Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.javascript > #24212 > unrolled thread

Data retrieving from html text on a webpage

Back to article view | Back to comp.lang.javascript

Contents

  Data retrieving from html text on a webpage FAISAL ISMAIL <faesal19@gmail.com> - 2014-05-18 01:18 -0700
    Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2014-05-18 15:41 +0000
    Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage "Evertjan." <exxjxw.hannivoort@inter.nl.net> - 2014-05-18 17:41 +0200
      Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage FAISAL ISMAIL <faesal19@gmail.com> - 2014-05-18 12:52 -0700
    Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2014-05-18 23:29 +0200
      Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage John Harris <niam@jghnorth.org.uk.invalid> - 2014-05-19 11:04 +0100
        Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2014-05-19 13:11 +0200
          Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage John Harris <niam@jghnorth.org.uk.invalid> - 2014-05-20 10:43 +0100
            Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2014-05-21 14:34 +0200
              Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage John Harris <niam@jghnorth.org.uk.invalid> - 2014-05-22 10:42 +0100
      Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage FAISAL ISMAIL <faesal19@gmail.com> - 2014-05-22 09:07 -0700
    Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2014-05-19 21:44 +0000
      Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> - 2014-05-19 23:55 +0200
        Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage "Evertjan." <exxjxw.hannivoort@inter.nl.net> - 2014-05-20 00:04 +0200
          Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> - 2014-05-20 12:59 +0200
            Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage "Evertjan." <exxjxw.hannivoort@inter.nl.net> - 2014-05-20 17:13 +0200
        Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2014-05-20 00:40 +0100
          Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> - 2014-05-20 13:17 +0200
            Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2014-05-21 14:19 +0200
              Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2014-05-21 13:51 +0100
                Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2014-05-21 17:55 +0200
        Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Denis McMahon <denismfmcmahon@gmail.com> - 2014-05-20 10:05 +0000
          Re: Data retrieving from html text on a webpage Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> - 2014-05-20 13:03 +0200

Page 1 of 2  [1] 2  Next page →

#24212 — Data retrieving from html text on a webpage

i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
(http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/Summary3.htm)
the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for some specific country e.g Pakistan.
 Kindly help me with the issue.

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]

#24230

On Sun, 18 May 2014 01:18:46 -0700, FAISAL ISMAIL wrote:

> i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
> (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/
Summary3.htm)
> the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for some
> specific country e.g Pakistan.
>  Kindly help me with the issue.

Open the web page
select the text you want to capture with the cursor
ctrl-c
move to the application you want to use the text in
position the cursor apporopriately
ctrl-v

-- 
Denis McMahon, denismfmcmahon@gmail.com

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24231

FAISAL ISMAIL <faesal19@gmail.com> wrote on 18 mei 2014 in
comp.lang.javascript: 

> i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
> (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/Summary3.
> htm) the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for
> some specific country e.g Pakistan.

I don't see your trying. 

What did you try, using Javascript?

Javascript in a browser or elsewere?

Where would you send the result, to a webpage??

-- 
Evertjan.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress)

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24257

On Sunday, May 18, 2014 8:41:31 PM UTC+5, Evertjan. wrote:
> FAISAL ISMAIL <faesal19@gmail.com> wrote on 18 mei 2014 in
> 
> comp.lang.javascript: 
> 
> 
> 
> > i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
> 
> > (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/Summary3.
> 
> > htm) the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for
> 
> > some specific country e.g Pakistan.
> 
> 
> 
> I don't see your trying. 
> 
> 
> 
> What did you try, using Javascript?
> 
> 
> 
> Javascript in a browser or elsewere?
> 
> 
> 
> Where would you send the result, to a webpage??
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Evertjan.
> 
> The Netherlands.
> 
> (Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress)


yeah i am a beginner and i don't know where to start :( 

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24258

FAISAL ISMAIL wrote [translated]:

> i am [a Googlodyte¹] trying to [steal copyrighted information] from a
> table on the [website] (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-> E%20Gaging%20Reaches/Summary3.htm)
> the data is in rows and columns.  [I only want to steal] data for some
> specific country e.g Pakistan [in order to present it later as if it was
> my original research].
> [I want you to give me the code for free and be an accessor to this crime
> without any questions asked because I think you are stupid enough to have
> a big enough helper complex to do just that.  Otherwise I have no clue
> what I am doing, and I cannot be bothered to search the Net, to learn and
> try something.]

