iOS Parse HTML attribute with Hpple

Question

I am trying to retrieve an attribute in an input tag in HTML. My NSLog is coming back null. What's wrong with my syntax? I am trying to retrieve the value for "value=" in the input tag.

Heres the HTML I am parsing:

<input name="hidXMLID" type="hidden" id="hidXMLID" value="0311sg55dbmnk0nsuzoflnij" />

Heres the parser syntax:

NSURL *theURL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://www.wccca.com/PITS/"];
NSData *data = [[NSData alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:theURL];
xpathParser = [[TFHpple alloc] initWithHTMLData:data];
NSArray *elements = [xpathParser searchWithXPathQuery:@"//input[@id='hidXMLID']//@value"];
TFHppleElement *element = [elements objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *content = [element content];

NSLog(@"ID = %@",content);

Is only `content` nil? Or is one of `element`, `elements`, `parser`, or `data` nil also? — Carl Veazey, Aug 29 '12 at 19:15
Only content is nil. When I put NSlog to read element and elements, they have the value in there, but also with a lot of other junk. — Jon Erickson, Aug 29 '12 at 19:18
What does element look like? And what does [element attributes] look like? — Carl Veazey, Aug 29 '12 at 19:28
NSLog elements: 2012-08-29 12:31:12.587 FireCom[77456:11603] Elements = ( "{\n nodeChildArray = (\n {\n nodeContent = v1hpwj554yksvp45ekakm255;\n nodeName = text;\n }\n );\n nodeName = value;\n}" ) — Jon Erickson, Aug 29 '12 at 19:32
NSLog element: 2012-08-29 12:33:06.321 FireCom[77489:11603] Element = { nodeChildArray = ( { nodeContent = flzx0x55xoqwohjzvmxlaemm; nodeName = text; } ); nodeName = value; } — Jon Erickson, Aug 29 '12 at 19:33
note... nodeContent is different both times, thats normal. This value changes every second, hence the reason I'm parsing it. — Jon Erickson, Aug 29 '12 at 19:34

Carl Veazey · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-27T16:07:39.610

3

I imagine this could be solved better with different XPath query and inspection of the attributes, something maybe like:

NSArray *elements = [xpathParser searchWithXPathQuery:@"//input[@id='hidXMLID']"];
TFHppleElement *element = [elements objectAtIndex:0];
NSDictionary *attributes = [element attributes];
NSString *idValue = [attributes objectForKey:@"id"];

From your post and your logs, I think that this may work without changing the query:

TFHppleElement *element = [elements objectAtIndex:0];
TFHppleElement *child = [element.children objectAtIndex:0];
NSString *idValue = [child content];

edited Jun 27 '14 at 16:07

answered Aug 29 '12 at 19:40

Carl Veazey

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Awesome, the bottom worked perfectly. It returned: 2012-08-29 12:53:18.435 FireCom[77864:11603] value = btpmzx452x15vqqcmkgzatux. Exactly what I needed. Thank you. – Jon Erickson Aug 29 '12 at 19:53

iOS Parse HTML attribute with Hpple

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