkHtmlToXmlW_xmlCharset(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle);
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.
topMethods
ConvertFile
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.
topDropTagType
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.
topDropTextFormattingTags
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.
ReadFile
Convenience method for reading a complete file into a byte array.
Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.
topReadFileToString
const wchar_t *CkHtmlToXmlW_readFileToString(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle, const wchar_t *filename, const wchar_t *srcCharset);
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 TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.
topSetHtmlBd
Sets the Html property from the contents of bd.
Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.
SetHtmlBytes
Sets the Html property from a byte array.
topSetHtmlFromFile
Sets the Html property by loading the HTML from a file.
Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.
topSetHtmlSb
ToXml
const wchar_t *CkHtmlToXmlW_toXml(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle);
Converts the HTML in the "Html" property to XML and returns the XML string.
Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.
ToXmlSb
Converts the HTML in the "Html" property to XML and appends the XML to sb.
Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.
UndropTagType
Causes a specified type of tag to NOT be dropped in the output XML.
topUndropTextFormattingTags
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.
WriteFile
Convenience method for saving a byte array to a file.
Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.
topWriteStringToFile
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.
topXml
const wchar_t *CkHtmlToXmlW_xml(HCkHtmlToXmlW cHandle);
This is the same as the "ToXml" method. It converts the HTML in the "Html" property to XML and returns the XML string.
Returns TRUE for success, FALSE for failure.
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