<http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html>

(SCNR)

________
¹  cf. troglodyte
-- 
PointedEars
FAQ: <http://PointedEars.de/faq> | SVN: <http://PointedEars.de/wsvn/>
Twitter: @PointedEars2 | ES Matrix: <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>
Please do not Cc: me. / Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24260

On Sun, 18 May 2014 23:29:09 +0200, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
<PointedEars@web.de> wrote:

>FAISAL ISMAIL wrote [translated]:
>
>> i am [a Googlodyte¹] trying to [steal copyrighted information] from a
>> table on the [website] (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-> E%20Gaging%20Reaches/Summary3.htm)
>> the data is in rows and columns.  [I only want to steal] data for some
>> specific country e.g Pakistan [in order to present it later as if it was
>> my original research].
>> [I want you to give me the code for free and be an accessor to this crime
>> without any questions asked because I think you are stupid enough to have
>> a big enough helper complex to do just that.  Otherwise I have no clue
>> what I am doing, and I cannot be bothered to search the Net, to learn and
>> try something.]
  <snip>

Why does Thomas use the symbol '>', meaning a direct literal unchanged
copy of another's text, when he is supplying text written by him ?

Could it be that Internet rules don't apply to Thomas ?

  John

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24261

John Harris wrote:

> Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
>> FAISAL ISMAIL wrote [translated]:
>>> i am [a Googlodyte¹] trying to [steal copyrighted information] from a
>>> table on the [website] (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/Summary3.htm)
>>> the data is in rows and columns.  [I only want to steal] data for some
>>> specific country e.g Pakistan [in order to present it later as if it was
>>> my original research].
>>> [I want you to give me the code for free and be an accessor to this
>>> [crime without any questions asked because I think you are stupid enough
>>> to have a big enough helper complex to do just that.  Otherwise I have
>>> no clue what I am doing, and I cannot be bothered to search the Net, to
>>> learn and try something.]
>   <snip>
> 
> Why does Thomas use the symbol '>', meaning a direct literal unchanged
> copy of another's text, when he is supplying text written by him ?
> 
> Could it be that Internet rules don't apply to Thomas ?
                                                       ^
Could it be that you are still either only trolling here or still have no 
clue where you are reading and posting to?  This is *Usenet*, _not_ the 
Internet.  If any rules apply here, they are *Usenet* rules (which include 
Internet standards, but only in a purely technical sense).  Read the FAQ.

I concede that the style of my posting was in a non-hacker sense 
inappropriate; however, its formatting certainly was not (by contrast to 
that of the OP, due to the buggy interface and cluelessness):

It is customary to use rectangular brackets to indicate changes to quoted 
material (in Usenet this stems from its academic background).

I gave an additional hint as to what I found wrong with the OP and how to 
fix it, and I said sorry in advance for my style, though (which you snipped 
both, probably with purpose).

Anyhow, here is a more appropriate answer:

The rows of a table (section), and the cells of each row, are represented in 
the DOM as objects implementing the NodeList or HTMLCollection 
interface. [1]  (Therefore,) they can be converted to an Array of Arrays by 
calling the Array.prototype.map() method on them, respectively. [2]

In turn, elements of an Array instance can be filtered by calling the 
filter() method that it inherits from the built-in Array prototype 
(implementations of ECMAScript Edition 5 and later only, respectively) [3]:

  var filtered_data = [].map.call(
    table.tBodies[0].rows,
    function (row) {
      return [].map.call(
        row.cells,
        function (cell) {
          /* you can also do type conversion of cell data here */
          return …;
        }
      );
    }
  ).filter(
    function (row) {
      return …;
    }
  );

(Written less compact here for better understanding.  For increased 
efficiency, the value of [].map can be stored in a variable if needed 
repeatedly.)

Instead of calling these methods, one may also build arrays from rows and 
cells in C-style “for” loops.

