python lxml add/modify/replace innerHTML of an html element

Question

I am using lxml to parse a sample html. like this:

__dom = lxml.html.fromstring("<html><body><div id='mydiv'></div></body></html>")

I am trying to get the id of an element that I added to the html programatically, like this:

mydiv = __dom.get_element_by_id('mydiv')
mydiv.text = "<p id='myInner'>this is the inner inner text</p>"
myInner= __dom.get_element_by_id("myInner")

When adding the P it IS added. But when trying to get it back with get_element_by_id I am getting keyError on myInner.

I am guessing that since I added the P as text - it is no parsed as an HTML element and therefore I can not get it.

So my question is really: How to add/modify the innerHTML of an element using lxml?

Thanks

See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17235660/how-to-insert-a-html-element-in-a-tree-of-lxml-html#17235976 — DisappointedByUnaccountableMod, Jun 27 '21 at 09:34

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 27 '21 at 09:46

as you said you are passing a string to the text attribute of div. I assume what your trying to do is to add a new P tag element as a child of the div element. You can parse your string into am lxml format then add it into the existing html as part of the tree

import lxml.html

__dom = lxml.html.fromstring("<html><body><div id='mydiv'></div></body></html>")

mydiv = __dom.get_element_by_id('mydiv')
myhtml = lxml.html.fromstring("<p id='myInner'>this is the inner inner text</p>")
mydiv.insert(0, myhtml)
print(lxml.html.tostring(__dom))

OUTPUT

<html><body><div id="mydiv"><p id="myInner">this is the inner inner text</p></div></body></html>

Thanks, but - how can I REPLACE the ENTIRE innerHTML with something else? — Avi Boteach, Jun 27 '21 at 10:09
Maybe you need to show your html before and how you expect it to look after as i am not sure what your trying to replace. — Chris Doyle, Jun 27 '21 at 14:19

python lxml add/modify/replace innerHTML of an html element

1 Answers1