http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=719339

dragonchild has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I'm using HTML::Parser and am getting "HTML parser error : Tag foo invalid" errors. I am parsing non-HTML that's formatted as HTML. I can't find the place where it checks against a list of known elements. Help?
My criteria for good software:
  1. Does it work?
  2. Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: HTML::Parser and "Invalid foo tag"
by JavaFan (Canon) on Oct 24, 2008 at 13:56 UTC
    I don't think HTML::Parser validates against a DTD, or even a list of allowed tags. (Considering it's event based, and can parse chunks, it can't validate anyway - it would need the entire document for that).

    What's more, I can't find anything in HTML::Parser (or in 'strings Parser.so') that even remotely matches the error you're getting. Which suggests to me that the error isn't generated by HTML::Parser.

[reply]
      I say he needs to prove it :) 
      #!/usr/bin/perl --

use strict;
use warnings;

use HTML::Parser;

my $p = HTML::Parser->new(
    api_version => 3,
    default_h => [sub{print join ' | ', grep defined, @_,"\n" },"event
+,tag,text,"],
#    strict_names => 1,
    xml_mode => 1,
);


$p->parse(
'<boo><foo><shoo><Moo><COW></BOO>
<html><body>hi <br> <a href="1"> hello </a>
<boo><foo><shoo><Moo><COW></BOO>
</body></html>'
);

__END__
start_document |  |
start | boo | <boo> |
start | foo | <foo> |
start | shoo | <shoo> |
start | Moo | <Moo> |
start | COW | <COW> |
end | /BOO | </BOO> |
text |
 |
start | html | <html> |
start | body | <body> |
text | hi  |
start | br | <br> |
text |   |
start | a | <a href="1"> |
text |  hello  |
end | /a | </a> |
text |
 |
start | boo | <boo> |
start | foo | <foo> |
start | shoo | <shoo> |
start | Moo | <Moo> |
start | COW | <COW> |
end | /BOO | </BOO> |
text |
 |
end | /body | </body> |
end | /html | </html> |

      [download]
      Google suggests its xmllint that complaining.
[reply]
[d/l]

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