It could be also more efficient to reverse the order: filter first, map 
second (because then you only need to map the data of the remaining rows).

___________
[1] <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLTableElement.tBodies> pp.
[2] <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/map> pp.
[3] <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/filter> pp.

-- 
PointedEars
FAQ: <http://PointedEars.de/faq> | SVN: <http://PointedEars.de/wsvn/>
Twitter: @PointedEars2 | ES Matrix: <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>
Please do not Cc: me. / Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24273

On Mon, 19 May 2014 13:11:53 +0200, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
<PointedEars@web.de> wrote:

>John Harris wrote:
>
>> Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
>>> FAISAL ISMAIL wrote [translated]:
>>>> i am [a Googlodyte¹] trying to [steal copyrighted information] from a
>>>> table on the [website] (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/Summary3.htm)
>>>> the data is in rows and columns.  [I only want to steal] data for some
>>>> specific country e.g Pakistan [in order to present it later as if it was
>>>> my original research].
>>>> [I want you to give me the code for free and be an accessor to this
>>>> [crime without any questions asked because I think you are stupid enough
>>>> to have a big enough helper complex to do just that.  Otherwise I have
>>>> no clue what I am doing, and I cannot be bothered to search the Net, to
>>>> learn and try something.]
>>   <snip>
>> 
>> Why does Thomas use the symbol '>', meaning a direct literal unchanged
>> copy of another's text, when he is supplying text written by him ?
>> 
>> Could it be that Internet rules don't apply to Thomas ?
>                                                       ^
>Could it be that you are still either only trolling here or still have no 
>clue where you are reading and posting to?  This is *Usenet*, _not_ the 
>Internet.  If any rules apply here, they are *Usenet* rules (which include 
>Internet standards, but only in a purely technical sense).  Read the FAQ.
  <snip>

I'll agree to ignore Thomas's spiteful insults if Thomas will agree to
stop telling people to obey
  <http://www.afaik.de/usenet/faq/zitieren/> 
as he doesn't obey it himself.

Incidentally, Usenet is part of Internet; E-mail is part of Internet;
E-mail is separate from Usenet; the quoting guidelines apply to E-mail
as well. QED

  John

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24310

John Harris wrote:

> Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
>> John Harris wrote:
>>> Why does Thomas use the symbol '>', meaning a direct literal unchanged
>>> copy of another's text, when he is supplying text written by him ?
>>> 
>>> Could it be that Internet rules don't apply to Thomas ?
>>                                                       ^
>> Could it be that you are still either only trolling here or still have no
>> clue where you are reading and posting to?  This is *Usenet*, _not_ the
>> Internet.  If any rules apply here, they are *Usenet* rules (which in 
>> include Internet standards, but only in a purely technical sense).  Read
>> the FAQ.
>   <snip>
> 
> I'll agree to ignore Thomas's spiteful insults if Thomas will agree to
> stop telling people to obey
>   <http://www.afaik.de/usenet/faq/zitieren/>
> as he doesn't obey it himself.

You have no clue what you are talking about, and you will not read 
corrections to your nonsense (but you snip them as that fits your 
"argument").  This does not bode well for your not being a troll.

> Incidentally, Usenet is part of Internet; E-mail is part of Internet;
> E-mail is separate from Usenet; the quoting guidelines apply to E-mail
> as well. QED

Which part of

>> It is customary to use rectangular brackets to indicate changes to 
>> quoted material (in Usenet this stems from its academic background).

did you not understand?  And which part of my *concession* as to style?

Just go away, please.

