HtmlToXml ActiveX Reference

HtmlToXml

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

Object Creation

(Visual Basic 6.0)
Dim obj As New HtmlToXml
(ASP)
set obj = Server.CreateObject("Chilkat.HtmlToXml")
(VBScript)
set obj = CreateObject("Chilkat.HtmlToXml")
(Delphi)
obj := THtmlToXml.Create(Self);
(FoxPro)
loObject = CreateObject('Chilkat.HtmlToXml')
(SQL Server)
EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'Chilkat.HtmlToXml', @obj OUT
(Javascript)
var obj = new ActiveXObject("Chilkat.HtmlToXml");

Properties

DropCustomTags As Long

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

Html As String

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.

LastErrorHtml As String (read-only)

Error information in HTML format for the last method called.

LastErrorText As String (read-only)

Error information in plain-text format for the last method called.

LastErrorXml As String (read-only)

Error information in XML format for the last method called.

Nbsp As Long

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.

Version As String (read-only)

The version of the component, such as "1.0.0".

XmlCharset As String

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.

Methods

ConvertFile(htmlFilename As String, xmlFilename As String) As Long

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

DropTagType(tagName As String)

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.

DropTextFormattingTags()

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.

IsUnlocked() As Long

Returns 1 if the component is already unlocked. Otherwise returns 0.

ReadFile(filename As String) As Variant

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

Returns a zero-length byte array (as a Variant) on failure

ReadFileToString(filename As String, srcCharset As String) As 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 a null on failure

SaveLastError(filename As String) As Long

Saves the last error information to an XML formatted file.

SetHtmlBytes(byteData As Variant)

Sets the Html property from a byte array.

SetHtmlFromFile(filename As String) As Long

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

ToXml() As String

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

Returns a null on failure

UndropTagType(tagName As String)

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

UndropTextFormattingTags()

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.

UnlockComponent(unlockCode As String) As Long

Unlocks the component. An arbitrary unlock code may be passed to automatically begin a 30-day trial.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

WriteFile(filename As String, byteData As Variant) As Long

Convenience method for saving a byte array to a file.

WriteStringToFile(stringToWrite As String, filename As String, outpuCharset As String) As Long

Convenience method for saving a string to a file. The character encoding of the output text file is specified by outpuCharset (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.