-- 
PointedEars
FAQ: <http://PointedEars.de/faq> | SVN: <http://PointedEars.de/wsvn/>
Twitter: @PointedEars2 | ES Matrix: <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>
Please do not Cc: me. / Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24338

On Wed, 21 May 2014 14:34:01 +0200, Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn
<PointedEars@web.de> wrote:

>John Harris wrote:
>
>> Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:
>>> John Harris wrote:
>>>> Why does Thomas use the symbol '>', meaning a direct literal unchanged
>>>> copy of another's text, when he is supplying text written by him ?
>>>> 
>>>> Could it be that Internet rules don't apply to Thomas ?
>>>                                                       ^
>>> Could it be that you are still either only trolling here or still have no
>>> clue where you are reading and posting to?  This is *Usenet*, _not_ the
>>> Internet.  If any rules apply here, they are *Usenet* rules (which in 
>>> include Internet standards, but only in a purely technical sense).  Read
>>> the FAQ.
>>   <snip>
>> 
>> I'll agree to ignore Thomas's spiteful insults if Thomas will agree to
>> stop telling people to obey
>>   <http://www.afaik.de/usenet/faq/zitieren/>
>> as he doesn't obey it himself.
>
>You have no clue what you are talking about, and you will not read 
>corrections to your nonsense (but you snip them as that fits your 
>"argument").  This does not bode well for your not being a troll.

Thomas is the one who keeps telling people to obey the *.de hierarchy
guidelines, in particular Sec 2.8 with 2.9 of
  <http://www.afaik.de/usenet/faq/zitieren/>
which clearly says that what Thomas did is wrong.


>> Incidentally, Usenet is part of Internet; E-mail is part of Internet;
>> E-mail is separate from Usenet; the quoting guidelines apply to E-mail
>> as well. QED
>
>Which part of
>
>>> It is customary to use rectangular brackets to indicate changes to 
>>> quoted material (in Usenet this stems from its academic background).
>
>did you not understand?  And which part of my *concession* as to style?

I fail to understand why Thomas didn't use the obvious way to avoid
the forgery problem :

 > Some original text
  [ Some replacement text]
 > Some more original text
  [ Some more replacement text]

and so on.


>Just go away, please.

Bullies always dislike their wrongdoings being pointed out.

  John

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24346

To be honest, i really had no idea, how to ask question on a forum like this. i am thankful to you and many others who are helping me how to do it, cheers :)

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24265

On Sun, 18 May 2014 01:18:46 -0700, FAISAL ISMAIL wrote:

> i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
> (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/
Summary3.htm)
> the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for some
> specific country e.g Pakistan.
>  Kindly help me with the issue.

By the way, if I was trying to scrape data from a website, I'm not sure 
that javascript would be my first choice language either.

-- 
Denis McMahon, denismfmcmahon@gmail.com

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24267

Denis McMahon wrote:

> On Sun, 18 May 2014 01:18:46 -0700, FAISAL ISMAIL wrote:
> 
>> i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
>> (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/
> Summary3.htm)
>> the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for some
>> specific country e.g Pakistan.
>>  Kindly help me with the issue.
> 
> By the way, if I was trying to scrape data from a website, I'm not sure 
> that javascript would be my first choice language either.

Why not?  Are there better alternatives?

-- 
Christoph M. Becker

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24268

Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> wrote on 19 mei 2014 in 
comp.lang.javascript:

> Denis McMahon wrote:
> 
>> On Sun, 18 May 2014 01:18:46 -0700, FAISAL ISMAIL wrote:
>> 
>>> i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
>>> (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/
>> Summary3.htm)
>>> the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for some
>>> specific country e.g Pakistan.
>>>  Kindly help me with the issue.
>> 
>> By the way, if I was trying to scrape data from a website, I'm not sure 
>> that javascript would be my first choice language either.
> 
> Why not?  Are there better alternatives?

If this is about an open website, 
and the action has to be done repeatedly,
my choice would be serverside javascript,
and selecting from the input stream with regex,
and the page going to my browser just containing
the result.

On the other hand, using the DOM in the selection process,
so needing the browser, is also appealing.

Perhaps the choice is
what gives you the most joy in programming.

-- 
Evertjan.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress)

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24276

Evertjan. wrote:

> Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> wrote on 19 mei 2014 in 
> comp.lang.javascript:
> 
>> Denis McMahon wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, 18 May 2014 01:18:46 -0700, FAISAL ISMAIL wrote:
>>>
>>>> i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
>>>> (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/
>>> Summary3.htm)
>>>> the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for some
>>>> specific country e.g Pakistan.
>>>>  Kindly help me with the issue.
>>>
>>> By the way, if I was trying to scrape data from a website, I'm not sure 
>>> that javascript would be my first choice language either.
>>
>> Why not?  Are there better alternatives?
> 
> If this is about an open website, 
> and the action has to be done repeatedly,
> my choice would be serverside javascript,
> and selecting from the input stream with regex,
> and the page going to my browser just containing
> the result.
> 
> On the other hand, using the DOM in the selection process,
> so needing the browser, is also appealing.

Using a DOM library from "serverside javascript" doesn't require a
browser, though.

-- 
Christoph M. Becker

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24279

Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> wrote on 20 mei 2014 in 
comp.lang.javascript:

>> On the other hand, using the DOM in the selection process,
>> so needing the browser, is also appealing.
> 
> Using a DOM library from "serverside javascript" doesn't require a
> browser, though.

Indeed, but that applies only where you have
such possibility on a server. I have not.

-- 
Evertjan.
The Netherlands.
(Please change the x'es to dots in my emailaddress)

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24269

Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> writes:

> Denis McMahon wrote:
>
>> On Sun, 18 May 2014 01:18:46 -0700, FAISAL ISMAIL wrote:
>> 
>>> i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
>>> (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/
>> Summary3.htm)
>>> the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for some
>>> specific country e.g Pakistan.
>>>  Kindly help me with the issue.
>> 
>> By the way, if I was trying to scrape data from a website, I'm not sure 
>> that javascript would be my first choice language either.
>
> Why not?  Are there better alternatives?

As always, it depends, but I've had some success using XSLT (which I
think refers to eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations).  Just
another option to throw into the pot...

-- 
Ben.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24278

Ben Bacarisse wrote:

> Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> writes:
> 
>> Denis McMahon wrote:
>>
>>> On Sun, 18 May 2014 01:18:46 -0700, FAISAL ISMAIL wrote:
>>>
>>>> i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
>>>> (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/
>>> Summary3.htm)
>>>> the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for some
>>>> specific country e.g Pakistan.
>>>>  Kindly help me with the issue.
>>>
>>> By the way, if I was trying to scrape data from a website, I'm not sure 
>>> that javascript would be my first choice language either.
>>
>> Why not?  Are there better alternatives?
> 
> As always, it depends, but I've had some success using XSLT (which I
> think refers to eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations).  Just
> another option to throw into the pot...

Indeed, using XSLT might be a good idea, but this *can* also be used
from an ECMAScript implementation.

Anyway, my question was more a rhetoric one.  IMHO it doesn't make much
of a difference which language one is using for this task, as long as
there are appropriate libraries available.

-- 
Christoph M. Becker

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24308

Christoph Michael Becker wrote:

> Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>> Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> writes:
>>> Denis McMahon wrote:
>>>> On Sun, 18 May 2014 01:18:46 -0700, FAISAL ISMAIL wrote:
>>>>> i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
>>>>> (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/
>>>> Summary3.htm)
>>>>> the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for
>>>>> some specific country e.g Pakistan.
>>>>>  Kindly help me with the issue.
>>>> By the way, if I was trying to scrape data from a website, I'm not sure
>>>> that javascript would be my first choice language either.
>>> Why not?  Are there better alternatives?
>> As always, it depends, but I've had some success using XSLT (which I
>> think refers to eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations).  Just
>> another option to throw into the pot...
> 
> Indeed, using XSLT might be a good idea, but this *can* also be used
> from an ECMAScript implementation.

True.  However, it appears to me that it is still proprietary. [0]

The explanation for the abbreviation is correct, which is why XSLT is 
probably *not* a good approach here.  XSLT can be used to *transform* *XML*-
based markup to other markup or plain text. [1]  The original markup here is 
neither [2].  It would have to be cleaned-up and converted to XHTML in order 
to apply XSLT to it.  (I am using XSLT with PHP to convert the FAQ’s XML 
documents to HTML.  See sig.)

A possibility is XPath, which also has an ECMAScript binding in W3C DOM 
Level 3 XPath (or, simply put, there is document.evaluate()). [3]  However, 
DOM 3 XPath is not interoperable when the document is an HTML document (not 
in MSHTML, not even in IE 11).  The confusion might have occured because 
XPath is the selector language that XSLT is based on.

Another possibility is document.querySelectorAll(), but not here because CSS 
selectors cannot select based on element content (as for content, they can 
only select based on *attribute* values).

And unless you would want to extract data to the script console, client-side 
the SOP issue needs to be solved.  But, if the OP can ask the author of this 
document (Prof. G. Robert Brakenridge, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO) 
for a suitable Access-Control-Allow-Origin header field, then they could 
also simply ask them for the data or a suitable filter interface.

So the only possibility would be additional server-side code, which would 
beg the questions a) why not use only server-side code in the first place 
and b) is it legal to reuse data from this document without asking 
permission in the first place?  See also [4].

______________
[0] <https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/XSLTProcessor>
[1] <http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xslt-19991116>
[2] 
<http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Ffloodobservatory.colorado.edu%2FAMSR-E%2520Gaging%2520Reaches%2FSummary3.htm&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=HTML+4.01+Transitional&group=0&user-agent=W3C_Validator%2F1.3+http%3A%2F%2Fvalidator.w3.org%2Fservices>

    (Validating against HTML 4.01 Transitional will get you 16 errors.
    If you validate without overriding the DOCTYPE declaration,
    because there is none here the W3C validator will fall back to
    XHTML 1.0 Transitional, which will get you 38128 errors after a long
    time.)

[3] <http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/NOTE-DOM-Level-3-XPath-20040226/ecma-script-binding.html>
[4] <http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/>
-- 
PointedEars
FAQ: <http://PointedEars.de/faq> | SVN: <http://PointedEars.de/wsvn/>
Twitter: @PointedEars2 | ES Matrix: <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>
Please do not Cc: me. / Bitte keine Kopien per E-Mail.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

#24313

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> writes:

> Christoph Michael Becker wrote:
>
>> Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>>> Christoph Michael Becker <cmbecker69@arcor.de> writes:
>>>> Denis McMahon wrote:
>>>>> On Sun, 18 May 2014 01:18:46 -0700, FAISAL ISMAIL wrote:
>>>>>> i am trying to extract html text from a table on the link
>>>>>> (http://floodobservatory.colorado.edu/AMSR-E%20Gaging%20Reaches/
>>>>> Summary3.htm)
>>>>>> the data is in rows and columns. all i want is to extract data for
>>>>>> some specific country e.g Pakistan.
>>>>>>  Kindly help me with the issue.
>>>>> By the way, if I was trying to scrape data from a website, I'm not sure
>>>>> that javascript would be my first choice language either.
>>>> Why not?  Are there better alternatives?
>>> As always, it depends, but I've had some success using XSLT (which I
>>> think refers to eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations).  Just
>>> another option to throw into the pot...
>> 
>> Indeed, using XSLT might be a good idea, but this *can* also be used
>> from an ECMAScript implementation.
>
> True.  However, it appears to me that it is still proprietary. [0]

As it happens, I was replying to the "better alternatives to javascript"
part.  I wasn't suggesting a specific JS library.  The tool I'd found
useful was the xsltproc command, built with libxslt which seems to be
part of GNOME.

> The explanation for the abbreviation is correct, which is why XSLT is 
> probably *not* a good approach here.  XSLT can be used to *transform* *XML*-
> based markup to other markup or plain text. [1]  The original markup here is 
> neither [2].  It would have to be cleaned-up and converted to XHTML in order 
> to apply XSLT to it.

I used xsltproc on some pretty dreadful HTML texts.  The command has a
flag to signal that the input is HTML, but I have no idea what it really
does.  It may throw the hole thing into some standards-negating black
hole of arbitrary behaviour, or it might be reasonably well-defined
somewhere.

The point I wanted to make was that I found it useful.  I had a job to
get done, which was scraping data from some very badly written HTML
pages, and I found xlstproc did the job very well.  I should probably
have been more specific about the tool I used, because XSLT might, in
other implementations, be unsuitable.

<snip>
-- 
Ben.

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]

Page 1 of 2  [1] 2  Next page →

Back to top | Article view | comp.lang.javascript

csiph-web